2014 Ravenswood Run 5k Recap

This morning was my favorite race of the year, the Ravenswood Run 5k!  Admittedly, one of the perks of the race is that the start line is a leisurely 10 minute walk from my apartment, but this race holds a special place in my heart because the 2012 Ravenswood Run was the first 5k I ever trained for.  It's hard to believe I've now run this one three times!

Earlier this year, when I was starting to focus on speed work, I had originally intended to try for a PR at this race. You see, I was just 10 seconds shy of a PR in 2013, so I thought it would be cool to PR at my favorite neighborhood race.  But once I hurt my calf in a speed session in early March, I decided that my main goal right now should be to focus on training for the Wisconsin Half, speed would have to wait until after that.  It would really suck to be sidelined by an injury a week before my goal half because I was trying to PR a 5k, so I changed my goal to a course PR.  Hey, at least it's a PR of some kind, and I knew I could safely do that.

Saturday spectating

Bob and I went to pick up our race packets on Friday before heading down to Chambana for the Illinois Marathon (this is where, if Bob did have a blog, I'd link to his race recap post so that you could all see that he PR'd that half by 2 minutes!).  But only after I ran 8 miles, my last long run for Wisconsin, on extremely tired and sore legs.  It was pretty rough.  Like, thank goodness my 12 mile run went so well, otherwise I'd be feeling pretty nervous going into Wisconsin.  Anyway, all of this to say, going into this morning's run I was tired and still a little sore and wasn't expecting to feel that great or be able to push myself too hard.

Thank goodness we all unknowingly color-coordinated

Mo parked at our place and the three of us walked over to the race, arriving about 10 minutes before the 8:00 start.  Have I mentioned how much I love a neighborhood race?  We checked our bags, saw Pete sprinting up and down Hermitage while waiting for the race to start (as one does?) and headed to the start area.  We said goodbye to Bob and then bumped into Jennifer while heading over toward the back of the pack.  Mo had already offered to run with me, and Jennifer said she'd join us too.  I should also point out that my watch battery had died on the walk over, so I was even happier to have the company so that I'd have some clue as to my time.

We started at the front of the 11:00 pace group (they don't have corrals since it's a small race, just pace times to line up with).  I was feeling like I'd probably be more at an 11:30 pace, but people never quite line up at the right pace, and there's always tons of strollers to get past at the beginning, so Mo had us start a little further up.  About 3/4 of a mile in, I noticed Lynton (who I had just watched finish the marathon yesterday) and his dog spectating.  Cool!  And as I said hi to him, either he or Mo pointed out that he was standing right next to Mayor Rahm Emmanuel!  How cool!  And it makes sense, as we were just a block from his house (yep, the mayor is our neighbor).  We turned the corner on to Ravenswood, crossed Montrose and were already at the 1 mile mark.  I was shocked that we did the first mile in around 11:00 since I didn't really feel like I was pushing too hard.

Thanks to Bob, race photographer/human gear check

The next mile, which included an aid station and a run through Lincoln Square, flew by.  Seriously, this felt like the fastest, easiest race ever.  Suddenly we were already past the second mile marker.  Things were going great until we turned on to Lawrence, going east for a little under half a mile into some crazy strong winds.  This was a little annoying, but so many of my training runs as of late have had strong winds that this wasn't anything I couldn't power through.  We spotted Pete again once we turned the corner on to Damen, and he ran with us until we neared the finish line.  The last stretch was straight into the wind again, but we seemed to keep a fairly steady pace and I even finished with a little sprint.

I finished in 34:49.  That's 1:16 slower than my 5k PR, but based on how great I felt for the entire race, I definitely could have gotten a PR today if I had wanted to, which is pretty sweet.  I mean, I did this well without really even trying too hard. Of course, I also had a good team of the Wurst Pacers Ever keeping me on track, which was a lot of fun.  What's crazy is that this was my exact finish time at the Dan Gibbons Turkey Trot back in November, where it felt like I was pushing really hard.  And I got my course PR!  Last year's time was 37:06, so I beat that by over 2 minutes (and I beat my 2012 time by almost 5 minutes). Yay measurable improvements!

After finishing we got some snacks (including cinnamon rolls from Ann Sather, which are still pretty good cold), met up with the rest of the WRCE and headed over to the bar at the finish line (oh yes, another pro for this race is that it finishes right next to an Irish pub) for some breakfast and beers.  All in all it was a pretty fun day, just as always, and a great way to kick off race week.  Just 6 more days until Wisconsin!!!