Strive for the Hive 5k

5k This one has a story –

Yesterday was the 41st running of the Shamrock 10-miler and 5k. I was involved in running the Palm Beach Roadrunners tent. I was also tasked with making some announcements along with the awarding of overall awards. It was a successful and busy race with over 1000 entries. I did not run in either of the Shamrock events.

I met Deborah Feinsinger in February. She is a teacher at Allamanda Elementary School, and director of the Strive for the Hive annual 5k at the Gardens Mall. She offered a discount to any runners that wanted to do both races, Shamrock on Saturday and Strive 5k Sunday. In setting this up with her and our club, I decided to run the Strive 5k Sunday morning.

It was Daylight savings day – set the clock an hour ahead last night to have it be darker at 7am when I left the house for the mall. Dinner and wine last night wasn’t the best pre-race strategy, but my goal was to use this race as a base for my 5k time. From here I can be specific in my training to improve the 5k time as we have several coming up. Add to that I am not running any marathons for over 6 months, this is a good goal to train for.

I arrived at the mall moments after 7am. I took a lap around the mall slow with a few pickups to 5:50-6 min miles. I wasn’t sure where the course went, I saw some mile markers and a water stop – I’d learn it for the race as I ran the race. I didn’t see April or Seth, April said she was running but perhaps had too much wine last night? Seth was last year’s winner, I think he ran yesterday at the Shamrock Run. I decided to run shirtless after the warm up jog around the mall, it would only get warmer and I didn’t feel the singlet was offering too much airflow.

The race began on time – we were told to follow a guy on a bike wearing a bright shirt. plenty of kids crowded the start line as they were eager to get their race going. I saw a few adults that had the “I run 5ks all the time” look. I figured there had to be a high school kid that would be using this as training. Nope. I ran with a few kids for the first 200m and then was alone behind the cyclist around the mall!

I did not plan on running at the front start-to-finish. It was neat to see people cheering at the first runner they saw. I didn’t want to peek back and see if there were any chasers, I wanted to keep on my pace for as long as possible. My watch had 5:58 at mile 1 and 11:59 turning to 12 at mile 2. Really? It was a surprise because several times I looked at the pace reading and saw 6:25, 6:15, 6:40. It was bouncing around. I was more concerned with keeping a lead in a race I had no intention of coming and winning. This would be more important than the time. I was good through 2.4 miles, then I felt my stomach tightening and my breathing becoming more labored. I didn’t hear anyone that close to me, as long as I didn’t cramp or fall, this would be my first OA win in a race like this.

The last marker was at 3 miles, two turns and I was home. I finished in 19:37, right about where I imagined I’d be. First female was Niki Desjardins, she knows Deborah Feinsinger from Orangetheory.

We had a good breakfast at Brio which is a post race amenity. I am glad I put things together to do the race and may this serve as a rung on the ladder of 5k specific improvement for me. I plan to do the Mercedes Corporate Run and probably Sunfest 5k, so a few more ahead!