Running Scared 5K 2009
Yesterday I raced the Running Scared 5K, my second race since knee surgery, and my first race since early June. The Running Scared 5K is put on by the City of Watauga’s Parks and Community Services folks, and is held at the city’s Community Center. This was the 3rd year for the race, and while it is a small race, it is growing at healthy rate. It’s well organized, with mile markers, and times being called out to runners at each mile. Though this year’s race was hand-timed, I hear that they are looking at being chip-timed and having the course certified for next year.
Unlike past races, in the lead up to the Running Scared 5K, I didn’t openly obsess about my goals, pace strategies, etc. Instead, I spent the week leading up to the race in a quiet “preparation” mode, so much so that Julie was surprised that I was even racing. Even in the day before and the morning of the race, I never mentioned anything other than what time the race started, and when I wanted to leave the house. I’m sure Julie wondered who kidnapped her husband, but not wanting to jumpstart my obsessing, she kept quiet. While I haven’t been putting in any structured training, I did have some specific goals for this race:
- Sub-24:00 – This was my “the race exceeded all possible expectations” goal.
- New P.R. (24:56, set 6/6/09) – This is what I expected to do. I had 24:30 in mind.
- Anything slower than 25:00 – This would be a disappointing result, given the course and expected conditions.
Saturday morning was a typical race-day morning, it just got started a little later than normal. One thing I really like about the Running Scared 5K is its 9 AM start time. That, coupled with its close proximity to our house, makes it a perfect race option. After a leisurely breakfast of toast and peanut butter, and a little water, I got dressed, and we headed to the start. With the temperature in the mid-40s at 8 AM, I found another reason to be glad for the 9 AM start. Once we arrived at the Watauga Community Center, I swapped my Youth Large t-shirt for an Adult Large, found a restroom, and then headed out to warm up. After a quick change of shoes from my New Balance 758s to my Zoot Ultra TT 2.0s, I headed to the start, a couple of blocks away.
Being a small race, and knowing it was hand-timed, I made a point to line up closer than normal to the starting line. After a few words from the race director, the gun fired, and we were off. As the mass of runners surged, a woman right in front of me, running with her dog, did a perfect Superman impersonation, as she face planted and then slid several feet. With a quick jump, I narrowly avoided going down too (I hope she’s okay). There was a nice little rise in the first quarter mile, which I hardly noticed due to surge of adrenaline, and the downhill that followed allowed me to settle into a nice pace, and begin passing as many people as possible. I came through mile one in 7:50, feeling pretty good.
For the second mile, the race veers off of the road, and onto a paved path around a small lake. As I moved from the road to the parking lot, I caught my left foot on some uneven pavement, and nearly did a face plant of my own. Fortunately I was able to catch myself, and barely broke stride. Mile 2 was almost entirely around the lake, and was mostly rolling. I was able to continue passing people, and avoid being passed. In fact, after the initial surge of the “sprint and die” crowd at the start, I was not passed. I finished mile 2 in 7:55, and was really starting to feel the effort.
With the start of mile 3, I headed back out on the road for the return trip to the community center, and the finish line. Within a couple of minutes I passed the last female that I would see out on the course. Unlike the xSIGHTment 5K Run, I would not get “chicked” in the Running Scared 5K. At this point I was really starting to feel the effects of the hard effort, and I can’t help but think about the downhill near the start that now becomes the uphill near the finish. To take my mind off of it, I began focusing on picking off the remaining runners on the road ahead of me. Before I knew it, I was approaching the 3 mile mark, which is usually where I start my finishing kick. However, the hill took so much out of me, that I just wanted to stop. I passed the mile 3 marker in 7:57, and did my best to imitate a kick to the finish. It took some loud cheering from Julie, and seeing how close I was to 24:30, to finally muster up any semblance of a kick, but I did it. The final .11 of a mile took 45 seconds, for a 6:37 pace—not that great. In the end I finished in 24:28—a new P.R. by 28 seconds!
Based on last year’s results, I knew that my time could be good enough for 2nd in my Age Group, and possibly even a spot in the top 10. Unfortunately with the growth of the race, there were nearly twice as many runners as in the previous year, and I ended up 4th in my Age Group, and 18th overall. On the bright side, I did finish ahead of the overall female winner—a first for me.
Here’s the Garmin data from the race: http://bit.ly/RunningScared5K-2009.
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Bryan
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First Pass At 2010 Race Schedule
Planning out a race schedule for the year isn’t something that I’ve done in my short time running, but it’s something I’m going to do in 2010.
In 2008, my first full year of running, I raced six 5Ks, and one 10K. I also registered for a half marathon, and made it through 9 weeks of a 16 week training plan before a knee injury eventually derailed my training. Through it all I remain motivated, in part because I had something to train for. Since starting my comeback, following knee surgery this past February, my running has been fairly unstructured, and I’ve sometimes found myself lacking motivation. Along the way, I’ve only raced once—a 5K (and a PR, by the way).
While I do enjoy running just to run, I miss racing. I want to race more. However, every time I find a race that could work, I find an excuse to make it not work. Part of it has to do with not having had any structured training, and of not having the confidence to give it a go. Racing more often, and having a training plan that is structured around a race schedule, should help me to feel prepared and confident. Also, I imagine that registering for races as soon as registration opens will prevent me from backing out at the last minute, and save some money in the form of reduced registration fees.
Without further ado, here’s what I’m thinking for 2010:
Do you have any suggestions for my schedule? Races I must do? Exotic locations to travel to? One thing to keep in mind regarding races requiring travel is that Julie and I are expecting a baby around April 19th.
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Bryan
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Site Updates
Just a quick note in case you notice anything crazy going on…
I’ve been making some small changes to my site over the last couple of days. You might have noticed the little Twitter-like bird poking its head through the page—it’s new, as is the Twitter feed. Gone is the Facebook feed.
I’ve also added support for Gravatars. If you don’t have one, go get one. Now! Of course, you’ll only notice the Gravatars if people comment, and nobody does that anymore. It might help if I post more often.
Finally, I’ve started messing around with some jQueryUI stuff. So far, I’m only testing on the Archives page.
I think that covers it. Don’t be surprised if the entire site gets torn down—it’s been that long since I last updated it. Don’t worry, I’ll rebuild it.
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Bryan
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6:56 PM
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