State Farm has always been a solid race that I have enjoyed. After sitting out last year due to my "collapsing leg" issues, I was happy that I'd be able to do it again. Many people chose to do the 10 mile as it is a great warm-up or training run for the Lincoln half, but I have had a pretty good handle on my long runs so figured I could do the 5k.
After taking some down time after the LA Marathon, I got back to my new mix of easy runs, long runs, and speed. I felt like I was ready to turn out a decent effort that morning, but sometimes that it just not in the cards. The morning did not go well leading up to the race and I found myself a little on edge. As Philip was running as well, we dropped our boys off at a friend's house and made our way to 84th and O. Upon arriving, I met up with Lindsey for a quick warm-up. We chatted and got ready for our races. The 10 mile started ten minutes before the 5k, so I saw Lindsey and Philip off and then made final preparations for my event. (This mainly consisted of finding a warm place to wait.) I saw that a couple of speedy ladies were also doing the 5k as they were also waiting anxiously for the start. When the race director called us to the starting line, I sadly took off my warm ups and headed over. *Brr. I had to remind myself that I did, in fact, like this.
So, a quick reminder here. I have not done anything FAST in forever. I had a crappy spring in 2015 and when I was finally healed, I started training for Ironman Boulder, Ironman Florida, and then the LA Marathon. It's been awhile since I've done a 5 or 10k. When the gun went off, I found myself in third place and felt that that was where I belonged. My mental woes of not believing I could beat the leaders were in full force Saturday. Although I felt really good during the race (other than being cold), my head was just not in the right place. I did end up as the third overall woman in the race, but ran a very disappointing time of 20:46. I was sad when I saw my time and got more upset about this as the day went on.
Anyway. After feeling sorry for myself for awhile (and being really crabby to poor Philip), I met up with my WRN teammates for a ride at Fly in downtown Lincoln. We had a really good time, and I found that my mood had lifted. That evening, Philip and I just hung out and watched Netflix and tried to get some rest as I'd planned to do a long run after church.
After doing 100% of my training on the treadmill this winter, this was going to be my first long run outside. I really like doing long runs at Lake North in Columbus as one loop around is 6.4 miles. BUT it was still going to be cold. Seriously! No thank you! I bundled myself and headed out there. After the first loop, I almost threw the towel in because I was so.cold. (The last mile and a half of the loop were into the wind.) But after some water and a gel, off I went. After the second loop, I was so cold that I had to change out my base layer...this ended up helping quite a bit and felt decent for the last loop. I ended up with 19.2 miles with the three loops...sometimes I add on to get to the exact number, but this was going to have to be good enough. I was nervous about how my IT band would react, but it didn't bother me too much (until that night). Fingers crossed that I can make it another 6ish weeks without a major injury...
*It wasn't that cold out this weekend. I am just a huge baby about being cold. I would rather run in the heat any day.
Complete results to State Farm can be found here
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