Piper’s PR at the St. Agnes 5K

Today Piper earned herself a new 5K record of 22:43! That time came within 5 seconds of my own personal best, which I set on a PR-friendly, point-to-point net downhill course in December. With that in mind, I’m going to consider today’s finish at the St. Agnes 5K my own new “loop course” personal best as well, albeit with an asterisk next to it for *Piper-assisted. 😄

As the asterisk indicates, I do know that at least some of our speedy time can be attributed to the fact that Piper sets a grueling pace and pulls me forward just a little bit throughout the entire race. (Except when we passed a cat in the first mile, then she pulled left!) Piper is a very serious running buddy who never lunges at other dogs, never veers off course, and never, ever stops to sniff or pee during a run. Once we’re moving Piper rarely breaks out of her rapid-fire trot stride; all she wants to do is go, go, GO!!

Here we are near the halfway point. Piper’s tongue is making a rare appearance. (Photo credit: St. Agnes 5K)

So about the race… As is usually the case, I wanted to avoid running the first mile too quickly. I mentally set a goal of 7:40 and began the race with Piper at my side, way out to the left of the field (the first turn is a right). Piper snorted and urged me forward but I kept our speed to a comfortable jog and let other runners and lots of kids move out in front of us. We cruised down a hill and along a flat section of road before my watch beeped a 7:19 first split. Too fast! But it felt SO EASY!

I’ve started many past races too quickly and, after seeing the first mile split, justified my actions by thinking “maybe today will be the day that I go out really fast and actually maintain it for a 5K!!” Until today, however, every time I’ve thought this I’ve been dead wrong. Instead of magically maintaining a too-fast first mile pace I end up struggling through a painful second and third mile and later kick myself for blowing it at the start. But not today… today I actually DID maintain that pace AND got even faster as the race went on!

Piper and I cruised through some uphill and downhill during mile 2, and soon I was smiling to myself as my watch beeped a 7:18 second mile split. I joyfully took a break from my near-constant commentary of “heel!” and “Piper, WAIT!” to tell Piper she was a good girl. Then we blasted into mile 3. At this point I knew that we were likely on pace to beat my previous “loop” 5K PR of 23:17, but I didn’t think that I could realistically manage to run any faster than a 7:18 third mile.

But run faster we did! Piper and I somehow sped up, passed two guys on a long straightaway, and powered into the final incline up Market Street to the finish line. With the end of the race in sight my Garmin notified me that we had covered our third mile in an unbelievable 7:13 (7:13!!!) and that gave me the oomph to push up the hill and cross the finish line. As I bent over to catch my breath I looked at Piper and realized that she wasn’t even panting. What a show off! 😄

Pipe and I cooled down together, then she got to meet lots of little kids and happily accepted many pets and hugs in exchange for her hard work on the race course. Our 22:43 finish time put us 34th overall and 8th female (well, 9th for me, technically speaking) and I belatedly realized that I also won my age group. Cool! Most of all, I am just thrilled to have had such a great experience with my lovely pup this morning and I look forward to many more runs (and hopefully more races if the weather stays cold!) together this spring.