A race within a race.

As a way of involving both the local community and those travelling to Oregon from out of town to watch the Athletics World Champs, Asics put on a 5K race within the Men’s Marathon race. I was kindly gifted a bib to the race.

Uplift Oregon 5K Race Recap

How it worked

The Men’s Marathon race started at 6.15am. The runner’s cheered the elites over the start line. Then quickly lined up behind the same start/finish line to run our 5K.

Whilst the men ran the 14km looped route, we started our 5K loop through Alton Baker Park (home to the infamous Pre’s Trail).

Cortney and I had done a half mile warm up prior to the race. So we were ready to go when the gun went. With a hard 31 minute cut off time for our 5K (before the men would come through the course), everyone took off…fast.

My plan had been to just hold steady around 7.30- 7.45 min mile pace and use it as my tempo run. I always feel like my heart rate skyrockets when I start out a tempo run, or start any race really! It takes me a couple of minutes of running to settle into a rhythm, breathing less heavily and hitting a more even pace.

Wearing Sweaty Betty shorts, Asics Novoblast 2 (review coming soon!)

Of course, because I was in a race I couldn’t not pick up the pace in the final stretch.

Mile 1: 7.37

Mile 2: 7.33

Mile 3: 7.36

0.1 6.09

I finished the race, picked up my medal and some water then headed back to the finish line to catch Cortney crossing the finish line with a 1 min+ PB! Amazing what you can do when there’s a hard cut off time!

After our race, we cashed in our free coffee tokens at the finish line festival included in the $50 entry fee along with a t-shirt, medal, and food tokens. Unfortunately there only seemed to have salad bowl options which at 7am, I was not in the mood for. Instead, we cheered on the rest of the men’s marathon before going for post-run pancakes. And then to Hayward Field to watch more athletics.

More to come on our experience at the World Champs!