I’ve had the pleasure of coaching a group with Dave’s Running in prep for this race, “Ready for the Race”. Our group met twice a week for 8 weeks, and we did speedwork together. The group split between walkers/runners and the runners. Within each group we had different ranges of paces too. Race for the Cure was in downtown Toledo.

Race day was a pretty good temperature (65 degrees) and cloudy. We all gathered for a picture.

Here’s some of the coaches I got to work with. What a fun group!

I ran in celebration of my friend who had just gone through breast cancer treatment in the last year. Go survivors!!

This year I paced my friend/coworker. This was her first race so she wasn’t really sure what pace she wanted to run. No problem – the first one is always a PR! We lined up near the front because we didn’t want to do a lot of weaving. I chuckled a little when she asked if we were going to just start running fast right away when the gun went off, because she needed a little time to warm up 🙂 We actually had already done our pre-run warmup, so yep, we were going to GO!

Look at everyone behind us!

In retrospect the first mile was probably too fast. Our first mile was 9:31. I was just relying on queues from her if she seemed to be running too fast, breathing too heavy, etc. She was doing well.
Around 1.5 miles in, she needed a break. We walked for a tiny bit, then ran again. 2nd mile split: 10:47 Even though the temps were lower, the humidity was high and I was sweating!!
In our final mile she needed a couple more walk breaks. No problem – I told her to catch her breath (for a few steps) and then I told her we’d start running again in 10 seconds and I counted down. Mile 3 split: 10:59
As we approach the final stretch, we sped up. I told her to run ahead of me and pass some people. She did! Final stretch pace: 9:19!! Woohoo!! What a strong finish.

We finished in 32:30 and she was very happy. She told me she expected a 40+ mins finish time! No way! I was surprised that I was feeling good after just finishing up 49 miles for the week. Well, I did end up with some shin pain after the race, but it went away within a few hours.

When we got to work the next day, I loaned her my copy of “Train like a Mother: how to get across any finish line and not lose your family, job or sanity” (my favorite book!). 3 days after the race she told me she was starting a 10K training plan 🙂 She has caught the bug. Love it!
Q: Do you remember your first 5K? Did you surprise yourself?
Q: What is your inspirational book about running?
Congrats to your friend! There’s nothing better than watching someone catch the racing bug! I have a feeling your friend has a lot of t shirts and medals in her future;-) I signed up for my first 5k only because some friends were running it and I told them beforehand that I really hoped to finish in 36 minutes. I was shocked to end up with 32 minutes and change and got quite a bit of teasing afterwards for sandbagging.
I don’t have a go to inspirational running book, I get my running mojo from blogs and podcasts.
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I really had no idea what pace she wanted to run (or was capable of running), so this pace was a nice surprise for her. I think next time we’d stick closer to 10:00 at the start and maybe we could continue with that pace.