25:40.4 (8:17/M)
This was fun. I didn't make my goal, but it was super cool to run a race in my own neighborhood with people I knew, including several family members. Here's my post-race report.
First, the finishing time: 25:40 with a pace of 8:17/M. Not bad, really.
When we got to the start, it became clear to my sister-in-law that this was a pretty serious running crowd. She was right. I saw some of my race walking buddies from work, including Dave, Cheryl, and Jack. Then Dennis and Tina were there. And Bill came with his sister. Christine and Sam ran together, and my mother-in-law Diana walked with Zoe. It was quite a crew.
Slightly after the so-called 2 mile spit, I saw Kathy, Mike, Owen, Julia, and Milo (don't forget Sadie the Scottie) along the side of the road. High fives and continue on. How cool is that?
I went without the iPod but did take the watch. The watch was pretty much useless because I missed the gun start. In the future, I might find more accurate mile markers and do splits myself. But more likely, I will just forget the watch on 5K races.
My split at Mile 1 was 8:18, which seems pretty accurate given how I felt and how the finish time went. But the split at Mile 2 was really off; the guy with the stopwatch called out "2:02, and then corrected himself to "20:02." There is no way he was standing at the 2 mile mark. I did not run the last 1.1 miles in 5:38 seconds!! The bummer about this is that I didn't realize that I was within striking distance of 25:00. The split seemed long to me, but I figured there was no way I was going to get close to 25:00. I just ran comfortably figuring that I'd finish close to my previous time of 28:08. When I got closer to the finish, I figured that the split must be wrong, so I picked it up a bit. I freaked when I saw the clock--it was still 24 something when I was able to read it.
The Finish
So, as we pulled out onto Perry Road again, I knew we were close to the finish. "The clock is only at 20 minutes?" I thought to myself. Maybe there was a lap or turn I didn't know about. But I could sense it was getting closer, so I kicked it up a bit. As we made the final turn to the finish, I could see a guy that was leading me before. He looked about my age and he also looked to be more of a serious runner than me--he had an older Free Press Marathon technical shirt on. I locked on to him and tried to hold him.
As we got closer to the finish clock, I knew I should go faster, but I didn't think I had it in me. I wasn't motivated by a good time, so I was just taking it easy. Then I could make out the "24" on the clock. "Shit!" I thought to myself. I know I could have made up extra seconds since that last split. Oh, well. Then this guy Dennis from work sees me. He and his wife both work at the college--they are very cool and serious runners. I hear Dennis yell "Go Steve! You can take him! Push it!" I was trying to speed up anyway, but I went for it and tried to reel in Free Press Marathon Guy. He sensed this and kicked it up. "Come on, Steve! Go!" Dennis yells. I caught him and just passed him over the chip sensor. In the results, our times are one tenth of second apart! As it turns out, he was in the higher age group, so our little sprint didn't impact the outcome. Had I been in the 45-49 group, my sprint would have saved me from a last place finish by a tenth of a second. As it turns out, only 5 guys in the 41-44 group ran. I came in second.
So my overall place was 59 out of 99. I was second in my age group. And I improved my previous 5K time by 2:28. And, I didn't get hurt. Not so bad.
And the best part? I am looking forward to getting up tomorrow to run an easy 6 miles.
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