This seemed a perfect race to do — Eagles running in the Beat the Eagle 5K! And before things went awry for the last two weeks, this was going to be my benchmark race for April triathlon in terms of time. While that had changed, it still was a good testing race.
Around the last half marathon that I did (Chicago Monster), one of my guides mentioned salt to help with cramping. More specifically this meant things like Endurolyte capsults and similar products. So two days out as well as race morning, I was taking capsules. More about that later…
Proper pacing has always been a problem for me. Even though I don’t intend to swim/bike/run the first part (100/5mi/1mi) so fast, it always happens. This means that the rest of that discipline is slower because my body it trying to recover from going out too fast. Even when I’m running tethered, it’s still an issue. I really wish I could figure out a way to fix that quickly. I know it will come with time; but time is not my friend right now.
To illustrate what I mean about pacing, even with walking about a minute during the first mile to catch my breath, I was at 11:52 for it. I should have been at about 12:30 instead of 11:52. Because I pushed too hard the first mile, the last two were significantly slower. Even though the time part was frustrating, it was a great race.
That wasn’t just because I had two amazing Eagles to run with, it was also because of the learning experience. As I had mentioned a couple weeks ago, Hammer Nutrition’s generous support put a wide variety of supplies at my fingertips. For this race, I had Heed in my bottle along with using the Endurolyte capsules. Even though the breathing/endurance was an issue because of the too fast first mile, other things felt better than in other races. So I will keep using that plan going forward this season.
A huge THANK YOU to Martha & Charles for guiding me! I look forward to doing this race again in 2018!