2019 DC Wonder Woman 5k

How the Running Journey can still surprise us.

Just so I don’t bury the lead here…I just set an all time PR in a 5k race. 

I don’t even remember my first 5k, really. Well, I don’t remember the year, but I’m almost positive it was a Valentine’s Day 5k…I think…in Washington Park…pretty sure. I remember a lot of red and pink, it was cold, I didn’t train, and my time was somewhere around 36 minutes…maybe. I do remember the last mile hurt. I never wanted to run again.

It may have been my first race ever, but I wouldn’t have considered myself a “runner” yet. From there I went into triathlon, so I didn’t really do a lot of 5k running since.

Fast forward through the next 10-15 years and several triathlons, when my experience in long distance triathlon just left me wanting that half marathon distance, so 5ks were always “fun runs” or training runs. I haven’t run a 5k for time maybe ever, and certainly not until this year. Seems a bit backwards from what I encourage others to do.

All of this is to say that I have a lot of data — workouts that include sections in which I ran 5ks at speed. Even one of my Sprint Triathlons was one of my fastest efforts at the 5k distance. 

But no 5k races for time. 

So as this Marvel Comics turncoat sets her sights on the Wonder Woman run, it was a challenge to set a time goal, because I wasn’t sure what to compare it to.

THE RACE

The DC Wonder Woman Run Series made its debut this year in several cities across the country. Offering a 5k and 10k option, the Denver races were set downtown. I’ve run these streets in a couple of larger races, and I lived in that area for ten years. I know the course.

I didn’t really train specifically to PR the 5k, but I know I have speed that I can test on the course. Having hemmed and hawed about dressing as Wonder Woman, and not any of the dozens of other female superheroes that have come to the fore in the last 10 years, I conformed and wore the “official” t-shirt.

Race day would be a warm one. We’ve had little rain and several 90+ days of relentless sun. The course began and ended in front of the Colorado State Capitol building, meaning that although the course was flat and wide open, the first 2 miles were a slight downhill slope, and the last mile was uphill into the baking sun.

When my husband, Dave and I arrived, I did a nice easy jog around the Art Museum, then went through my dynamic stretches routine. I wanted to be nice and loose at race start.

I went off the start having a number in my head: 29:29. In hindsight, I pulled this number out of thin air, because I have no data to support this time. I thought this is was my fastest recorded 5k race — the run leg of the 2013 Boulder Sprint Triathlon. I had my Garmin set to a feature that I didn’t know existed, and couldn’t get out of: the 5k race finish time. Your distance is the 5k, and it will count down the mileage as it calculates your finish time while you run. Kind of handy.

Highlights of the race itself: the pre-show with lots of inspirational stories, THE Lynda Carter counting down the start, and the TV Wonder Woman theme song playing as the race began. Along with Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia, Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman was one of my first female role models. The memories from my childhood spinning in circles in my UndeRoos came floating back up (hey, I loved those!).

The first 500 feet were about dodging and weaving — this was a great race for first timers, and there were a lot of them. The entire downtown area was closed down for the race, and we had 3 traffic lanes to spread out. My first mile came in at 9:16, but I did lose some GPS data due to the tall buildings. I was hugging the tangents as best as I could, but in doing so, I missed the first water stop — I didn’t bring water with me on this run, since I would take water on course. It probably factored in later in the race.

Mile 2 was a bit more on the downhill, and I started to struggle a little bit. I did get water at the second aid station before making the turn for the long stretch back up to Civic Center. I had to walk more than I would have liked. The gentle uphill, combined with the hot sun in my face, just zapped me. Near the finish line at the 3 mile mark was a photo opportunity — a triple archway where they have video and photographers. I did my best to smile and look like I was having fun, but I was definitely suffering. My legs felt great — slight hip issue, but nothing I couldn’t manage later with some foam rolling. My lungs and heart were bursting. My vision was blurry, and I couldn’t think straight. I had the sense to say to myself, “okay, stamina at speed. We’re going to work on that.” 

After the archway, the 5k and 10k split — the 5k to the finish, the 10k to do another loop. There was a guy with a megaphone directing traffic, getting the runners pumped up, and as I was walking to catch my breath again (I thought the arches were the finish at first, turns out I wasn’t there yet), he said “keep running! You got this!” Another woman turned around, looked at me and smiled, then beckoned to me as if to say, “Come on! Let’s finish strong!” I looked at her, tapped into the fumes of whatever I had left and said, “Let’s do this!” 

I crossed the finish line not yet knowing what I had done. My Garmin said 30:33, but that was all I looked at. I didn’t know where that fit in the grand scheme of this 15 year running journey. My mindset at the finish was just hoping to be done. When I missed that 29:29, I didn’t know what I was celebrating — where was this race going to land? How does it stack up? I rarely have this feeling, but I was so gassed I thought I would be sick at the finish line.

Several hours later, I looked up my official results. 30:09. 12th out of 173 in my age group. Top 7% overall, of women, and of 45-49 year olds. That right there put me in shock. Like, what? How? Whose stats are these?!

I poured over 7 years of Training Peaks data. I’ve run faster than this only 8 times before: in the aforementioned Boulder Sprint Tri, but the rest were in workouts — training sessions. Not one of those was a standalone 5k race. 30:09 is my fastest race effort of all time!

There is still a disbelief about this. I walked away from the finish line not knowing if I have something to celebrate or if I fell short. If I had, I might have felt better at the finish — more victorious, I guess. I don’t know.  Not bad, just that my goals weren’t completely clear to me. Almost like it was my first 5k ever…I didn’t know what to expect. I had been living at this half marathon distance for so long that a hard, fast effort was foreign to me. I didn’t have a strategy beyond trying to stay within my limits early on. I wanted to run sub-10:00 miles throughout. I wasn’t specific. When I crossed the finish line, I simply didn’t know what I had just accomplished. 

I do feel really good about this race, but almost as if it wasn’t me who ran it. Conditions were right for a strong showing — the race was smaller, the course flat, and I warmed up well. But even days after, I’m surprised and proud of this effort. A lot of those common questions run through my mind…how could I have done the race differently to finish stronger? If the temps were 5-10 degrees cooler how would that have felt? What if….

I’m spitting distance of a sub-30. I want it so bad I can taste it. Whoever this runner is, I like her.