Race Recap: Walgreens Way-to-Well 5k Run New Smyrna Beach, FL 7/15/17

Last Saturday 7/15/17 I ran the ​Walgreens Way-to-Well 5k Run/Walk in New Smyrna Beach, FL. 
After my last 5k, I set a goal of running this race under 21 minutes. Let me tell you, that did not happen. I suffered from a bad cold a few weeks back was forced to take a week off from training. I'm back into it now, but I lost a lot from that little bit of time off. I seriously considered not even racing in this event, but then I wouldn't achieve my goal of at least one race every month (this being the only race I have scheduled for July). The days leading up to my race I just accepted the fact that this would not be a PR run and just told myself to enjoy it and not obsess about my pace. In other words, this was the first race I did not have a specific goal time in mind. My sole purpose was to have fun out there which, I admit, sometimes gets lost in the heat of competition. 

Race Morning: 
The race started at 7:30 am, and the drive is about 15 minutes from my house. I woke up a little after 6:00 am and enjoyed my pre-race ritual of eating my oatmeal and listening to music. We all need a pre-race ritual I think. As soon as we stepped outside, I knew this was going to be a hot race. Even before 7 in the morning, the humidity was out in full force. I make sure to train outside in the middle of the day during the hottest of Florida summer days to work myself up to this, so it's not a shock to my body (it's probably crazy I admit). Regardless, I knew this would be a tough one. I got to the race, picked up my packet and this awesome race t-shirt and was ready to go! This race was smaller with about 100 participants, so I was able to line up at the front of the start line.  This race was a beach run, and I was happy to see the sand was hard. The heat and humidity were brutal even before we started.

Mile 1  7:01
I made sure not to start off this race too fast because I knew I could not maintain it. I quickly settled into a pace that I thought was right for me. The first mile honestly felt fine and was pretty uneventful. I only glanced at my Garmin watch a couple of times and was happy to see a pace in the low 7-minute  range. I try not to look at my watch too much when I run (even on the beach) because I don't want to trip. Trust me it happens more than I'd like to admit. 

Mile 2  7:23
Mile two is where things started to get challenging. My watch beeped signaling the end of the first mile after what seemed like an eternity, so I knew I still had another two to go. At the turnaround, I noticed there weren't any women close enough to catch me; there was also no way I was catching the two in front of me, so I decided to slow down a bit to save myself. I didn't mind at this point; I just tried to enjoy the run. 

Mile 3  7:46
The last mile I just focused on maintaining my slow pace. I didn't look at my watch, so I didn't realize just how slow it was until I finished haha.  The combination of the heat and mostly my lack of training recently caused all this trouble. The conditions started to get to everyone; there were a few people in front of me that had to stop to walk at this point. In a typical race, I try to keep my splits together, but this was an exception to that rule. 

.10 Mile  6:33
At this point, I was so happy to see the clock it didn't even bother me that it was well over 22 minutes. I crossed the finish line at 22:51. I stopped my watch, and it was exactly at 3.10 miles. That's impressive for a race to be exactly on like that.

​After the Race
There was plenty of water at the finish line, and there were also some great local vendors around the scoreboard area that offered food and other cold drinks. I look forward to this race next year. Sure this was a far cry from a PR or even anything close to that, but overall I had a great experience at this race. I have about three weeks off before my one which means lots of training to do! There were prizes for the top 3 males and females instead of just one overall, so it was neat to get the 3rd overall female award.

The Swag: I just love the prizes, soft shirt, and the 3rd Place Overall Female Cup!

Overall results:
Time: 22:51
Pace: 7:22
Overall: 9 out of 108
3rd Place Female

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