Run Fiend: Throwback Thursday: Independence Day 5k, Plymouth, MA

Mallory, Tiasia and I ran the Independence Day 5k on July 4, 2015. This was the second time participating for Mallory and me and a first chip-timed 5k for Tiasia who has only been running since graduating from high school in the middle of June, so go on with your bad self Tia. (Side note: She ran 2 5k's with our local running store before this, so she has been working really hard, which is so great!)

Mallory, Me and Tiasia before the race

As the title would suggest, this race is held in Plymouth, Massachusetts and ends at the site of Plymouth Rock. It begins an hour before the Fourth of July parade along the same route, so it is very festive and has a few spectators. It’s all very patriotic.

My Fenix 3 got patriotic as well, of course. I LOVE THIS WATCH!

This year we were given very cute cotton singlets with the race logo across the front. The fit is appropriate for my size, which I always appreciate. This race is chip-timed and bib pick-up is on the day before or morning of the race. Race begins at 8am, which is nice as many 5k’s tend to start later in the morning and being July, it’s a little hot for that. Also, this is a point to point, which I don’t think I have done anywhere else for a 5k. Participants take a shuttle from Plymouth high school to help avoid being stuck in the parade insanity after the race.

Love the shirt!

Now, for my own disclosures, I HATE 5ks! Running as fast as I can for 3.1 miles is painful, exhausting, excruciating, and pure awful. Also, I hate racing in the summer, also far from comfortable. If running only involved summer 5k’s, this would be a very different blog.That being said, I was obviously dreading this race and kept asking myself why in the world I would sign myself up for this torture. Also, having run it before, I knew the course is a little hilly and doesn’t provide a ton of shade. I had been so uncomfortable when I ran it in 2013. But other than that, it’s a great 5k: well organized, cool shirts that fit, excited spectators, beautiful finish line and so on.

Plymouth Rock

I decided to pace myself off my Garmin prediction again, which at the time was 23:10 for a 5k. I did not run an all-out-pukey-pace that I could not maintain, but did my best to stay on goal, even in the first mile where I normally don’t pace at all in a 5k and make myself sick. This was a good strategy. I came in at exactly 23:10, feeling a little gross and spent, but able to recover in literally seconds. I had run a mile to warm up and ran another mile to cool down to meet my mileage per my training plan. It had been a cooler day than when I ran it in 2013 and I improved my time on that course by 1:40 and improved my overall 5k time by 10 seconds. That’s not much, but given the hills and summer factor, I feel pretty good about it. I plan to smash this time again in the fall or winter.

The most exciting part was that I placed for my age group! I got second place. This is my first time placing in a race of that size. However, want to know something annoying? The woman who came in first beat me by a single second!!! ONE SECOND!!!! I don’t know who she was and don’t recall seeing her on the course, so it’s not like I watched her cross the finish right in front of me, but one second? Really? I totally could have run 2 seconds faster for the win. Oh well. I got a medal and felt pretty great about placing at all. This is not something that happens to me every day.