Ron & Bob's 5k

Whenever the alarm goes off on a race day, I always think to myself, why the hell am I doing this?? That didn't happen this morning. I was looking forward to this race like I haven't one in a long time. I had decided last night what my 2 goals were for this race and I was eager to see how close I could come to them. Goal #1: No walking. Goal #2: 35:00 minutes.

So the alarm goes off and I'm up and away. Yesterday at packet pickup I noticed that I was the last entrant, #94. There were of course late entries so there turned out to be quite a few more people.

I got to the start line, got my timing chip, and went to zen out until race time. This was only a 5k so it was basically 2 laps around Kapiolani Park which is the large park at the end of Waikiki. I sat in my car and did some deep breathing as well as some yoga to help loosen up.

At 10 minutes before the start I headed out to the start line. I had set up my iPod with 45 minutes of upbeat music to keep me going, so I was set.

The gun went off and we go. I started slow so as not to overdo it. I was cruising along nicely. Mile 1, 11:40, right on track. I noticed as I picked up my pace just a touch that my legs felt great by my breathing was hard. Hmmm..... All those squats and lunges seem to be paying off. Mile 2, 23:00, wooo hooo I'm right on pace. This is where things started to go wrong.

They had no ad stations since it was only a 5k and the park is loaded with drinking fountains. Around 2.5 miles my heartrate was climbing and I couldn't get it back down. I finally had to walk for a minute to bring it down some. When I stopped to walk and calmed down some I realized what the problem was, I had not drunk any water before the race. I was seriously thirsty. So I had to run into the park to a water fountain and get a good drink of water. After that I was fine.

I hit mile 3 at 35:30. I had only .1 miles to go, I could see the finish line so I turned on the afterburners. I finished in 36:37.

I did not meet my goals but I came very, very close and I'm very pleased with my effort. I liked the way I felt during and after the race and I liked the energy I had. So overall a very successful race.

I wasn't done though. I have a goal of 1 hour a day until April 15th. I had only done 36 minutes. Luckily, I planned for this. I had thrown my swimsuit and goggles in the car. I was going to go for an ocean swim. I changed and headed out to Ala Moana Park.

The water was freaking cold. I mean really freaking cold!!!! But I got in and got to swimming. I figured the quicker I swam the warmer I'd be and the quicker I'd be done. So off I go.

I figured out one of my problems in the water. It's that you go and go and go and it doesn't seem like you're making any progress. Then suddenly the marker is right there. It gets really frustrating when you feel like you're not moving forward. Anyway, I swam and swam and swam. I ended up doing 1000 m in 34 minutes. I won't be winning any swimming races but I have a base and I can swim 1000 m no problem, so that's good.

So that was my morning. I got all my exercise in and I'm very pleased with my effort today.

Now, next week is a biathlon, run-swim, and I'm debating about doing it. The run is 2.5 miles and the swim is 1000 m. I know I can do it but I know I'll be slow so I'm still on the fence. Okay, I just looked up last year's results for this race and no way am I doing it. The slowest run time was 9:52. The last place finisher came in 45:54. Ummm, yeah, NO!!!! Maybe next year :)