Jingle Bell 5 Miler Race Report

We'll take a break from the Bachelorette show for our regularly scheduled programming. I signed up for the Jingle Bell 5 Miler competitive run based on the suggestion of my friend Devleena. It worked out that the start of the race was a 5K from where I live. Liz and I decided to make this race part of our weekend long run. We would run to the race, run the race and run back home, for a total of about just over 11 miles. Normally we would run a race as a race, do our best effort and move on. However, Liz is training for her first marathon and I'm training to finally break 6 hours in a trail 50K (31 miles) so we both have a reason to keep our mileage high.

The Jingle Bell run is an anomaly. Most races start early in the morning, but the Jingle Bell starts at 1pm. What amazes me is how a few hours difference in start time drastically changes my pre-race rituals. Normally I wake up have a small breakfast and push my legs, lungs, and mental focus to the limit. With a later start time I have to have a real meal and worry about cramping if I eat too much. The other big problem with afternoon or later start times is I have no problem going out the night before. If a race starts at 7am I have to be there by 6 which usually means I need to be up about 5 to eat, get ready, and drive to the race. With a 1pm start time I can roll in at 2am, make a late night snack, and still not need to set an alarm. So when Dev was having potluck night at her place how could I resist.

Liz and I meet up at noon to run down to the race. Neither of us is feeling our best for different reasons. Of course this is when I find out my Garmin is fried. I never run with a watch except for races. I like knowing my mile splits and it helps with the mental focus. Without mile splits I'm not sure how I'm going to keep my focus and hit my time goals. We get to the YMCA building downtown and start looking for Dev, the Icehouse Runners, and several of our other friends that are running this race. We meet up with several people we know and socialize before the run. I'm starting to get plugged back into the Houston race scene and these races are a great way to keep in touch with those I can't run with regularly.

They call for the competitive runners to line up so I make my way to the starting line. I'm way in the back. When the gun goes off it takes at least a full minute to cross the starting mat. The first mile is pure fun run hell. I have to weave in an out of walkers and others that should have been much further back. I hit the first mile mark in 8:22, I figure at least a minute to hit the start line so my first mile is probably 7:20ish. My plan was to run about a 7:30ish pace, a bit fast but not too bad. I hit mile 2 in 16:30 so about an 8 minute pace, not good. It's in the low 80's and I'm already dieing 2 miles in. Mentally I'm done at this point and I'm searching for reasons not to walk the aid stations. I realize I've backed off to my everyday fast pace when I hit mile 3 and they say 8:10 pace (with the minute to the start line probably 7:50ish pace). At this point I figure I'll just coast in with a comfortably hard pace. I hit mile 4 to see the people who are suppose to be giving the splits pack up and walk toward the start. The odd thing is I'm constantly passing people without anyone passing me. Had I started where I should have I would be running by myself with the top runners. With as bad as I'm feeling and running today, I know I'm pretty far up in the standings.  I enter downtown and kick it into high gear passing a number of people. This is when I realize I was just being lazy on this run.  I had no problem picking up the pace for the final half mile or so.  The clock says just over 40 minutes (official time 39:34) as I cross the finish line. Not my best run, but a good speed workout all the same.

Checking the standings I finished 84^thoverall (out of 1041 finishers), 17th (out of 110) in my age group, and at a 7:53 pace. Much slower than I should have run, and much slower than recent runs of longer distances.  Overall it was a tough run for me, but also after this week I needed to block out daily life and focus on a run for some mental rejuvenation.

Liz and I talk with a few friends and head back out for the 5K home after a bit of rest. After 11+ miles we're both wiped. We head out to dinner after cleaning up for a night of fun. I don't have a race coming up soon which is a bit of an oddity for me. Back to the Bachelorette show....