Kicking off 5K Season

I'm behind on my blog posts. I have two 5Ks to write about, the first of which is the Laywers Have Heart 5K from May 16. 

After the Boston Marathon, I took eight days off from running, relaxed at a resort in Cancun, and then came back feeling refreshed. I only had time for two speed workouts before the first 5K. One of them was an interval workout using my Boston marathon time of 3:24:52 to guide the intervals. 3 minutes, 2 minutes, 4 minutes, 5 minutes, 2 minutes - all with half duration recovery jogs. It ended up being the perfect way to get the legs moving again. I also ran a short track workout of 3 x 600, 400, 200 with just 1 minute rests in between. Other than those two workouts, I relied on my baseline speed and residual Boston Marathon fitness. 

Background
Because May is typically a "down" month in terms of training, I figured it would be a good time to finally get my blood work checked. I've had a Function Health subscription for six months, but the timing to get the blood drawn never worked out. Plus, my doctor ordered blood work last December, and that panel covered a lot of what Function would test for. They ran over 100 tests and it was interesting to see the results. Almost everything was in the healthy range, and the only thing that stood out as needing to be addressed was my ferritin level, which was very low at 22. Apparently this is common in athletes. I started taking an iron supplement that also contained a lot of B vitamins just 4 days before the 5K. Lesson learned: don't start a new supplement a few days before a race, even if it's not a goal race! 

The test also confirmed that my hormone levels are typical of a 47-year-old, which is consistent with perimenopause. Thankfully, I haven’t had any symptoms of this, but I know it can cause women to slow down. I kept wondering when it would finally come for me. 

I have run this Lawyers Have Heart race more than 15 times, although today's version of it looks nothing like what it used to. It used to be strictly a 10K and it was held at an entirely different location in the month of June. My goal was to beat my time from last year, which was 21:04. 

When I ran the race last year, I had a lot working against me. I had just moved houses the weekend before (hello life stress), the weather was humid, and I had very little training under my belt. My Boston training cycle last year was plagued by a cranky hamstring, so I had done practically no speed work. 

I was fairly certain that I would run a faster race this year. Better weather, more training, less life stress. However, I still wasn't in my best 5K shape, so I set a "low bar" goal of simply running faster than 21:04. It's a fast course: mostly flat with just one notable hill at the beginning of the last mile.

Before the Race
I arrived at the race with plenty of time to warm up. I had already retrieved my bib a few days prior, so I didn't need to worry about that. I had a caffeinated Maurten gel 15 minutes before the race start and then lined up in the corral. Once there, I met a girl who had recognized me from the 2024 race. She said she wanted to be just a little slower than I was that year, and it would be great if she could use me as motivation and keep me in her sights. In 2024 I had run 20:37, and I thought that was probably where I would end up this year too.

It was 62 degrees, sunny, 6-8 mph winds, and moderate humidity. I think the dew point was around 52. Definitely not as humid as last year. On my personal weather scale, I give it a 5 out of 10. My personal weather scale is absolute, so even though this was relatively good weather for mid-May, it's far from my ideal of 40 degrees and low humidity. 

I wore the ASICS Metaspeed Edge Paris. I had never raced in these shoes, but I had worn them in a few workouts. I liked that they were bouncy and supposedly designed for high-cadence runners like me. Plus, they matched my outfit perfectly, and that brought me joy.

Mile 1

Mile 1: 6:39
The race started and it was surprisingly crowded the first mile. A ton of people sprinted out of the gate, getting ahead of me and then started slowing down about five minutes into the race. At that exact time, the course narrowed significantly, making it almost impossible to pass people. If two people were running at the exact same pace next to each other, forget about passing them. I was running faster than most people around me and did a lot of weaving in order to pass them. I didn't let it bother me too much and thankfully that narrow portion of the course only lasted for about half a mile. 

Mile 2: 6:44
During the second mile I played leap frog with my friend from the start line. It was helpful to have her near me and she was very encouraging as she heard me gasping for breath. At this point I noticed the headwind, and while I don't think it slowed me down too much, it made everything feel even harder. I noticed Greg on the opposite side of the course and that was a nice pick-me-up!

Mile 3: 6:49
Then came the only major hill of the race. The first half of the last mile was brutal. With less than a mile to go, I tried to stay strong up the hill, but I felt my tank emptying quickly. Finally, we hit a turnaround and then it was downhill, followed by a flat stretch to the finish. I knew I needed to make up time, so I gunned it hard. I was able to sprint ahead of my start-line friend and another woman in our vicinity. There were no other women in my line of sight to chase. The final mile shows as 6:49, but I’m guessing it was closer to 7:10 for the first half and 6:30 for the second.

Mile 3

I ran hard towards the finish line, with an official time of 21:06.

After the Race
I was instantly disappointed when I crossed the finish line, which is not like me at all. Usually I default to having a positive attitude. I had not expected my final mile to be a slow as it was, and I was disappointed that I wasn't any faster than last year. I thought it was a super low bar. We had better weather this year and I know I was in better shape.  Even though this wasn't an "A" race for me, I was caught off guard by not being able to hit my target - I had believed it to be totally attainable.

All that being said, the weaving that I did in the first mile made my Garmin distance longer than last year, so my Garmin showed a faster pace this year. I know, I am really grasping at straws to find a silver lining! Last year Garmin had me at 6:43 average pace for 3.14 miles. This year, it had me at 6:42 average pace for 3.16 miles. But still, I couldn't shake the feeling that I expected to be about 20 seconds faster.

Well, I thought to myself, I think I probably won my age group at least. I looked up the results online and they weren't loaded yet. So I didn't even have that to mollify my disappointment. I met up with Greg and my friend Chad. For the past few years I have been running this race as part of Chad's law firm's team. I would guess at least half of the runners were lawyers as this is a big event for the DC area legal community to raise money for the American Heart Association. 

Chad and me post race

Because the results weren't loading online, we stuck around for the age group awards to be presented in
person. But then those got delayed and we were tired of waiting so we decided to leave. As we were leaving, the results finally popped up on the website. I was shocked to see that another women in my age group beat me by 1 second, and her clock time was the exact same as mine. Weird, because there were no women around me when I finished.

When I looked at the photos that Greg had taken, sure enough, there was a young guy with a bib number in the women's 40-49 category finishing near me. Because this is mainly a charity race for lawyers, it's likely that the bib owner gave her bib to her son or a young colleague without understanding that it impacts the results. This has happened to me in the past and the timing company is usually quick to correct it (and they did the following day). 

Final Thoughts and Key Takeaways
I was surprised that I didn't run faster than last year given better fitness and conditions, and I was also surprised that it put me in a bad mood. Why did this bother me so much? I think it goes back to that fear I mentioned above about slowing down with age. I know it will happen eventually and I will have to accept it, but after getting those test results, it had been more of a focus in recent days. 

Over the next few days, my sleep was highly disturbed, my resting heart rate spiked, and my HRV dropped. My FitBit showed my daily readiness as 15 for two days in a row. I had no idea what was going on so I took extra rest days. Maybe I was getting sick? Maybe it was allergies? After all, I had been sneezing my head off. But then, it all clicked. I was texting with my sister about iron supplements, and she pointed out that the one I was taking had all of this extra stuff in it that wasn't necessary. I researched it and boom- my new iron supplement was packed with a high dose of B vitamins that can absolutely impact sleep, recovery, and resting heart rate. And I had started taking that supplement several days before the race. This supplement contained 12,500% of the recommended allowance of B12. It also had 294% of the recommended allowance for B6. 

Do I feel stupid for not closely reading all the nutrition facts on my supplement? Yes. Do I feel stupid for starting a new supplement a few days before a 5K? Yes. Do I still worry that I have started to slow down because of age and hormones? Not yet! Instead, I am optimistic that once I get the iron and ferritin right, I can actually actually be faster. 

Finally, to show some amazing consistency, here is a comparison of my splits from last year vs. this year:

2025: 6:40, 6:44, 6:51 (5:59 pace for 0.14)
2026: 6:39, 6:44, 6:48 (5:56 pace for 0.16)

So even though I was initially disappointed, I learned a lot and I had a fun experience! Now it's time to get my ferritin levels up and acclimate to the summer heat and humidity.

My 20-Year Anniversary of Road Racing

Exactly 20 years ago I attended my five-year college reunion at the University of Virginia. My college roommate, Lisa, and I shared a hotel room and she was looking through the program. 

"Elizabeth, there's a two-mile race tomorrow morning," she said. "Why don't you do that?"

"2 miles is shorter than I usually run on the treadmill," I replied. "I was planning to run 5-6 miles on the
gym treadmill tomorrow morning."

"Yes, but wouldn't this be more fun?"

"I suppose I could run on the gym treadmill afterwards if I wanted to run more," I said, realizing that she was probably right. Why not do something a little different?

At the start of the race, I began talking with a guy friend of mine who I had graduated with. The race began and we continued chatting. I ran with him at his pace mostly focused on the conversation and not really thinking too much about the race. When we finished, I was informed that I was the first female finisher, which meant I won. I was handed a special silver tumbler. How cool! I wasn't even trying to be competitive - I was just chatting with my guy friend.

Lawyers Have Heart 2005

He then told me that there was a 10K race in DC the following weekend. He encouraged me to sign up for it. It was called "Lawyers Have Heart" and a lot of lawyers would be there. Seeing as I was single and actively looking to date, I figured that would be a good opportunity for me to meet a lawyer! I asked him how long a 10K was and he told me it was 6.2 miles. I knew I could definitely handle that because I ran that almost every day on the treadmill. 

The following weekend, I showed up at the 10K. There were hundreds, if not thousands of people. I was given a little computer chip to attach to my shoe and was told I would be officially timed. I wore cotton gym shorts, a cotton tank top, and no watch. I had no idea what a "good" time was - I would run it as fast as I could and that would be that. I didn't realize that you were supposed to use the porta potty beforehand and I learned that the hard way. After drinking so much water and pushing so hard in the heat, I couldn't control the leakage, which was extremely embarrassing. And I was wearing cotton shorts. Needless to say, I would not be lingering around afterwards to meet a lawyer.

My time was 53:09, which was good enough to be in the top 20% of the women. It wasn't an outright "win" like the 2-mile race, but given the fact that I had never done this before, I thought it was pretty good. And strangely, I didn't consider myself a "runner". I was someone who liked to workout at the gym and use the treadmill. 

Thus began my love of racing. It was a hard race. I peed a little in my cotton shorts. I didn't meet a lawyer. But the satisfaction of crossing the finish line and being in the top 20% was enough to make me want to do more. 

Lawyers Have Heart 2025
Fast forward 20 years and the Lawyers Have Heart race is still going strong. They've added a 5K and they've moved the race from Georgetown to Hains Point. If I had realized that this was my 20-year anniversary I would have signed up for the 10K. But with all the drama around my move and also my trip to Paris, it totally slipped my mind and I signed up for the 5K. 

This race bore little resemblance to the one that I ran back in 2005. It wasn't nearly as hot, the location was different, and I was running half the distance. But it was still fun to reflect back on my 2005 experience and think about this really long journey. I never expected that the 10K would lead to multiple marathons, a book, and a large social media presence. 

Before the Race
Even though we live much closer to Washington DC than we used to, it still took us 40 minutes to get to the start. The idea was for Greg to drop me off and for my friend Chad to drive me home. Greg always comes to my races, but we had literally just moved into the new house and there was so much unpacking to be done, and weekend time was limited! 

It took us 40 minutes because so many roads in DC were blocked off due to graduation ceremonies. Greg navigated us to the "ride share" drop off address that the race provided, but we couldn't access it due to road closures. So we drove out of DC, back into Virginia, along the GW Parkway, up through Spout Run, back over the bridge and he finally dropped me off as close as he could to the start. I didn't bring my phone, so I asked a few police officers how to get to Hains Point and they told me where to go. 

All of this made me very anxious because I didn't even have my bib yet and I was certain I wouldn't have a chance to warm up. Thankfully I got my warm up in by running all the way to the start line, which was over a mile away from where Greg dropped me off. I got in line to get my bib and a few minutes later, Chad lined up as well. So apparently I wasn't horribly late!

After pinning on my bib, I continued my warm up and made two separate trips to the porta potties. I didn't want a repeat of 2005! It was lightly raining during my warm up but that rain tapered off for the actual race so I decided not to run with my hat. It was about 68 degrees, overcast, somewhat humid, and windy (about 10-15 mph sustained). I give the weather a 5 out of 10 on my personal weather scale. Too warm and windy to be a good morning for a race, but the overcast skies and the fact that it was under 70 degrees was helpful. It could have been better, but it could have been worse.

15 minutes before the race started I took a few swigs of water and a caffeinated Maurten gel. And then I lined up at the start.

Goals and Strategy
Last year I ran this race in a time of 20:38. The weather had been cooler and I believed myself to have been in much better shape. But this year, I had not run any speed workouts since early April. It had been about 5 weeks. I decided I would not look at my Garmin and not have a goal time. I would run hard and relaxed and see what I could do. The race would be a good benchmark for future 5Ks this summer.

Mile 1:
We started running and I made a mental note of how many women were ahead of me. Five women. I would focus on trying to "race" and chase them down as opposed to hitting a certain time on my watch. I was surprised at how good I felt. Sometimes I feel just horrible at the start of a 5K, but this was not one of those times. My body adapted pretty quickly to the intensity and I told myself to work hard and focus on running the straight line tangents. My split for this mile was 6:40. I was pleasantly surprised by the 6:40 because even though it was hard, it didn't feel like 6:40. I would have estimated closer to 6:50.

Mile 2:
I mentioned that this race occurred at Hains Point. The 10K runs around the Point but the 5K does not -- it goes around the tidal basin and over the Memorial Bridge and back. It's still a fast course but it's not as flat as the Hains point loop. During this mile I was able to pass one of the other women, putting me in fourth place. I didn't think I would be able to catch the other three, but I kept pushing. My split was 6:44.

Mile 3:
The first half of mile 3 was up a hill (the bridge) and directly into the wind. It sucked the life out of me. I still felt strong, but I knew I had slowed significantly. I didn't let it bother me though because I knew soon enough I would turn around and I'd have a downhill tailwind. That did happen and I surged my way to a 6:51 final mile. 

I sprinted to the finish at a pace of 5:59. The clock was super close to 21:00 and I gave it all I had to squeak under but it wasn't going to happen. I was still happy with my time of 21:04.

After the Race
I waited for Chad to finish, and he came in about a minute later. We walked back to the start line together and he played the role of "Instagram photographer" and snapped some photos of me. We then ran back to his car which was just over a mile away. I later found out that I won first place in my age group and was the 4th overall female out of 528.

Final Thoughts and Key Takeaways
I wish I had signed up for the 10K because it would have been so cool to have a "then vs. now" comparison. But given the fact that it's not even the same course, it doesn't matter as much. 

Even though 21:04 is a "slow" 5K time for me and it's over 20 seconds slower than my time from last year, I am still happy with it given my lack of recent speed work. I'm also happy with how I executed this race, my mindset, and the fact that I had a lot of energy. Sometimes when I race I feel stale and my legs have no pep. That was not the case here and I was happy about it.

We moved into our new house the previous Sunday so I had a busy week of unpacking, getting everything set up, staying up late every night, etc. My body was out of its normal routine. I had very low expectations and I exceeded them!

I'm extremely grateful that I have been able to run consistently over the past 20 years and I that I continue to get joy and satisfaction out of racing. 

Another 5K, With Some Mishaps

I ran the Lawyer's Have Heart 5K over the weekend in Washington DC. Even though I have run Lawyer's Have heart many times in the past, this experience was entirely different.

Historically, this race had been a 10K, occurred in the middle of June, and was located in Georgetown. This race was my first 10K back in 2005 and my first large road race ever! I proceeded to run it every year from 2005 to 2012, and then stopped in 2013 because I was on vacation. Around that time, I decided to stop running summertime 10Ks because I would suffer from heat exhaustion and kill my immune system. 5K became my summertime distance limit. In 2017 they introduced the 5K distance in addition to the 10K, so I started doing that. 

Last year, the race moved from Georgetown to Hains Point and the date switched from June to May. I didn't participate last year, so I didn't know what to expect. Even though the Georgetown course was challenging, it was a tradition for me, so I was a little sad about the move. 

Before the Race
I decided to go with my adidas Adios Pro shoes for this race. I have determined that they are more responsive than the ASICS that I wore in Boston and the Greenway 5K two weeks ago. The ASICS shoes are fun and bouncy, but also a bit squishy. For really fast running, I like to feel more connected with the ground. I think the plush cushion is great for longer distances, but I've decided to stick with adidas for shorter ones. Even though they are unisex and not specifically women's running shoes, they have a streamlined, locked-in fit. 

Greg and I tried to park in our normal spot for Hains Point races, but the road was blocked off so we parked at the Kennedy center, as the website had suggested. In the parking garage, I saw my friend Chad, whose law firm always participates in this race. Chad and I ran to the start, which was just over a mile away and Greg walked. 

It was raining steadily, but it wasn't the torrential downpour that my weather app had called for. At 61 degrees and humid, I was thankful for the rain. On my personal race weather scale, this race gets a 6 out of 10. Not great weather, but also not horrible. If the rain had been heavier, I would have downgraded it to a 5 or 4. If there had been no rain at all but still humid, also a downgrade. Any time the temp is above 55, I would rather have rain than not. 

During my warmup with Chad, I told him about my lack of sleep over the past two nights. I had only gotten 5 hours of sleep each night because my mind was quite activated. Even with poor sleep I can usually race well, so I didn't let that get in my head. But the thing that was keeping me up was occupying so much of my mind, that I wasn't really focused on the race at all. I wasn't sure if I was mentally ready to run really hard when my focus was elsewhere. 

I had an A, B, and C goal. "A" goal was to run under 20 minutes. "B" goal was to beat my Easter Classic time of 20:14 from seven weeks prior, and my "C" goal was to beat my 5K from two weeks ago (20:40). 

We arrived at the race start and I retrieved my bib and pinned it on. Then I looked around for Greg and found him. He said he was going to walk up to the bridge where he would be taking a video of me about a quarter mile in. I decided to run a bit past there and turn around to continue my warm up.

When I saw him at the bridge I stopped and said "let's do a video of me warming up here." His response "It's 7:41. Don't you start in 4 minutes?" OH SHIT!!!

The race started at 7:45, and I knew that, but for some reason I had it in my head that it started at 8:00. I hadn't yet had my gel, and the start line was not visible. How could I have messed this up so badly!?

Well, strides are normally part of my warm up, so I did a long stride at a sub 7:00 pace to bolt back to the start line. It was about a quarter of a mile away. At least if they could see me running towards it maybe the would wait a few seconds for me to get behind the line. The minute I got there I gulped down my Maurten caffeinated gel. It wouldn't do me much good. It takes about 15 minutes for the caffeine to kick in. Oh well. This probably goes back to what I said above - I was focused on something else so I didn't remember that the start time was 7:45, and not 8:00.

I lined up towards the front and didn't even have an opportunity to see who else was there, who the competition might be. I was still trying to catch my breath from my sprint to the start.

I think I stood there for maybe 60 seconds tops and then the race started.

Mile 1
Now that the race had started and I knew I wasn't going to miss it, I could relax. So I went out at a more
conservative pace. I needed to calm down and switch gears from "get to the start" to "run a fast 5K". It wasn't long before I saw Greg and yelled out to him "That was very close!" I still wasn't aware of how many women were ahead of me, and I usually try to have an idea of that when I run a local race.

The course wasn't the traditional Hains Point course. And I had only discovered this a few days prior when my physical therapist pointed it out to me (he was running the 10K). This meant that it wouldn't be pancake flat and there would be more turns. I welcomed this, though, because I have run on Hains Point a lot lately and thought a change of scenery would be good.

I ran with Chad for a little bit and then pulled ahead about half a mile in. Because I started a little slower than originally planned, I was now passing runners, which was challenging with the course being narrow. We were all running in the bike lane. We probably didn't have to be crammed in there, but I didn't want to be the only person not in the bike lane. This mile clocked in at 6:33. This put me on track for my C goal and I would need to speed up if I wanted my B goal of sub 20:14.

Mile 2
Lots of uneven pavement here and potholes which meant puddles. I didn't want to focus too much on dodging puddles, but I also didn't want my feet to be soaked. Ultimately there was no avoiding it. My feet got soaked which meant that heavy feet feeling. I was racing really close to one guy for this whole mile. Every time he started to get ahead I would make sure he wouldn't. This mile also had a steeper hill than I was expecting as we got onto the Memorial Bridge. It took the wind out of me so this mile clocked in at 6:38. UGH - not what I wanted, but it was the best I could do. I saw Greg again (he took a shortcut to another spectating point) and he yelled out that I was the 3rd place female.

Mile 3
I was really hoping the magical 5K gods would smile down on me and give me this amazing burst of energy to close the race in a sub 6:20 pace, but that was not happening. There was a hairpin turn and I felt like that stole any momentum I had. My main motivation at this point was to retain my spot at the third female. I didn't want any women passing me. This mile clocked in at 6:33, my fastest mile of the race, but not as fast as I would have liked.

The finish and beyond
According to my Garmin, I ran the final 0.15 mile at a pace of 5:51, so I had a good burst of energy. When I ran the Greenway 5K two weeks ago, I had no final kick whatsoever; my legs had been totally dead. 

My official time was 20:37, which means I got my "C" goal of beating my Greenway time by 3 seconds. Phew. 

I found Greg who told me that I was actually the 4th female finisher-- he had miscounted. On the plus side, that meant I didn't need to stay for the awards and hang out in the rain. We found Chad and we traded race stories, and then he went back to cheer on his law firm colleagues. 

Final Thoughts and Key Takeaways
There are two ways to look at this race: the positive way and the negative way. Of course I will ultimately view it the positive way, but it's good to articulate some negative thoughts that are only natural when you miss you A and B goals.

Negative way: It was only 7 weeks ago that I ran a 20:14 5K on a hilly course and it didn't feel all that hard. I've done plenty of fast workouts in between, and taking one week off post marathon shouldn't cause me to loose THAT much fitness. I should have at least been able to go under that time. This course was faster than the Greenway from two weeks ago so I should have been able to beat that time by more than 3 seconds. 

Positive way: I started the race recovering from a quarter mile sprint to the start and the anxiety of not getting there in time. I didn't take my gel in time for the caffeine to kick in. It was pouring rain and there were puddles everywhere + uneven pavement. I averaged 5 hours of sleep for the two nights before the race and my focus was elsewhere. These are not conditions for an amazing performance. And even though the Greenway course had more elevation gain, there were no turns, uneven pavement, or puddles to dodge. The March race got a 10/10 on the weather scale, so it's not a fair comparison.

Out of 443 women, I finished in 4th place, which I am pleased with.  The last time I ran this race (2022) I was the 9th female finisher out of 582, so that's a nice improvement too.

It was great to get out there in the rain, to see my friend Chad, and to work hard!

Lawyers Have Heart 5K: A Muggy Slug

I ran the Lawyer's Have Heart 5K in Georgetown, Washington DC this morning. I have a very long history with this race. It used to be a 10K, and now they have both 5K and 10K options. It was my first race ever back in 2005 (unless you count the 2-miler at my college reunion). I had a streak going every year from 2005-2012, but then a beach trip came up in 2013, which ended the streak.

I ran the 5K most recently in 2017, back when I had been solely focused on the 5K for months. That season, I was able to gradually get my PR down from 20:50 to 20:17. My Lawyer's Have Heart time was 20:24, which was just 7 seconds off of my PR at the time. I was very pleased with it because this race is almost always hot, so being close to a PR is a major achievement. 

This year, I had my sights set on a time of 20:30. Have run 20:43 at the Dulles Greenway 5K just 5 weeks ago, this seemed totally attainable. Yes, this race would be warmer and hiller, but I didn't run that Greenway 5K at full effort. Why not shoot for a course PR of 20:24? I just didn't think that I was in the same kind of 5K shape that I was back in 2017. 

Before the Race
I didn't sleep well last night or the night before. I am not sure why, but both nights I got between 6-7 hours of sleep and it wasn't restful sleep; I kept waking up. Also, I had a minor cold which lasted 3 days about a week ago. It started on Friday morning with a sore throat and my symptoms lasted for 3 days. I took Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off from running. I felt better by Monday, but I probably wasn't 100% until Tuesday or Wednesday. I'm thankful it wasn't a major illness, but it was annoying because I keep having these breaks in my training, and I just want to be consistent.

Anyway, I woke up at around 3:30 this morning and didn't fall back asleep. I had an anxiety dream about Greg being at the start line of the Chicago Marathon. I was going to run it with him, but I was somehow on the other side of a mountain. I had to climb over the mountain to reach him at the start line. Other people were climbing over it just fine, but I could not. I woke up with my heart racing and then there was no falling back asleep. Sigh.

For breakfast, I had a small banana and a Maurten SOLID. "SOLID" is a new Maurten product that can replace a pre-run meal. I felt very well hydrated and I had been doing an excellent job at staying on top of my water and electrolytes. 

Greg and I left the house at 5:30. He was not running the race, having just raced a marathon less than two weeks ago. I wore my Zensah heart socks, because they totally matched the theme of the race. Lawyers Have Heart benefits the American Heart Association. If there had been an award for best socks, I would have won it. 

We arrived at the race site, parked, and picked up my bib. It was raining lightly, and I debated if I should wear my visor or not. I decided I would wear it because it was lightweight, and if it started raining harder, I would want to keep the water out of my eyes. I warmed up for about 1.5 miles + strides and drills, which probably wasn't enough. When it's warm/humid, I usually opt for a shorter warm up so as not to get overheated. But as I age, I feel like I need more and more time to really get those legs moving. 

Weather
The weather did not match the forecast. As of last night, my Wunderground app was saying 70% humidity, 66 degrees with no rain. That's not too bad for June. In reality, it was slightly warmer (I'll call it 67) but with 90% humidity and light rain. On my race weather scale it gets a 3 out of 10. 

During the warm up, the rain started to lighten up, so I found a place to stash my visor, as Greg was already at his first photo location. I took a Maurten caffeinated gel 15 minutes before the start of the race. 

Mile 1
The race started and I decided to be relaxed at first. I had read my 2017 race report last night and based on that, I planned for my first mile to be my slowest. The first quarter mile of the race is underneath a freeway, so you can't rely on the Garmin to tell you what pace you are going. 

As I started running, I immediately felt suffocated by the humidity. I felt sluggish and I just could not get going. There was a hill up ahead, and I did what I could to get up it, but that was really, really rough.  Once I was up the hill, I finally got into a rhythm, but I felt exhausted. I could tell it wasn't my day but I immediately dismissed that negative thought and was determined to give it everything I had. 

I ended up running the first mile in 7:03. That was definitely a disappointment, and I felt like I was running much faster than that. 

Mile 2
This mile went by pretty quickly and I started to feel a little better than I had during the first mile. This is why I think I really need a longer warm up, even for hot/humid races. It's difficult for me to move fast until I've been moving fast. I need that momentum. It didn't used to be this way, but it could be a product of getting older and everything feeling stiff and rigid. 

Anyway, I passed a good amount of people during this mile, which made me happy and I averaged a 6:48, which still wasn't great, but far better than the 7:03 from mile 1. 

Mile 3
I knew from my 2017 race report that this mile would be super fast. I ran it in 6:24 back in 2017. And at the Dulles Greenway 5K, my last mile was 6:20. (And that was flat!)  With this mile being downhill, there was no reason why I couldn't run in the 6:20s. So I gunned it early on in the mile and I kept that effort level up the entire way. Could I have run at this effort level earlier in the race? Maybe. But it didn't feel like I could have at the time. 

I noticed that there were no women runners around me during this mile. I had no idea how many women were ahead of me because the 5K and the 10K start together. I guessed it was a lot because many fast women had shown up! So there was no woman for me to chase down, but I had fun racing the guys. 

I made the final turn, and clocked in at 6:31 for the final mile. 

The Finish
I was really surprised to see Greg taking photos so close to the finish line, because I thought I had already seen him a bit further back! Apparently there was someone else in a blue jacket with a nice camera. That shows how focused I was just getting to that finish line. I had a decent final kick and finished in a time of 21:09.

I retrieved my visor from its spot and then met up with Greg.  I then cooled down for about 12 minutes before we returned to the car.  

I was the 9th female finisher out of 582. And I didn't even place in my age group because many of those 8 women ahead of me were in their 40s. Tough competition! 

Final Thoughts and Key Takeaways
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little disappointed. I didn't even come close to my 2017 time, and I didn't beat my 21:06 from the 5K I ran 4 weeks ago. And I ran a 7:03 mile - which is slower than my half marathon PR pace. 

My final mile at the Dulles Greenway 5K was 6:20. It was not downhill and I didn't feel like I was running at 100% effort. Today, my final mile was downhill and it was 6:30 and I definitely felt like I was running at 100% effort! Just shows what 15 extra degrees can do to you in a race!

My overall feeling about this race is that I didn't have a ton of energy and the humidity seemed to impact me more than it typically does. And it typically impacts me a lot! I was probably a combination of:

• Lack of sleep
• Recovering from being sick a week ago
• The humidity
  

I am not trying to make excuses, but rather identify why I didn't have as much energy as I typically do. 

This was all validated by my heart rate. My heart rate was much lower than expected! My heart rate averaged 168, and it usually averages in the high 170s to low 180s for a 5K. If it's humid, that's more like the mid 180s. So according to my heart rate, I simply wasn't working very hard. And I would agree with that. I didn't push as hard as I was physically capable of during the first two miles because I felt crappy.

As I mentioned earlier, I think a longer warm up would have helped too. If I could run a 3.6 mile race, with a timing mat at the 0.5 marker to measure the final 5K, that would be ideal! In workouts I always feel like that first half mile is so hard, and then I settled in. 

On the positive side, any time you negative split a 5K is a good day, even if the last mile is downhill! I had a ton of fun out there and I'm proud that I showed up and worked hard. Plus, I have things I can work on for the next 5K!

Lawyers Revenge!

In June 2005, I ran my first "big" race: the Lawyers Have Heart 10K in Washington, DC. It was only the weekend before that I had discovered road racing when I participated in a two-mile race at my college reunion. One of my classmates told me about the Lawyers race, so I signed up.

Since then, I had run the race every year through 2012. That's eight consecutive years! But then in 2013, Greg and I went to the beach that week so the streak ended. And I realized I had no desire to start it back up again because the race is always so brutally hot. In fact, when   I ran it in 2011 it was so hot that they turned the race into a 5K for safety reasons. And in subsequent years, they began to offer a 5K option.

Lawyers Have Heart 5K

My friend Chad is a lawyer and he was assembling a team for his firm. He asked Greg and me if we would run the 10K on his team. Greg agreed, but I declined. I really want to focus on 5Ks right now, and I've always struggled running this particular 10K in the heat. So I decided to run the 5K, even though it wouldn't count for Chad's team.

In the past, I have rarely been happy with my performance at this race. I've usually always fallen short of my goal, and felt miserable doing it. In fact, one of the few times I was happy with my performance was when the race was a 5K in 2011, and I ran a 22:43. So even though I probably won't try to get "revenge" on the 10K, I figured that running a fast 5K would give me almost as much satisfaction.

Earlier in the week, I had run a workout of 4 x 800m, 3 x 200m. My coach told me to run the 800's hard because there were only four of them. And I ended up setting three new personal records, one right after the other: 3:03, 3:02, 3:01. This was a huge confidence booster for the 5K. My previous fastest 800 was 3:06, which I had only done once.

Shoes
A few weeks ago, I got a pair of the Nike Zoom Elite. I had been looking for a replacement for the Mizuno Wave Saynora for quite awhile, and I had yet to find one that I liked. I loved the Sayonara 1 and 2, but when they came out with the 3, it was a completely different shoe. Much heavier and bulkier. The 4 was better than the 3, but still not nearly as good as the 1 and 2 had been.

I've gradually transitioned into the Zoom Elite for speed work over the past few weeks and I really like them. I'm not sure if I would say I like them better than the Sayonara 2-- I think I like them the same. But they are very different shoes. The Sayonara doesn't have a lot of cushion so my feet are in close contact with the ground. I like being able to feel the ground beneath my feet and pushing off of it. The Zoom Elite has a lot of bounce. So while I don't get the sensation of close contact with the ground, I feel like I am gliding along the track or road. In terms of weight, they are almost identical with the Zoom Elite being just a wee bit lighter according to my kitchen scale. I decided I would race in the Nike's this morning, as I had run several really strong workouts in them. I only have one pair left of the Sayonara, so I need to get used to racing in the Nike's at some point.

Before the Race
Greg and I woke up at around 4:30am in order to leave the house at 5:20. We wanted to arrive no later than 6:00 so that we'd have time to park, get our bibs, use the porta potties, and warm up. We ate a small breakfast at home (half an English muffin and peanut butter) and then we each had a serving of UCAN pre-race.

The logistics went smoothly for the most part. The only annoying thing was having to go back to the car to feed the meter 30 minutes before the race, which dug into our warm up time. We warmed up for about 15 minutes and then took our place at the start line. I was raring to go when the announcer said that the race would be delayed by 10 minutes. Ugh. This totally messed up the timing of my warmup and I didn't want to get out of the corral to try and run more, as it seemed like the race could start at any moment. This happened to me during my last 5K and the result was a first mile that felt harder than it should have for the pace I was running.

The 5K and 10K races started together, but split apart shortly before the 5K finish line (which was also the 10K finish line-- they just had to run an additional out and back). The 5K course was the same as it had been in 2011, but since that was six years ago, I didn't remember where exactly the hills were. I also couldn't find an elevation profile or Strava data anywhere. I wish I had known going into it that the first two miles were a net uphill and the last mile was really fast. I was a little discouraged seeing my paces for the first two miles and had I known that the last mile was going to be all downhill, I would have been more confident.

It was 68 degrees and sunny, but thankfully the humidity was low. I've run this race in much warmer conditions, so this wasn't too bad.

Mile 1: 6:40
The race starts underneath a bridge, so the Garmin is totally unreliable. I decided I would run by feel, putting out a hard effort, but not killing myself on the hill to get on top of the bridge. We made our way up the hill, and did a U-turn. From there, it was smooth sailing until the turnaround at the

Mile 1

halfway point. I was expected to see my friend Allison at the mile 1 mark, which I did. Thanks for cheering me on, Allison! She had suggested to me earlier that I manually split my watch due the inaccuracies of being under a bridge, and I was going to take her advice, but then my Garmin auto-lapped at just the right moment, so I didn't have to do that. Although I would have liked for my first mile to have been closer to 6:30, I didn't let it faze me. I'm pretty good at staying emotion-neutral while racing and focusing solely on putting out a hard effort. Greg had been directly behind me for the entire first mile, which meant that he was going out too fast or that I was going out too slow. I tried not to think about it too much.

Mile 2: 6:31
I settled into the race and focused on getting to the turnaround. I knew that once I turned around things would be mentally a lot easier. I also focused on running the tangents of the curves and trying to stay in the shaded side of the course. Sometimes these two things were at odds with each other. I could still hear Greg behind me, and I was really hoping that he was going out too fast and that I wasn't abnormally slow. I remember running this race years ago and seeing all the fast women at the turnaround. Wondering what it was like to be them. I imagined that I was one of those women right after I turned around, and that I needed to "look strong" and that thought helped me to continue to push.

Mile 3: 6:24

Mile 3, photo by Cheryl Young

I was in the home stretch but the finish line still seemed so far away. I could hear the announcer congratulating the first finishers underneath me, as I was still running above the bridge. It really seemed like I would never make it there. For some reason, I was sure that it would be a left turn to go back under the bridge, so I was prepared to turn left. But then the signs appeared which pointed the 5K runners to the right, so I had to alter my path. I was caught off guard but once I was on the right track, I really started to pick up the pace. During the final turnaround I saw that there was a women not too far behind me, which motivated me to push really hard during the final segment so that she couldn't pass me. With the finish line in sight, I imagined myself being pulled toward it and gave it all that I had.

The last 0.13: ??
This portion was under a bridge, so I don't trust my Garmin pace at all. All I know is that I ran it really hard. I could see from the clock that I would be very close to my PR (although not under) and I wanted to be within striking distance. Thankfully, nobody passed me during that last stretch.

After the Race
I stopped my watch a few seconds after crossing the finish line in 20:24, so I figured my official time would be a few seconds faster. But it wasn't. This could be another case of them using my gun time, but I will need to see the finish line photos to confirm. So as of now I am going with 20:24. Since it's not a PR for me I don't care as much, but it will be interesting to see if my clock time from the photo matches my finish time.

I started chatting with the woman who I had seen at the turnaround. She's also trying to break 20 minutes in the 5K, so we had a lot to talk about. We cooled down together and then I went back to the finish line to watch for Chad and Greg. I saw Chad first and then Greg about 20 seconds later in 41:39.

We quickly made our way to the awards area, as they were announcing the 5K awards at 7:45 (well, maybe now 7:55 with the 10-minute late start). It turns out that only the top 3 male and female finishers got an award, as well as the top first place master in each gender. I was the 5th female finisher, and if there had been age group awards, I would have won mine.

In any event, I placed 5th out of 933 women, which I was very happy with. Especially considering that historically I have never come close to this placement at this race. In 2011, I was the 111th female out of 1633. Granted, this was when everyone ran the 5K due to the heat (instead of there being two races) but that's still quite an improvement. This is where the revenge/redemption feeling comes in. I never used to place so well in this race.

In terms of my current fitness level, it's 7 seconds slower than my PR from three weeks ago, but considering that this course had more hills, heat, sun, etc, I am pleased. I think that sub-20:00 will come in the fall, but I will continue to use the summer races to practice running at a hard effort. I actually only have one more 5K this summer, and that course is hillier than today's course. Today's course was actually pretty easy, it just wasn't the cool pancake that I ran three weeks ago!  I might do one in late August, but that is TBD.

Next up is a four-mile race, which is known for being in the high 80's to low 90's. Heat acclimation, here I come!

Too Hot For Ten!

This morning, I woke up at 4:45am excited to run my 7th consecutive Lawyers Have Heart 10K. In 2005, this was my first large race ever and it inspired me to do more. Prior to the 2005 race, I was a fitness runner, often running 6 miles on a treadmill, but rarely outdoors and never competitively. This 10K got me out on the road and led to a major positive change in my life (competitive running) so it will always hold a special place in my heart.

Every year, the race ends up being hot. Usually it's unseasonably hot and I'm not acclimated to the heat yet so my times are never fantastic. So my goal for the past few years has been to set a course PR. This year, I had to beat 49:50, which I thought was very manageable, given my recent PRs and speed workouts. I was going to target a 7:45-7:50 pace and hopefully end up at 48:xx.

My husband was unable to run the race due to a work obligation, so I carpooled with my friend Chad. I picked him up at 6:00, which should have given us plenty of time to park, pick up our bibs, warmup, and be ready for the 7:30am start. But despite my planning, we still ended up cutting it close on time. We had to take a detour because 66 East was closed due to construction. Luckily I knew a way around it, but the traffic leading up the closure added about 10 minutes onto our trip.

We arrived at the race, parked and went to get our bibs. As expected, I got a medium shirt. That makes 7 medium Lawyers Have Heart shirts, despite the fact that every year I register for a small. And it's not like I'm picking it up at the last minute either. I typically arrive 45-60 minutes before race start, which is a perfectly reasonable time to show up. I just don't understand why they don't order more smalls since they run out every single year. Furthermore, how hard is it to only give people the shirt size they registered for instead of just letting them pick whatever they want once they see that the shirts run big. Oh well, they make good sleep shirts.

After I got my packet, I went over to where Chad was registering on-site, and he told me that they changed the race to the 5K. Really!?  The person who gave me my bib didn't tell me this, and it was pretty critical information. We didn't know why, but after the race, I ran into my favorite race director, Kathy Dalby, who said that the city officials told them that morning that they were only allowed to do a 5K because of the weather. It was a combination of heat, humidity and smog that made city officials fear that runners would have difficulty breathing.

I was thankful that Chad told me about the switch because otherwise I might not have known. After the race, we overheard some runners saying that they had no idea they were actually running a 5K. The announcer made his best effort to communicate this, but there were many people who weren't paying attention. Before the race, I also overheard some people getting angry that they paid $45 for a 5K. Relax-- it's for a good cause and the change was made for your safety!

Chad and I went back to my car, put our bibs on and warmed up. We only had time for a 0.6 mile warmup, but I was okay with that given that I wanted to stay "cool" and not warmed! I had mixed feelings about the change, but I didn't really have time to think about it too much. I had to focus on running a strong 5K and think about what my goals would be. I decided that I wanted a "hot weather" PR, which would be sub 23:21. I also had a stretch goal of sub-23, but given the weather, I didn't think that was likely.

The start line was extremely crowded, and there were quite a few people in the front that clearly didn't belong there (yes-- you wearing the race t-shirt and pinning your bib number to the back of that shirt). I lined up in the area marked 7:00-8:00 pace, but I don't think most people were paying attention to the signs.

Mile 1 -  7:20
When we took off, I started at what felt like 5K pace. I didn't really have a strategy. I was just going to do what felt like 5K pace and see how long I could hold onto it. I had been planning on wearing a heart rate monitor for the 10K, but once it got changed to the 5K, I decided to ditch it because the purpose of the monitor had been to make sure my HR didn't get too high too soon. But I knew it would during a 5K and didn't want the numbers to scare me.

Speaking of Garmin data, whenever I looked down at my Garmin, I saw this "approaching turn" message that I had never seen before. Somehow, without fail, my Garmin knows when I am racing and decides to act up in ways that it never does when I am training. I have been wearing this Garmin for two years and I have never seen the "approaching turn" message. It was annoying because I couldn't see any data under it, so I just stopped looking at the Garmin.

Mile 2 - 7:27
We got the ice cold sponges at the beginning of this mile and I loved it. That's my favorite part about the race! I put mine on the back of my neck, my forehead and my wrist and finally I tossed it aside. I had also carried a small bottle of water for the first mile which I ditched in order to get a cold sponge. It was so nice to be turning around so early in the race. During this mile, I was really thankful that it was a 5K. It was just so hot with no shade and the sun beating down on me.

Mile 3 - 7:22
The idea that I was only running half of what I expected really fueled me to keep pushing. I remembered how many times I had struggled through the last mile of this 10K and told myself that I only had two miles behind me, not five, so I should be able to be strong. I told myself I could still meet my goal if I kept the pace under 8:00. I was fairly certain that it would be a huge struggle, but my pace really surprised me. In nearly every past LHH, my last mile was always the slowest. This time, it was different! It started out on the slower side, but once I realized that I was less than half a mile to the finish line, I really picked up the pace and just flew down that final hill, passing quite a few people.

Last 0.1: - 5:59 pace
Okay, I don't really believe that this was my pace. That last 0.1 is under a bridge so I am pretty sure my Garmin was affected by that. I also recall the first 0.1 reading in the 9:00's, so this was compensating for that. And based on my finish time and average pace, my first mile had to have been closer to 7:15. Anyway, I did have a very strong sprint to the finish line and I was super excited to see that the clock was under 23 minutes!

Finish time: 22:43, with an average pace of 7:19.

I placed 18 out of 391 women ages 30-34 (top 4.6 percent)
I placed 111 out of 1633 total women (top 6.8 percent)

After recovering from that final kick, I met up with Chad who had run exactly two minutes faster-- a 20:43. Congrats, Chad!

I am very, very happy with my race performance. I set a new "hot weather" 5K PR by 38 seconds, I met my stretch goal of sub-23, and I didn't bonk. This might be the first LHH where my last mile was strong. I contribute my success to:

• Drinking plenty of water on Thursday and Friday
• Being more acclimated to the heat because summer came really early this year
• Having the confidence from the half marathon that hot races don't have to be disastrous, if you have the appropriate expectations
• Knowing what 5K pace "feels" like when uncertain what pace to target 
• Just getting faster overall :-)

The day ended on a down note when I got pulled over for using my cell phone while driving on M. Street. Greg had just called and of course I wanted to tell him about the race, and since they are legal in Virginia, I hadn't even thought about it. Apparently all I have to do to get the fee waived is go buy a hands-free device and send the receipt to the DMV. There are no instructions anywhere online as to how I need to do this, so if anyone has experience, please let me know. I'll probably just end up calling them and being put on hold for 3 hours.

But screw the ticket- I had a good race in spite of the weather!!!!!