Race Recap: Houston Heights 5k!
I’m back with a race recap friends! Before I go any further, here’s my post from last week detailing my goals for this race. The Houston Heights 5k is a small community race that is a super easy out and back. When I pulled up the run summary on my Garmin, it was basically a straight line. It’s also inside the loop so it’s popular race for the semi elites here in town. Four years ago, I ran this race and knocked out my fastest 5k. This time, I wanted to give it a try and see if I could reach another PR.
Full disclosure, the week leading up to my race was not what I wanted. I started the week off strong but then I had some personal issues come up so the days leading up to the race were stressful. I did my best to rest and recover wisely even with all of that. Saturday morning, I woke up well rested so I took that as a good sign. As I got ready and ate breakfast, I felt the pull to do a meditation. I wanted something to put my mind at ease and set the focus for the day.
I believe the universe brought this meditation to me because it was exactly what I needed to hear. Cody spoke about being okay with not reaching those arbitrary number goals we set for ourselves. He challenged us to set an intention and using that to fuel our performance in workouts. He also asked us to look back and be proud of the progress we have made so far. It calmed me down and instantly I knew that the race wasn’t going to be about a number but it would be about a feeling.
We drove into town and went to packet pick up. The temps were in the high 50s and the sun wasn’t up yet so I was pretty cold. I wore the race shirt over my tank top to warm up a bit. After a quick visit to the porta potties, I stripped off the shirt and lined up with the rest of the runners. There was a vendor handing out last minute cold brew shots and I took one because why not?
I opted to use the PacePro program on my Garmin and had it set to guide me each mile. I programmed it for negative splits. These splits were not anything scary and were all paces I had done before. Once we were off, I hit play on my music and started my watch! I tried SO HARD to pull back in that first mile but I couldn’t. The weather was great and I purposely picked a slower song to start with but my legs wanted to go faster. I was able to settle into the pace but my watch kept letting me know I was “ahead”.
We hit the turn around a bit before the second mile and I saw the water stop. I walked to take a sip and I think that is where my muscles decided to seize up. I think it was a combination of the excitement and the cooler weather but my body told me, “This is as far as we go.” I immediately felt my stomach drop as I saw my watch telling me that I was falling behind in my goal. However, I shook my head and changed the watch screen.
My focus changed as I remembered the meditation I did before the race. I knew that a number couldn’t tell you everything I’ve accomplished this summer. A number couldn’t tell you how much work I’ve put in and all the goals I crushed. I began to dig deep and let my music drive me. Soon the finish line came into view and I began to look for Jordan. I saw him and I was so happy. He took a few pictures of me and I absolutely LOVE them. I have a huge smile on my face and my legs look so strong. I sprinted the last few meters and was overwhelmed with a huge sense accomplishment.
I grabbed my medal and took it over to Jordan to put it on me. It was only fitting that he did as he was up with me for a majority of my training runs and has seen me put all the work in. He gave me such a big hug and honestly that felt way better than a dang number on my watch. My official chip time was 28:56 so I was off my goal time but I’m so dang proud of this race. Other than that little snafu, my body felt primed and ready to go. I finished strong and incredibly proud of what I had accomplished!
My next race isn’t until November and that’s more of a fun race so I’m taking a few weeks to run some fun miles. I do start training for a Half Marathon at the end of the month so I’m excited to see how different fall running will be. I’m also doing a CrossFit competition in a few weeks with a friend so that will be a blast. This is looking to be a fun few months and I can’t wait to see how everything goes!
That’s all for my race recap. Did you run a race this weekend?
