Groundhog Day 8K Run 2/2/13

Groundhog Day 8K Race Report
Lake Overhoulser, Oklahoma City, OK
2/2/13

Groundhog day morning was a perfect day for a race. The temps were in the mid 30's, with 10-15 mph winds from the NW. The weather reminded me of my last race at Lake Hefner last month but the wind seemed slightly more tamed today. Nearly 400 runners participating in the race.

The day started with my normal pre-race meal 2 hours before the race: eggs, yogurt, berries, and waffles. Might not be the best selection for everyone but it works great for myself. Then went about sipping on my water until leaving for the race.

Arriving at the lake about 40 mins beforehand to perform my usual short race warm-up of stretching, mile jog, and strides. However, I was worried this morning after "tweaking" my back earlier in the week performing dead-lifts. I hadn't biked or ran since the injury 4 days prior and planned to use the mile warm-up as the deciding factor on if I'd run or not. It still hurt a lot and was very stiff, but the mile warm-up felt great. It actually seemed to improve my condition and felt much better to run then to walk. I took my caffeine pill and downed a gel 15 minutes before the race and stayed loose while keeping the heart rate up by doing strides till lining up.

I warmed up in full gear (beanie, gloves, tights, long sleeves) but felt great and stripped down to a t-shirt and shorts before the start. The 1st half was mainly into the wind, heading north along the lake which made most people excited for the turnaround. I felt focused for most of the course, which was an improvement from last month. However looking back at my splits the times varied quite a bit. I'm not sure if this is from the wind or other factors but I felt consistent during the run. My splits were: 6:56, 7:11, 6:54, 7:02, 6:39. My official race time was 34:48 averaging out to a 6:57 mile, only 8 seconds slower than my 5K pace from last month.

I enjoyed the race and am really liking this race series. They really take care of us post race with soups, coffee, cocoa, cider, snacks, and beer. I was very happy with my time and run but of course looking at the results frustrated me as usually. I placed 20th in the men's, barely another top 20 finish this year, but again placed just 1 spot outside of medaling in my age group. I still haven't been running massive amounts but I believe all of my biking is really aiding in my run since I feel like I am still getting stronger with only about 15 miles logged a week. The last race of this series is a 10K february 16th. Looking forward to this run already.