She Runs by the Seashore

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I didn’t hold onto my first place female title at the eRACE the Stigma 5K, but that wasn’t really what the race was about for me.

It was about the cause: mental health. The race both helps someone struggling with a mental illness or addiction and also heightens awareness of these issues.

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I was involved in helping with this race, and my friends are the race directors.

 

On my way to the race, I picked up the donated coffee from Rise Up Coffee, and I also brought cases of water donated by Pepsi (there was water left over, so I’ll have some for runners at Eastern Shore Running Club runs!).

It was raining a little bit on race morning — Saturday, May 13 — but it really wasn’t bad at all. I would much rather have rain than heat and humidity, and the rain was light.

Going into the race, I knew I wouldn’t be maintaining that first place female title from last year. There were two women I knew were faster than me at the start, so that took some pressure off, but I still wanted to do well.

It was my first 5K of the year, and I wasn’t completely sure what kind of time I would get. I figured maybe something in the 26s — I ended up with 27:49. That’s not exactly where I’d like to be for a 5K, but on the other hand, I haven’t really been doing speed work consistently and it also was not my slowest 5K. The last 5K I’d run was the Sneakers & Creepers 5K in October 2016, and I ran faster on Saturday than the time I ran at that one — 28:29.

It does take some practice when running a 5K to know how to space out efforts. It’s not a full sprint, but sometimes it does feel like it to me if I’m trying to give it my all. There’s a balance between using too much energy at the beginning and having too much left at the end.

The race included three loops in downtown Salisbury, and the results (by TCR Event Management — I did another 5K this past weekend and you’ll be hearing about TriCycle and Run again!) include results for each lap. Those results have 9:47 for the first lap (this lap was a little bit longer), 9:07 and 8:55.

I ended up crossing the finish line with my friend Grizzly. The time of 27:49 put me at first in my age group, female 20-29. (I will note that the first person in my age group actually got second overall, so she didn’t take the age group place as well.)

Although I probably didn’t need to, I did stop at the water stop during the race for a quick drink.

I had several friends there and posed for several pictures after the race — with members of Eastern Shore Running Club, the Looks Good on Paper rec softball team I play on and Delmarva Moms Run This Town.

I wore my Run to Remember Memorial Day 5K shirt from last year as I’ve been promoting that race for my job with Wicomico Recreation, Parks & Tourism (you’ll be hearing more about that race, too!) along with a BibRave hat.

I also made it into a 47 ABC video while running, but I can’t find it on the website to link to.

I’m looking forward to seeing if I can improve upon my 5K time this year!

Splits according to watch:

Mile 1: 8:46

Mile 2: 9:21

Mile 3: 9:12

Last Part (watch had 3.06 miles): 0:30

Time: 27:49

Learn more about the race here. 

Like She Runs by the Seashore on Facebook here.