BAA 5k Race Report

​After a good start to 2016 racing, I was pretty excited to head up to Boston to partake in a memorable BAA weekend. Tori was running her first Boston Marathon and I planned to bike to Hopkinton, spend the night at our gracious Back on My Feet host, the Krueger’s, and bike the back country roads peaking in on the course hopefully catching Her and other friends along the way.  

We go up to Boston Thursday morning after driving all night to avoid rush hour traffic (totally worth it!). We were staying close to Boston College and the Chestnut Hill Reservoir and ended doing a few runs throughout the weekend. Weather was great, mid 60s and pretty windy 10-15mph. made a pretty delicious Cheez-It Veggie Crunch wraps after!!

I had signed up in January for the BAA 5k with the hope of breaking the 17minutes mark up in Boston. I knew 5:27mile/pace would do it and felt pretty confident I’d be able to do it. On Saturday morning it was gorgeous out, the flowers in Boston were just starting to come out the same it had been in DC during Cherry Blossom Festival a month before; the warm-up in Boston Common and Commonwealth Mall was perfect. Tori and I warmed up and made our way to the Start. The race got off.

Mile 1 was 5:27, mile 2 was 5:27, things were looking good. As I came around the left to head down Boylston the headwinds were insane, funneling down the large boulevard. I know it’s not really an excuse, but my last mile was incredibly slow. I felt like I like I was keeping the pace, but as I came around the final stretch into the Boston Common I saw the clock tic past 17. I came across 17:19 last mile in 5:39.

I was little disappointed with myself, I should not have been so overconfident as to think it would be easy to go under 17 after my last race. Given that I have mainly been focused on swimming long for the last month, with a little over 20 miles per week, I now know I will definitely need to up my mileage to prepare better for the next 5k and achieve it. I am hungrier than ever for improvement. Overall a great experience up in Boston and wonderful start to a fun BAA weekend leading up to bike spectating Marathon Monday. Time for more serious Tri Cheez-It training to get started!