Carlsbad 5000 Race Report

This was the second year in a row that we camped down at the beach during the Carlsbad 5000 race weekend. We love to camp with family & friends and with races back to back days - it made sense to do it again and I'm glad we did. There were about 15 of us that camped down at South Carlsbad State Beach and it was fun to hang out, actually take in some nice weather and relax a little before I get serious for Xterra Vegas this weekend. I didn't really have many expectations for Carlsbad; the last time I did a 5k on the road was last summer when I was still out of shape so I decided to just take in the weekend, enjoy the kids and Amy's race and just have fun racing.

Saturday we took the kids over for the Junior Carlsbad race. They were both in the Diaper Dash. For those of you that have kids, I highly recommend taking them to this race. It is so much fun seeing so many little ones running around excited about running! I really think it helps set the foundation for them too for when they get older that exercising is fun. Scarlett and Taylor where ready to rock with the new capes Amy made them. The Diaper dash is just a 100 meter race on a mat (in case they fall) and with Scarlett being her 2nd year running it, she was giving T some tips. There was a big group of us there cheering on our kids and they each both got a medal and some snacks at the end and overall I think they had a blast. Here's a few more pics of the race:

Scarlett running after dad. Wow, fast!

Taylor boy running in with mom

Collecting their hardware

Later after their race I wanted to get out for an open water swim. I haven't swim in my wetsuit since September so I wanted to get a feel for the open water again (especially how cold it is). Probably wasn't the safest thing to go solo, but I had a few strong swimmers on shore keeping an eye on me in case things turned ugly! The water kinda took my breath away, but I got in some time in the suit, felt pretty strong for the most part and it felt good to give my legs a bit of an ice bath the day before the race.

The orange cap came in handy

Heading out in some choppy water



Scarlett (like daddy) needed to get in a 2nd workout after the race and went all the way up the stairs on all 4!

 That night we cooked up some good food, had some beers and laughed really hard at some of the games going on:

This game is called "Ball Tangle"

Now for the race. We headed over to the course (which was about 5 mins away) and I started warming up. My legs felt a little heavy from being on my feet so much over the past few days - but I didn't let it bother me. My goal was to just go out around 5:15 and just see how I felt. Sure enough I hit the 1st mile in 5:15 on the dot, made the first turn and started picking it up a bit. The thing about this course is--even though they say it's the "Worlds fastest 5k" it is deceivingly slow. There are a lot of rolling hills throughout, including the hill as you make your way to mile 2. I hit the 2 mile mark in around 10:30---still on pace even though the effort was way harder than the first mile. I opened up my stride a bit on the little down hill before you make the u-turn and make your way towards the final turn.

With the wifey after the raceRockin the new
headband I got the day before at the EXPO
and my new Rudy Project Swifty's

I just worked on my cadence and passed a lot of people. I felt like I was just getting started to race when the final stretch came and I had to kick it in. I finished in 16:30 flat and was a bit disappointed at first. Even though I posted 16:20 last week as a goal, I really feel like I am in 16:00 shape. Of course the camping, the sun, the beers and fun probably had a toll on my effort -but I got over it. I haven't really been putting in much speed work -and I know my bread and butter workout to get in 5k shape is 30X200 and I haven't done that in years! I really feel like I could have maintained 5:18 pace for another 2 miles which is a good sign. It's funny when I ran the 800 and mile in college I used to think a 5k was an "endurance race" - now I feel like it's a sprint. All of my training definitely points at longer events. I'll get a serious test this weekend at Vegas with a 1500 meter swim (just short of a mile), 18.6 mile mountain bike ride and a TOUGH 10k trail run. After my race, I had my 2 free Pizza Port beers with some friends that tasted extra good with my over 30 PR and then went to go cheer Amy on. She has been struggling with some cramping and rib issues - but was so pumped to race. I actually ended up jumping in the race with her to pace her a few times during the race - I figured the worst thing they could do it to tell me to step off. She had a monster PR (beating her time by like 10 minutes from last year! I was so proud of her all of my other friends that raced and overall just had a great weekend.

Time to get ready to charge Vegas this weekend!