On Sunday March 15, 2015 I ran the Kelly Shamrock 5k in Baltimore. It was a little bit of a chilly morning but after it rained all day Saturday I was glad it was at least dry out. One of my favorite parts of this race is it's 1:15pm start time. It's so nice to have a race morning where I can "sleep in" and eat breakfast at home instead of racing out the door before the sun's up with a bagel in hand. We had a bit of an issue parking due to road closures but made it to the start line with just 5 minutes to spare.
Before we knew it, we were off. Since I had run this race last year I knew what to expect for the first half-mile but it's still a little overwhelming. The first part of the course is straight downhill, which sounds great, but not when you have 5000 runners all starting at the same time. To me, it feels a little like the running of the bulls. Plus, the street is not the most even surface to run on. Even though the sidewalks are filled with parade spectators I barely even look up at them because I'm too focused on the road directly in front of me and not falling.
Mile 1 passed easily. I could feel that I was running a good pace but I run races blind to time, unless they have clocks at the mile markers. I was feeling good! Mile 2 is a different story though. Mile 2 is where you hit the hills. Overall, this is one of the flatter courses in Baltimore (Baltimore is a very hilly city, something I did not notice until I started running). However, there are no true flat areas of Baltimore so you will have to deal with hills no matter what. The hills are not major hills, especially to what you could encounter just a block away, but there are several extended climbs. Luckily the hills overall are not that steep. Just long, slow climbs. I was still trucking pretty well through mile 2, but my legs and my body were starting to get tired. There was a girl yelling out times as we passed the mile 2 mile marker, I couldn't hear her very well but I knew at least that she called out a "16" as I passed her. Now I knew why my legs were getting so tired, I was running under an 8:30 pace. Super excited about this, I kept pushing. Maybe a PR was not out of reach... However, after conquering what I knew what the last hill fatigue set in. I realized that I could not longer hold onto the pace that I had been running. I backed off a bit until I was running a pace that was challenging but maintainable. I had less than a mile to go, I could do this!
The finish line is around a corner so unless you notice the mile 3 marker you're approaching the finish blind. One of my running friends was disappointed in this because she wanted to take a longer sprint to the finish but didn't because she had no idea where the finish line was. As I rounded the corner I could see the clock at the finish, 25:30-something. I pushed myself to sprint as fast as I could, determined to finish before the clock read 26:00. I crossed the line at 25:58 and I was so excited! I knew my chip time would faster than the clock time so I just had to wait for my official results.
Next up, finish line party! We had a great time. This year, my roommate and I opted to participate in the Brooks VIP party. We really enjoyed the experience. The VIP party included a lunch of sandwiches and salads and no waiting for beer (you received 2 tickets for drinks at the door)! What an upgrade from the long beer lines and chips, bananas, and granola bars downstairs. We found a seat, ate our lunch, and enjoyed the cover band before heading downstairs to meet up with friends.
While we were up in VIP we were able to check our official results:
Gun Time: 25:58.7
Chip Time: 25:39.7
Pace: 8:16/m
WHAAAAAAAT???
I have not run that fast since 2013! For some reason last year I could not get under an 8:30 pace. This race clocks in at my 3rd fastest 5k.
To say that I'm super excited for this racing reason would be an understatement. I've got some big PR dreams this year and this race has built my confidence up.
Overall, it was a great day and with great friends! Can't wait to run it again next year.
<3 Tara
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