5K PR?

So I might have set a 5k PR last Monday.

I have a rule with myself that the closer a race is to my house, the more I feel I need to do it. Currently, there's a 4 miler four miles from my house and a 5k three miles from my house - both of which I always hit. On Memorial Day, the Run for Literacy 5k debuted, just two miles from my driveway. How do you say no?

Like most first year races, it was small, with only 102 finishers. I had a goal of 19:30, but felt it would take a great run to get there. When I hit the mile mark at 5:52, I knew it was either a great mile or a stupid start.

The course was flat and fast and I went through the 2 mile mark at 12:20.

Since the beginning I hadn't done much passing. I'd settled in at 10th place, well behind the lead pack, but well ahead of the main pack, which is pretty much where I always am. Around the 2.2 mile mark, though, I saw one of the high school kids in the main pack falling back and I made a move on him. I surged twice but he pushed back both times, not wanting to let me ahead. But knowing that if it came down to a kick he'd bury me, I surged once more and left him behind.

In the end, they had me at 19:25. However, the Garmin also had me at 3.03 miles, so it's hard to say. It felt like a 5k, though, so I'll take it.

*
Tomorrow is the Lancaster Red Rose Run. As I've heard (and since said) many times, it's kind of the prom for Lancaster County Runners. The five mile course is awful (all uphill the final two) and the weather is almost universally hot and humid. But just as you generally go to your prom, most of the runners in Lancaster will be there if for no reason than to see every finisher's name and time in the Sunday paper.

Last year I limped home to a 33:48 finish and I'm not too sure that tomorrow will be much different. My plan is to run the first two miles around 6:20 each, though it should feel like 6:30's given the fast downhill start. I'd like to not fall apart so bad on the third mile this year, though that part of the course (which I often train on) seems to be a dead spot for the Garmin. All in all, I'd like to get under 33 minutes, but this likely isn't the course for it, so I'll go out like an idiot and see what happens.

Comments

  1. jpnairn10:48 AM

    Congratulations on your 5K PR! Sometimes you run a race and know they measured it wrong, but the difference between 3.03 and 3.1 miles is well within the margin of error of the Garmin, so I would say it counts. Good job!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amy Glass1:42 PM

    Congrats on your 5K PR!!

    ReplyDelete

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