Although I
was happy that I finished a 5K race in May, I wasn’t terribly happy with my
time. The Dan Patch 5K takes place about
2 miles from my house, so I signed up with the hope that I could finish with a
time that would make me proud.
Also, I
decided that I didn’t want to put all my eggs in one basket and only run the
Lake Marion triathlon in August. I
figured that if the weather was bad or if I monkeyed it up good, then this
would just be a big summer of disappointment.
So, I also signed up for the Chaska River City Days triathlon in July. Both are spring distances, we’ll see how it
goes.
I’ve been
splitting my days pretty evenly between run, bike and swimming. I’ve been trying to push a little faster for
the runs. I’ll don’t think I’ll ever be fast.
I think I’m just too big, and I’m scared of busting up my knees with
speed training. Anyhoo, on one training
run I hit 7:50 on the first mile out. I paid for it on the rest of the run, but
I was pretty happy with where my times were going.
Race day for
the Dan Patch was sunny, warm and little wind.
My goal was to break 26 minutes; I had gotten close to that in training
runs, but I hadn’t broken through 26. My
5K race in May was over 32 minutes.
I showed up
way too early again, and I ended up sitting, walking around and stretching in
the Lifetime Fitness parking lot for about ten minutes (registration and start
line were in the parking lot). I hadn’t
had any real pain in training coming into Dan Patch, so I was ready to hit it.
I started at
the back of the pack and decided I was going to try to get a fast first mile
out. I passed a lot of the pack in the
first quarter mile, and then settled into a pace. There was a spray paint line on the sidewalk
to indicate the one mile mark; it’s anyone’s guess how accurate that was. By my watch, I hit that mark at 7:40. That seemed fast, but I was trying to push
it. The race is mostly flat; there is a
little uphill on the second mile and a little downhill on the third mile.
When I got
to the third mile, I was tired. Several
people passed me in the last five minutes.
Once I could see the finish line I tried to speed up again, but I didn’t
have much left. As I came around the
last turn, I could see that the clock was still in the 25th minute, and I couldn’t have been more relieved.
I slowed a little as I reached the finish line, and I clocked in at
25:43 with an 8:16 pace.
Looking at
the posted results, I noticed that two guys finished at 25:44. I don’t know if they just didn’t catch me, or
if they were nice enough not to pass me at the finish line. I like to think the latter is true, and I’ll
keep that in mind if I’m ever in that position.
I would have felt pretty rotten if I had been passed right at the finish
line.
My first tri
is in a month. I’ll probably pull back
on the speed and try to get in some longer work outs. I’m glad I did this 5K; I doubt I’ll break 26
minutes again this summer.
