Where's the Donuts?

Jingle Bell Run 5k

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Location:

WA,

Member Since:

Feb 10, 2007

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Local Elite

Running Accomplishments:

I was an 800/1500 runner in high school and college, with PRs of 1:55 and 4:08. I've run as fast as 16:15 for 5k and 1:20 for a half, but my bests in recent years are 17:07 5k (Dec. '11), 37:40 10k (Jan. '12), 1:23:49 half (Sept. '08), 2:53:12 marathon (September '10), and 4:45:06 50k (March '10).

Short-Term Running Goals:

Late 2015/2016 races: 

— Seattle Soltice 10k (Dec. 19)

— Nookachamps half marathon (Jan. 16)

— Toyko Marathon (Feb. 28) 

Personal:

I'm an editor at a newspaper in Bremerton, Washington and head coach of the Bremerton Jaguars youth track and field team.

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Race: Jingle Bell Run 5k (3.1 Miles) 00:17:07, Place overall: 3, Place in age division: 1
Total Distance
7.00

An odd afternoon start for the inaugural Jingle Bell Run in Port Orchard. This is one of those national fundraiser runs, I'm actually doing the Seattle version next week with my cousin. But since it took place on the Slug training course I couldn't say no. Mike and Brian joined me. 

Good winter afternoon to run: temp around 40, cloudy sky but no precipitation. It just felt Christmassy, and most of the runners had some goofy elf outfit or Santa hat on. Not me though. 

We let the high school kids sprint the first 400 as usual, then a pack of four pulled ahead and Mike and I stayed together 40 yards behind. We kept a good pace and stayed in touch, didn't rush and let the leaders drop. I left Mike at the two-mile mark or so (no markers, this was actually an extremely simple and unorganized race -- at the start, because they had so many more people show up than expected, the organizer finally just said 'no more numbers, just go run.') After leaving Mike I picked off two guys, then chased down second place and just about caught him. 75 more meters and he was mine, I ended back 3 seconds. (The winner ran away from us though, 16:37.) Then I got interviewed for the local online radio show (with tough questions like, "Is it cold out there?" and "You wore shorts?"), and went and bought a post-race donut from the bakery down the block.

As I sit here I'm a little peeved to not break 17 minutes, because I seem to be a little stuck there. But for a winter run without any recent speed work or even that many miles, it was pretty encouraging to stick that pace. So I'll take that, and decide this week whether next week's Jingle Bell will be an attack on 17 minutes or a fun jog with my cousin.

Comments
From Jon on Sun, Dec 04, 2011 at 10:00:21 from 98.71.184.216

The post-race donut is a good idea. Maybe a pre-race donut will give you the power to break 17.

From David Nelson on Sun, Dec 04, 2011 at 12:39:51 from 50.135.121.98

You know, the bakery was on the race course. Maybe someone could have been out aiding me with a donut at the 2 mile mark.

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