Captains 5K race report

First ever blog post on this new site! I’ve been meaning to start this since 2019. Better late than never!

Today’s race: Captains Grand Slam 5K in Eastlake, Ohio

My goal going into it: To follow instructions from my running coach, Brian Lock from RoadRunner Coaching. “Goal is to finish at 5K pace, getting faster each mile.” According to the VDOT app that he recently updated for my current estimated fitness, that 5K pace final mile should have been around 8:42/mi. 

Factors I considered: Race temp was low to mid 70’s but dew point was mid 50’s which was welcome after yesterday’s run in 90+% humidity. That’s much nicer than that race has been in the past. It was full sun and the only shade was for a few seconds under the highway overpass.

I did a heavy lifting session 2 days ago. In the past, second day soreness was always worse for me than next day soreness. Ever since I switched to a mostly plant-based diet almost 9 weeks ago (but still keep my protein fairly high between 90-130 grams daily) I have noticed that my recovery from such workouts has been faster. Soreness yesterday but better today, just a bit heavier-feeling.

Yesterday I ran with higher effort (avg heart rate 151 bpm) than I was supposed to. So I agreed with my coach that I would decide in the morning whether or not to do the workout or just run easy-peasy based on my recovery overnight. My Whoop tracker said 62% recovery this morning which is decent for me. Side note: I plan to write a post about how I used Whoop to help me train during the 18 months of chemo. 

I decided this was good enough to go ahead. I wanted to negative split the race and end up with a final mile around 8:45-8:55, adjusting for the weather. I also wanted to break 30 minutes overall today, so it’s not like I could completely sandbag the first couple miles just to technically hit my coach’s workout goal for me. I’d have to push beyond where I run the majority of my miles, currently around 11:15 to 12:45/mi pace, if I wanted to average 9:40/mi for the 5K.

Pre-race breakfast: coffee w/ soy milk, glass of this weird drink I’ve gotten addicted to lately (1 tablespoon chia seeds, a little lemon juice, a tsp of honey, and water and let it sit til the chia seeds are plumped up), 8 oz Beet Performer beet juice w/ vitamin B12, and a Dave’s Killer Bread cinnamon raisin bagel toasted but nothing on it (trying to wean myself off thinking I need butter or cream cheese, even the vegan type). 

Additional fuel: I carried and sipped a small 10 oz handheld bottle with half of a Saltstick drink mix (mango- yum!) with water before and during the race. Ate one Endurance Tap pure maple syrup gel for a boost after I ran a mile warm up plus a few strides immediately before the race started.

Post-race refueling: The race provided hot dogs and beer which I did not take. But I did eat a bag of Lays potato chips for the extra salt while I hung out with friends. And on the drive home I drank a protein shake plus a watermelon/tart cherry juice that I kept in a cooler lunch bag. Also ate lunch when I got home, but oops, this was meant to be a race recap post and it’s turning into a food blog post!

Racing: Mile 1 I ran with my friend Laural and we were able to chat the whole time but both acknowledged it was getting hot in the full sun and we couldn’t wait to get to the brief shade of the underpass. Official timer said 9:48 pace for mile 1. Heart rate 150-161.

Mile 2 Laural decided to pull back and sent me on my way to speed up to chase that sub-30. Official split said 9:33 for mile 2. Garmin said 9:23 (and 9:44 for mile 1). I got a little overzealous that mile as I started passing people and imagining I was playing Pacman and gaining energy with each person I passed. Garmin said I reached 8:17 pace at one point, oops, but then it started feeling harder and I slowed way down in the second half of that mile. Heart rate: 168-172.

Mile 3 I knew my goal was to beat mile 2 but I just didn’t have it today. I was afraid if I tried to speed up and go deep into the 5K pain cave, I’d end up walking. Nothing wrong with walking but one of my goals has been to pace myself such that I don’t feel l need the walk breaks. 

I had a slight hint of a right side stitch coming on, probably from the heavier breathing and those muscles not being used to it. So I decided to just hang on to the current effort, regardless of the pace, and then kick it in once I rounded the corner to head into the baseball stadium and finish strong. I’ve been doing lots of shorter intervals for speed work lately so I knew those fast twitch muscles would be ready for it. 

I actually hit the lap split once I decided to kick it in at the end. Garmin said my mile 3 was 9:40 average for the first 0.94 mile (heart rate 171-179) and then that last 0.15 mile of the race was 7:34 pace (max HR reached 181). Felt good to finish fast and no dry heaving or anything dramatic today. Recovered quickly to join my friends for the after party, my favorite part of races. 

Official finish time 29:20 (9:26/mi). Captured the sub-30 goal! 

Reflections / Mindset: I was having a conversation with friends after the race and they wanted to hear about how it’s been going with my switch to eating mostly plant-based now. I told them that in the beginning I kept comparing what I was eating to its animal/dairy-based equivalent before and judging based on whether or not it was a good substitute. For example, the first time I tried plant milks and plant-based yogurts, I was fixated on how they didn’t taste the SAME as cow’s milk or regular yogurts. 

But over time and repeated trials, I have come to truly enjoy the new flavors for what they are instead of lamenting what they’re not. So I’ve changed my mindset from “Let’s see if this tastes just like the meat-equivalent” to “Let’s try this and maybe I’ll find a new flavor/meal to add to my plant-based foodie adventure!”

And so, similarly, instead of lamenting how I used to be a much faster runner and bumming out about how much further I have to go to get back to where I was pre-cancer, I’m choosing to accept that I am where I am currently with my fitness level. And I appreciate what my body and mind have been through to get me to the other side of active treatments alive and still racing. I truly love the whole process of training. So let’s just see where this next adventure leads. Shall we?