After a night of restless sleep, I got up at 5 am to start getting ready for the race. I put on my kit, did my hair, and went out to the main area to drink electrolytes and beet juice, half-eat a bagel, and read my daily devotional. We left at 6:45 am to head to the start area and get our warm-up in.
From the moment we woke up, there was a nervous tension in the air. Not much was said among our group other than one of my teammates saying during the warm-up, “I feel like my heart is beating out of my chest.” I think we all felt that way. Although there were really no stakes, we all hold a sense of pride in how we perform and the expectations we hold ourselves to. I didn’t have a strict time goal for this 5K. I ran 18:00.53 in May 2024, and I’ve been haunted by .53 of a second ever since. All I wanted out of Matanzas was sub-18. If that was 17:59, I would’ve been thrilled. But God had other plans for me.
I did my final strides by the start line, and on my second-to-last stride, I took a moment to thank my Lord for the opportunity He put me in. The time I do or don’t run isn’t that serious. I could never run a PB the rest of my life and be content because of what holds the utmost importance in my running: it brings me closer to God. If something I do doesn’t build my relationship more with Him, then I want nothing to do with it. From practice to recovery, the schedule I follow with running allows me to be more intentional with my time with The Lord and builds my relationship with Him.
The gun went off. My coach told me to go out around a 5:35-5:40 pace, which I genuinely tried to do. Off the line, we were out hot, but I knew I needed to run my own race – nothing dictated by those around me. The first mile came up in no time, and I came through in 5:27. The most shocking part of that was how okay I felt. I didn’t feel like I could push too hard in the second mile, but I felt like I could roughly maintain. It was in the second mile that I started creeping up on some other women in the race and making the decision to pass them instead of settling and being committed to that move. At this point, I thought I was in 5th place with my training partner, Payton, near the front if not in the lead by this point. I started thinking about how cool it would be to go 1-2 in the race, and the idea of that fueled me more to go on the hunt. Between me and 2nd place were three women, and I told myself if any of them were in striking distance with 200m to go or less, I would finish that race in front of them. Mile 2 - 5:32. I felt roughly the same in terms of it being challenging but doable, but I felt like I had a little bit more to give so my third mile wouldn’t be my slowest like it normally is. I started slowly creeping up more and more until I had gotten myself into third place positioning. I kept checking my watch to know when I should hammer it out. At 2.60, thinking of how I only had 800m left, I started to find another gear. It wasn’t until I saw the mile 3 marker that I knew I could catch 2nd place. I ran that last mile in 5:30, and once I hit that mile marker, I ran like I never have before. As I turned the last corner, I got up on the left shoulder of the woman in second, and I saw her out of my peripheral look over at me and try to match my stride. This was the only point in the race that I felt myself go lactic. I trusted my ability to kick, and it paid off. I closed in 31 seconds, and finished in second place behind Payton running. I ran 17:04.
I ran a 5K predictor workout a week ago called Deeks Quarters that predicted me going 17:20 in the race. I didn’t believe I could run that or really even close to it. Like I said, if I ran 17:59 on the day, I would’ve been elated. This surpassed anything I had expected of myself and really what my coach expected of me too. I know it was none of me and all of Him. My coach texted me after the race and said, “I knew you were fit. Just not this fit. Wow. I hope you had fun up front and competing. Awesome to see your hard work continue to pay off with big runs!!” I love having a coach for guidance in all of my running. He always seems to have more confidence in me than I do in myself. And, historically, he's been right. With how I felt after our race predictor, I didn’t think I was that fit either. There’s more potential to tap into in the 5K distance. I'm excited to keep pursuing lofty goals and trusting the process!
