5.56 mi, 47:35, 8:33 avg
Race splits: 6:42, 6:45, 6:38, 0:37 (0.1 mi @5:58)
Today's race was good. Although only a few seconds faster than the Lutz July 4th 5K, and only 6 seconds faster than the Turkey Trot last November, the splits were more even with the third mile the fastest. I raced it a bit conservative, not knowing what I had to work with and having done a long run with some faster miles yesterday. But, the weather was good with temperatures dropping slowly from when we left the house to when the race started (front was moving in).
I missed this race last year for the NYC marathon and boys and their mom were in Texas for their grand father's funeral. I wished I could have raced this one last year, but I was determined to race this year. Tom was considering running this one but decided on a long run instead of racing. But, Jacob was excited to run this one having just wrapped up his first cross country season. Also, I had previously given him one of my shirts from a previous race here and he was looking forward to getting his own shirt.
We warmed up a bit, a little over a mile and discussed race strategy. Jacob was hoping to break 22:00. We said we'd go out at 7:00, try and do at least 7:15 for mile 2, and pick it up and run mile 3 faster. Plan changed once we got started, running in the 6:40's instead. We stuck together for the first mile. I told him to just go with that and hang on. After the first mile, we drifted apart maybe around 1.5 miles, but he wasn't far behind. I did slow a little for the second mile. But, the third mile felt good and without having to scrape found a little more speed and gradually went below 6:40 pace.
Jacob finished in 21:25, a good bit better than he had hoped for and also good for 3rd place in his age group. 10-14 can be competitive sometimes, and today there was freshman cross country runner from River Ridge HS running an 18:21, and Jolene's 11 year old son was there running a 20:47. I was way off from getting the master's award since Ryan was there and had one of his best 5k's in a while at 18:59, and apart from him there was Jason W coming in at 19:51 (and taking top PHSC Staff catagory). Ryan was wearing his new fancy Nike racers which he said were only good for 100 miles so it comes out to $2.50/mile, so right after the race he switched out of them to run a cool down.
Maybe next year for Tom and/or Andy and a repeat from Jacob.
For me, it felt like with some 5k focus I could be eyeing sub-20:00 again soon, maybe at the Turkey Trot.
| 