My 2nd 5k was.... A SUCCESS! Finally...

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to run the Larkridge Chick-Fil-A 5k and I am happy! I did good =) I typically don't tell my times on here, but who cares, I'm tellin' ya. My 5k time according to the official results was 22:26! My Garmin was a couple seconds slower but I always take the faster time and base my performance off of that ;) Not once has my watch and the official time been the same and it can go either way. Anywhoo, to keep braggin about it I ended up placing 7th overall for women and 2nd in my age group.

This is most of my friends and I at the start, and YES I did beat that cow but for a cow he did really well ....(I have grey on in-between fellow run clubbers Tara(blue coat) and Pam(Pink coat). It was cold out and very windy.

These chicks below are the speediest ones of our group. They actually took the overall women's 1, 2, and 3 spots. The one on right right is Kim. She is one of our coaches and very speedy. She won this race for the ladies and came in 20:26. The other two are Amber and Corey, they rocked it. But here is a warning my dears.... once I figure out how to unleash the beast inside of me I am going to come knocking on your heels.... ;)

Here I am with Corey and Tara C. Tara won 3rd in our age group and came in just after me.  Really as a "team" we all did great! 

Thats right, I won a medal... and it wasn't just because I finished. =) 

BUT, (there is always a but...) now I am thinking about my marathon. As Sarah pointed out on her previous blog post it is only 7 WEEKS AWAY!! I mean, who cares if you can run a 5k fast if the race you actually want to do well on flops.... I don't have a great track record for doing well on race day. But, I am moving on and wanting to be better.  I am asking all out there in blog world to please take note and send me any suggestions you might have. Here are a list of questions that I would LOVE any answers too.

1. how fast did you run your long runs?
2. What was your longest run? How many times did you run 20 or more?
3. How many speed/tempo workouts did you do in a week?
4. How many marathon pace miles did you put into your long runs.... (some people say up to 11, some say 16, some say 20)???
5. What are your race strategies..for example, do you run same pace entire time, do you start REAL slow and then speed up. If so, when do you speed up? How many miles do you run slow?

So help a girl out here.  My first marathon I ended up doing a run/walk situation because I was plagued with the most annoying IT band injury.  My second marathon I did OK. I went out strong and stayed strong until Mile 20 and then I was able to continue running but slowed down to nothing short of a turtle crawl... This time I want to try and stay strong and be strong because I FEEL STRONG DAMIT! I am hoping to show that marathon who is boss and I could really use all the help I can get.

Happy Running and wish me luck as I try to conquer this beast.  -Jen