As the few still watching this group know I haven't been running
"anywhere near the level I want". But after moving and getting YMCA membership, I've been gaining back some incentive to run more regularly.
One of the places I run is a paved bike trail, and this is where I first saw the signs for the Lemon Trails 5K. I signed up this week and ran the race today.
The last training run where I ran 5K was a few weeks ago. It was a morning
run, but a hot morning. My pace was fairly consistent and SLOW, the
result was almost exactly 40 minutes. So my expectation this morning
was not high. All I wanted to do was get under 40 minutes for the 5K.
On the positive side I had gotten a new pair of shoes and I have a history
of improvements when running in new shoes.
Lemon Trails is chip timed and a relatively small crowd of runners. This is
the 6th year of this race. So I started near the back and let several runners pass me in the first mile or so. Somewhere near 1 mile I settled into my running stride but I worried because my split at 1k was 7:04. I worried that
I might crash from too fast a start.
But I tried to just not fall too far behind some of the runners around me. The course was out and back and it wasn't too far from 1 mile that the lead runners were coming back. So I'm thinking boy am I SLOW!
As I approached the turnaround at 2.5K, the air was cool
(Temp at start was about 65F) but the humidity was
climbing with the sun. I just concentrated on maintaining
my stride and actually began to gain on a few other runners.
I had the split times in the running app set at 1K but I wasn't really listening to the times, I just noted the splits as I ran. Sun was getting warmer on the last kilometer. Runners were spread thin at this point.
There was a pair ahead of me the I decided I would try to catch. But
they found their finishing kick I I could not gain on them.
But then a young runner passed me and i found the determination to
challenge her to the finish. I gained and nearly passed, but she looked
at me and found just a little more speed as the folks cheered us onto
the finish. She got across ahead of me and gave me a nod of respect
afterward.
What I saw on the clock shocked me. It showed 35:15! And at the results website:
https://runsignup.com/Race/Results/58967/IndividualResult/sFfY?resultSetId=393623#U76912061
it shows my chip time even better at 34:54.
In my age group, I was next to last (5/6) and the oldest male runner.
But among all participants I was middle of the pack (126/240).
That's 11:14 per mile pace (told you I was SLOW), but over a
minute per mile faster than I expected.
My run app shows my 1K splits as:
7:04 / 7:13 / 7:13 / 7:02 / 6:69
So I finished the second half of the race faster than the first half.
That tells me I may be able to do even better next time.
Well time to up my weekly time and distance! Next level training
here I come.
Enjoy the run,
Ed
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