The last 7 weeks of running have been an utter mess. During mid-August, I had been working up my weekly mileage, and I had successfully crushed my first ever 8 mile run. A few days later, however, I got hurt on what was supposed to be a simple 3 mile run. As a result, I had to take several days off from running. When I finally returned to running, I was cautious, and I had one great week of training. Then I got sick. While this ended up only being a cold, it was a cold that knocked me out pretty heavily, and it caused a lot of weird issues with my breathing. I tried running once, and after the run, I noticed that my lips were blue. As a result, I had to take almost 2 weeks off from running.
During that time, I optimistically signed up for the Morton Arboretum Fall Color 5k. I had heard about this race, and I was hoping that it would be a gorgeous fall run. While the trees changing colors did not cooperate, thankfully my body did.
I was able to run 4 days last week, and while being hurt and not training and then sick and not training took a lot out of me, I was still able to put in a good 11 mile week.
I signed up for the Fall Color 5k for $35 online which for me is slightly above what I’d consider to be an acceptable 5k price, but it was worth it to get into the Morton Arboretum for free with the price of run.
I headed up to Lisle with my mom early in the morning, and I was none too happy about having a race today. I wanted to sleep, and I wasn’t in the mood for racing. I knew that I wasn’t at peak fitness, and I’d rather have more time to be ready. Thankfully, I had gotten a tweet of encouragement from one of my favorite singers that morning so that pushed me a little more.
It was quick to get into the Morton Arboretum, and volunteers were helping with parking. Once there, I was able to get my race bib and shirt very quickly. From there, I stayed in the visitors’ center for a while trying to keep warm before the race.
When it was time to line up the race, I seeded myself towards the back of the 8 min/mile group. As the time got closer, all of the runners moved closer to the start-line, and I anticipated nervously this run.
When it was time to go, I went, but I had to do a little bit of initial dodging to fall into my pace. Thankfully, the runners towards the front seeded each other pretty well, and I was able to quickly fall into my pace.
The first part of the race was uphill, and due to one small hill on my regular run route and my stair-climb training, that uphill portion didn’t feel too painful. The view was briefly gorgeous, and I wished that I had a camera to take a picture of that. From there, the route took me winding through just a few miles of the beautiful arboretum. Today, however, it was quite dreary, and the only thing fall-like was the weather.
About half-way through, the downhill portions started. I do not do well at downhill running. I messed up my knee in 2014 going downhill so downhill portions always make me a little nervous. Thankfully, no injury was had today!
I felt that my first two miles of the race were very steady in terms of pace, and when I got to that third mile, I willed myself to try to go faster. I felt like I was putting out all I could, but I changed my music selection to see if I could possibly go faster.
As we got closer to the finish line, I realized that we had made a turn somewhere and were now running back on the same stretch that we ran out on. I tried to pick up speed I could, and when I saw the clock at the finish line, I felt slightly shattered because not only was this race not going to be a PR, it was also going to be worse than my best time in 2014.
Thankfully, however, I did not properly account for the delay in getting over the start-line at the beginning!
I grabbed boxed water and a little bit of a bagel, and I headed back to the visitor’s center where I could use the wifi to look up my results.
Results:
Time: 26:57
Overall: 247/1684
Female: 69/1067
Age Group: 7/32
Overall, I’m quite pleased with my performance considering everything that has happened in the last 7 weeks. If things had been different, I’m sure this could have been a PR, but I did the best I could with what I had to deal with.
And now, it’s time to keep running and keep training for the Willis/Sears Tower Stair-Climb on November 8th!
Still Too Early to Quit 