Greg's Running Blog

The weekend before last I ran a 5K on a whim and ended with a PR of 19:05 that was 24 seconds better than my last one.

Last weekend I had a planned 5K and I hoped to beat that 5K time. I had high hopes due to the nature of the course. It was an A to B course with 140 ft of elevation drop in mile 2 on an otherwise pretty much flat course which kind of lends itself to a PR. I also knew that the race was a well established race, this was the 12th year for it with some pretty good times and good turnout so I knew that pace would be set for me by some other runners.

It was another one of those gun time start, chip time finish races so I made sure to start from the front of the pack. Since I also had a 10K race coming up on Monday I knew that I wanted to keep my legs intact as much as possible and I promised myself that I would not go out too fast at the beginning. I certainly tried to stick with that plan but I still clocked my first half mile at 5:40 minutes/mile pace. It was most definitely faster than anticipated even though I let a whole bunch of people go early on. I have decided to run my own race instead of trying to keep up with the front runners early on.

My second 0.5 mile split was ran at a more modest 5:54 pace which was exactly in the ballpark for my target goal. It felt pretty easy actually even though this was the one segment in the race with a small climb. My split for the first mile was 5:47.

My second mile was the one that contained the huge elevation drop of 140 ft and it certainly showed in my pace as I have managed to eke out a 5:41 for the second mile.

By the time I hit the third mile my legs started to feel tired and worn out. But I was proud that no one has passed me since the start and I have picked off a couple of guys every mile. It clearly showed that I have paced myself well when compared to the other runners around me. I kept on motoring and reeling in some people. This segment of the course was pretty much flat with just a tiny bump around the 2.8 miles mark. That was actually the point where I have decided to start my final kick and I averaged 5:38 min/mile for the last quarter mile. My third mile split was a 6:03 which was still not too far off from my otherwise great pace.

I crossed the finish line 13/517 overall and got 2nd out of 18 for my age group. 16:36 won the race and my AG winner got 17:25 and finished 7th. My time was still a great PR at 18:13 which is a new PR by over 50 seconds from last weekend. It really felt awesome to break 19 minutes as well as run a sub 6 minute pace for the run. Granted that the course was super fast with the steep decline but I still think I would have PR had it been a flat course without the drop.

The best part was that unlike after last weekend’s 5K where I got some pretty bad calf cramps after the race, this time I felt great and rested. Instead of taking the shuttle back to the start I just jogged back with the winner and the master’s winner and had a great talk with them. They were some really nice guys and quite inspirational to see them kick my buttocks at age 40 and 48! There is certainly something to look forward to!

I wasn’t the only family member who raced this weekend. I have signed my son up to run the 1 mile fun run again and while I was going to let him do it by himself my wife didn’t let that happen so she and my daughter also came and they all ran the 1 mile event. My son had a blast all the way until the end of the 1 mile. Unfortunately the race was not very well organized and they didn’t really have a 1 mile finish, the 1 mile people were just simply supposed to run up to the 1 mile mark on the 3.1 mile course and stop in the middle of the road. The race director should go and try to explain to a 5 year old why he needs to stop while everyone else is zipping by. I don’t envy my wife for having had to deal with that situation at the 1 mile point. But I’m still very proud of my family that they came out and ran/jogged/walked the race.