Summary: A solid race for me and a small (6-second) PR in the 5k - 16:29. 7th out of 2500+ runners. Ran even splits, passed a ton of people, and had a respectable kick. The time was quite a bit faster than I was expecting given that I haven't done too much speedwork yet and that I had a rough last week in terms of training, motivation, and injuries. This was the first of a number of larger regional races I'm doing this fall. --- Got up at 5:20 and jogged 2 miles. Achilles was similar to last couple of days, stiff and slightly sore. Stretched and ate my usual pre-race breakfast of oatmeal, banana, and tea. Unusually, did not hit the john before I left. Drove up to New Haven (about 60 miles) and got there about 7:30. Hit the john first thing there in a big way. Got registered, etc. Around 8 got a call from Kevin (running the 20k today) that Chris (planning to run the 5k) had overslept after staying up half the night fixing a leaky pipe and wouldn't make the start. Bummer! Met Kevin for a short warm up and made my way to the starting line for some strides. The race organizers brought in Ryan Shay's dad to present the awards this year because Ryan was a past 20k winner and I think he did the race every year. His dad was saying a few words before the gun when I noticed I was missing my chip - it had fallen off my shoelace. I momentarily freaked and ran out past the start line to look for it where I'd been doing strides, but I couldn't find it. Later I realized I just hadn't tied it on right. That's totally uncharacteristic of me because I never lose things and I usually triple-check everything. I was mad at myself but decided to just run as I would have anyway and get the time from my Garmin even though I probably wouldn't show up in the official results. I was happy with myself for putting that out of my mind and just focusing on the race.
The weather was about 70, sunny, with a slight breeze and the course was flat and paved - in other words, conditions were fast. At the gun it took me a couple of seconds to get out of the crowd since I sort of lost my spot when I went searching for my missing chip, and I was about 5 rows back. Tried not to trample all the little kids that lined up in front. (On the one hand, it kind of irks me that race directors let kids line up in front, but on the other hand I sometimes line up behind them on purpose because it helps me not get carried away and go out too fast.)
When the dust settled after the first turn a couple hundred meters in I started moving up. After that point I didn't get passed by a single person the whole rest of the way. The course winds through New Haven, which besides Yale is really an awful place and I wouldn't recommend going there to anyone. I hit the mile in 5:16 and felt about as I expected I would. At that point I was pretty sure I was going to easily hit my goal of 17:00 unless something really went wrong. In the 2nd mile I continued to pass people (mostly HS kids) and tried not to let myself get comfortable. Came through in 10:40 for a 5:24 split and I think that mile was slightly uphill. The whole last mile was a straight shot into the finish line and it was slightly downhill. Kept moving up and hit 5:17 for that mile. The last tenth was at 4:38/mile pace according to the Garmin and I chased down a guy from quite a ways back and nipped him at the finish line. The Garmin had the course at 3.12 miles (it's certified) and a time of 16:29. Afterwards I felt like I had run a solid race but I wasn't collapsing at the finish line or anything, so I wouldn't say it was all out. Met up with Chris who had finally arrived, then we watched the elites come in in the 20k race and cheered for Kevin who had a good race in 1:21 for 20k. When we checked out the unofficial results, I didn't expect my name to be on there (either that or "Unknown Runner") on account of my missing chip, but they had me in 6th place in 16:18. I guess they got my bib number, but not sure how they came up with that time and place. But I'm taking my Garmin time of 16:29, and since there were 6 runners in the results faster than that, I'm gonna say I got 7th. 3 of the runners ahead were HS kids.
After the race we hung around the New Haven Green for a long time and talked. Gradually all the yuppie runners left and the alcoholics, junkies, and hoboes filtered back in. Around 1pm Chris and I headed into the countryside to his co-worker's house where he had procured a party invitation. Ate, drank, and played tennis until it got dark. Won all my matches, both singles and doubles. Pretty awesome day. Ended up not falling asleep till 3am. Oh yeah, I was talking to a woman I didn't know at this party about the race and I used the term "get chicked" which I picked up from reading this blog, and let me just say, that did not go over well...
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