18:17! I am fast!
So here's the recap of my race. It was a pretty big race with lots of fast high school kids and adults. I was rocking my Asics Sortie Supermagic 2s, which weigh like -5 oz. The start area was pretty crowded and I wasn't able to slide up to the front. When the gun went off, a bunch of stupid middle school age or so kids that shouldn't have been in the front fell down right by the timing mat. The first wave of runners got off clean, but I was stuck for about 10 seconds. Luckily I didn't cross the mat so my time wasn't affected. I felt bad for the kids, but the announcer mentioned like 100 times for them to move back and for the fastest runners to be up front. Anyway, I had to do a lot of zigging and zagging for the first 600 meters or so. I wanted to make sure I didn't fall of my goal pace of 6:00 for my first mile. The course was really flat and had a reputation for being fast. At mile 1 I came through at 6:05, which was good considering the mess at the beginning. I now began focusing on passing runners cuz I knew if I wasn't passing runners, I was slowing down. Legs were feeling great so I continued to up the pace and drop other runners. Mile 2 came in at 5:56, putting me at 12:01. We took one final turn and I knew we were on the final straightaway. This was the moment of the race where I realized my goal was within reach and I decided to go for it. I started to feel the pain in my legs but I still felt really strong. I couldn't help but glance at my watch a few times to see how many more minutes of running I would have to struggle through. As I closed in on the finish, I didn't feel like I had a big kick in me but I was passing some runners and other runners were catching me. When I approached the first finishing mat I saw 18:0x and I surged to the second mat, hitting a time of 18:17. My final 1.1 mile split was 6:16(5:42 pace). It was a great feeling to finally have everything come together in a race. The course could have been a bit short like I said in the comments, but I know I was in shape to run about this fast. I'm psyched to have a new PR!
12:15 wup ~1.3 mi
5k in 18:17 (6:05, 5:56, 6:16(1.1 mi))
6:36 cd ~.6 mi
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Haha are you sure the course wasn't short? Just kidding - nice work man! I definitely have some work to do to catch you now...
ReplyDeletethis was troubling me somewhat before you mentioned it. i had a feeling it might be a bit short because a friend of mine measured the course with his gps beforehand and said it was a bit short. then again, it's known to be a fast, flat course, it's a really competitive, deep field, the race is sanctioned by USATF (not the same as course certification I guess) and gps isn't 100% accurate. i know for sure i was in shape to run around 18:30, so 18:17 is definitely in the realm of possibility. no matter how you slice it, it was a big PR. it's kind of cool that it is a PR by exactly one minute! anyway, time for you to step the mileage Chris!
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