Month: October 2023

I ran my second sub-20 5K in Cape May, New Jersey

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On October 15, 2022, I broke 20 minutes in the 5K for the first time. 

On October 15, 2023, I broke 20 minutes in the 5K for the second time. 

Should I try to find a 5K to run on October 15, 2024? 

My time at Good Day for a Run’s Down the Shore 5K at the Cape May Winery just barely broke the 20-minute barrier– my official time was 19:59. I don’t care– I can still claim to have run a sub-20! 

That was a huge confidence boost going into my goal race of the fall running season. 

The race was a really long time coming. Back in 2020 when the pandemic was still raging, my girlfriends and I took a weekend trip to Cape May, New Jersey. Staci and I had run Good Day for a Run’s Red, White and Blue 5K near her house the summer before, and she saw that they had a 5K scheduled to take place at the Cape May Winery in September 2020. I can’t remember if we signed up before COVID hit or after, but Good Day for a Run was holding socially distant races in some places if certain guidelines were met, so we were optimistic that we’d be able to run the race. Well, it ended up being canceled at almost the last minute. I think there were restrictions on how many people could be in the winery. (Glad those days are over!!) 

Anyway, we made plans for another Cape May trip in September 2021 and talked about running the race then, but COVID struck again! Staci’s daughter came down with it and we had to postpone the trip to November. And then none of our schedules worked to accommodate a Cape May 2022 trip. 

This year, only Staci and I could go to Cape May, and we decided to finally run the race! My goal was sub-20. I didn’t think I’d beat my PR of 19:37, but I wanted to beat 20 minutes. 

The weather on the day of the race was pretty good – in the low 50s and no rain (it had rained most of the day before.) It was windy, but not as bad as I thought it would be (quite honestly, after the Philly Marathon last year, it’s going to take a lot for me to be fazed by the wind.) Staci and I got there around 8 am for a 9 am start, which gave us plenty of time to find parking, use the bathroom, and warm up. Just before 9, I lined up at the very front of the pack and before I knew it, we were off. 

What happened next was basically a blur, as all 5Ks are. The course was very simple and flat – the best kind of 5K course! We left the winery, ran a mile and a half down the road, then turned around. Easy! Well… not easy. It was a 5K, so I entered the pain cave within the first half mile, ha! I passed one woman very early in the race, probably in the first tenth of a mile, and just stayed in the lead. Once I made the turnaround and headed back to the finish, a lot of runners started calling out to me that I was the first female. That always pumps me up! 

While the race was primarily on the road, the last quarter mile of it was on a gravel path that wound through the vineyard. This part of the race made me nervous because I was obviously running hard and fast and by that point I was totally gassed, so I was afraid of tripping and hurting myself. Because of that, I don’t think I ran as fast as I could have on this section. 

I made the final turn and then saw the finisher’s clock and it said 19:55. I’ve never had much of a kick at the end of races, but I sprinted like hell and made it across the finish – but did I actually break 20? Or did I run 20 minutes on the nose? 

The race announcer called me out as the first female finisher (I was 5th finisher overall) and then said, “And did she get in under 20? She did! 19:59!” I threw my hands in the air and screamed, I was so excited. And then I grabbed a bottle of water and sat down for about 5 minutes and waited for Staci to finish. She PR’d with a time of 33 minutes! 

I won a medal and a bottle of wine from the Cape May Winery – a great prize! It was delicious. 

This Saturday, I tackle my goal race, the Ocean City Half Marathon at the Ocean City Running Festival. My goal all along has been sub-90, but the weather forecast is not in my favor. It has been unseasonably warm all week and this Saturday is expected to be around 80 degrees all over the region – and the half marathon doesn’t start until 9:15! Yikes. It is what it is, though. I am also signed up for the Richmond Half in two weeks and then Rehoboth the first weekend of December. I am still optimistic about Ocean City and I think I have a good shot at a PR – which would be sub-1:33:19. Bring it on!  

A metric half marathon and a metric marathon were part of my busy fall racing season

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I always race a lot in the fall – it’s my favorite time of year to run and to race! – but I think this year takes the cake. I believe I had a race every weekend of September, and most of October, too! 

Since I last posted, I ran two completely new-to-me distances – a metric half marathon and a metric marathon! (Yay for automatic PRs!) Here is how they went. 

Historic Stevensville Metric Half Marathon

I had really been looking forward to this one. In fact, I had wanted to run this race last year, but by the time I learned about it, I was already signed up for another race. I  just thought 13.1K, or 8.15 miles, seemed like a perfect distance, especially since I am training hard for a traditional half marathon. The race was mostly held on the Cross Island Trail on Kent Island, where I had raced the Get Pumped For Pets 10K back in 2019. Super flat and fast.

This race did not go as planned. 

We’ll start with the good part! I came in 2nd female and held on to a 6:53 average pace for 8 miles. 

The bad part was that it was for 8 miles, not 8.15 miles. 

No, the course wasn’t short – it was just horribly marked and a bunch of us up near the front made a wrong turn and accidentally cut the course. (Sound familiar? It’s happened before!) 

When I realized what I did, I was initially pretty pissed, but then just told myself whatever, who cares, just focus on practicing your goal half marathon pace. I crossed the finish line in 55:07 and let the organizers know I had inadvertently cut the course, but they awarded me the 2nd place prize anyway. I guess it’s OK because I wasn’t the only one to make that mistake! 

Overall, though, I enjoyed myself and it was a good test of my fitness. And there was beer at the finish line. Always a win! 

Annapolis Striders Metric Marathon 

This is a race that I have been eyeing for years, but it has never worked with my schedule. The Striders have been running it for years. At 26.2K/16.3 miles, it is the perfect race if you have a 16-mile long run on your schedule – and on Sunday, October 1, I did! It only cost $15 to sign up and the race begins and ends at Southern High School, just 10 minutes away from my house. Can’t beat it! 

I had no idea how I was going to pace a metric marathon, though. I’ve been training to run a sub-90 half, but I knew I wasn’t going to hold that pace for 16+ miles. I wrote on Instagram ahead of the race that I was thinking I’d run 7:30s or so – way faster than my typical long run pace, but way slower than goal half marathon pace. I also knew the course, which followed a loop of country roads in south Anne Arundel County, was fairly hilly!

When I showed up to the race, I realized it was like 70% midshipmen, including lots of members of the Navy Marathon Team. I went out with a group of mids who were running low 7/high 6 minute pace, which seemed awfully fast, but I decided to just roll with it and see how long I could hang on. 

They dropped me around mile 8, but then I caught up with some of them later in the race and even passed a few. The course was challenging, but not horribly so – it reminded me of the A10, just 6 miles longer! When I passed the aid station at mile 12, the volunteers told me I was the first female. I thought I might have a shot at a top spot, but really wasn’t sure where I stood. I was definitely starting to feel spent around mile 12, but told myself to just hang on for four more miles. 

I crossed the finish line in 1:55:14 and a friend, Arnel, who was volunteering told me I won. I was ecstatic! I sat down for a bit, drank some water – it had gotten fairly warm – and then cheered all the other runners as they finished. 

This was a really great race – well-organized and the logistics could not have been easier. There were no frills – I got a medal for winning first, but there were no finisher medals, and no race shirts. It was definitely a race put on by runners, for runners. Sometimes those are the best kind of races! 

Note for if you decide to do this race in the future – it is on an open road, and the roads are windy, so I did feel a little nervous about cars whipping around those corners. Just something to be aware of! 

Aside from those two races, I also ran a 5K in Cape May, New Jersey this month. It went way better than I expected, considering my general disdain for 5Ks. Stay tuned for that recap!