Predators Fangtastic 5K

Bib number and my Garmin

This is one of my absolutely favorite races around town. You pay the same price as you would for any other 5K ($35, which is absolutely ridiculously expensive for a 5K) and get a t-shirt (that's always one I'll wear), a voucher for a ticket to a Predators game of your choosing (from the 3 available dates), bagels and fruit from Whole Foods, and today a $25 discount for AdventureWorks and coupons for Whole Foods and other things. It is worth the money for me for the $30 Preds ticket I get out of it; everything else is a fantastic extra.

They changed the course this year, and I really had no idea what to expect time-wise. I thought it would be slightly harder and thus slower, but for me it definitely was not. Hooray! I ran my fastest time in this race by almost 20 seconds, and that is with absolutely no specific speed training; 2010 is probably the year I was most specifically training because Will was here to train me from November–January, and today's time beat that time. Plus I haven't been under 23 minutes since the middle of 2009, which means it's been almost 3 years And I ran pretty consistent, too. Here are my times from previous years compared to this year:

2-04-12: 22:53
2-12-11: 23:27
2-06-10: 23:12
2-14-09: 23:49

Also, it turns out that when I run pretty consistent mile times, I finish well overall and in my age group. Today I was the 16th female of 732 finishers and though the preliminary results list said I finished 5th in my AG, I got a medal for 3rd of 149 because the first two were overall winners; I'm glad I stuck around! This is my first time placing in my AG in this race, and I got a sweet hockey puck medal.

Sweet medal!

Here is the route:

I ended up running a bit before and a bit after the race to get 6.5 miles. I was supposed to run 45 minutes today, so I wanted to get that in all at one time. I headed up Demonbreun again, against the finishing runners but out of there way, and then ran back down with the 4X:xx finishers. It's a whole different world at the back of a race—lots more conversation and walking!

Here are my race stats and my HR data: 3.17 miles, 22:53 (7:23 pace; 5:42 best), ~180 bpm (196 max), 657' ascent, 982' descent.

Here's the data from the 5 miles that included the race and from the 1.25 miles before that; I didn't record the final 0.25 to get me to 6.5 because I was freezing and didn't want to turn my Garmin back on:

5 miles, 42:41, 8:32 pace, 174 bpm (197 max), 1488' ascent, 1734' descent
Mile 1: 7:11
Mile 2: 7:27
Mile 3: 7:10
Mile 3.17: 1:04 (6:27 pace)
Mile 4.17: 11:50
Mile 5: 6:25 (8:36 pace)
1.25 mile warmup: 15:18, 12:11 pace, 93 bpm, 1569; ascent, 1191' descent

Comparison notes:
2012: 1465 finishers (732 females and 733 males); 3/149 in AG; 16/732 females; 97/1465 overall.
2011: 946 finishers (515 females and 431 males); 4/115 in AG; 16/515 females; 79/946 overall.
2010: 1206 finishers (660 females and 546 males); 3/174 in AG; 14/660 females; 86/1,206 overall.
2009: 1504 finishers (782 females and 722 males); 3/185 in AG, 39/782 females; 161/1,504 overall.