Armadillo Run 5k

Time: 19:49
Overall: 8 out of 360
Age Group: 2nd Place

I had a much better race today. I’m not sure if it was just getting the first 5k out of the way last week or taking 2 days off before the race.

The race had the 5k and 10k start at the same time. At about the 1.5 mile mark the 5k runners turn back and head to the finish. Up until that point you don’t know who is running which race.

My race plan today was to start a little easier than last week. My first split ended up being a 6:15 which was a little slower than last week. But unlike last week I felt pretty good. There were about 13 runners ahead of me but I didn’t know which race they were running so I stayed in the group that I was with. As I approached the turnaround nearly everyone that was near me was running the 5k. At that point I knew that I was in 10th place.

I had no shot of catching the 4-5 lead runners but I felt that if I hung with the other runners I could out kick them at the finish. My second split was 6:23. I was a little surprised because I felt like I pulled back a little more than that. As I made the final turn with around ½ mile left I was able to pass 2 more runners to put myself in 8th place. Besides the guy who was right in front of me it looked like all of the lead runners were under 40 (which turned out not to be the case) so if I could overtake him I would get the top masters award. As I hit the 3 mile mark at 19:08 (6:30 split) I gave everything I had left and was able to pass him but at the same time a young kid that I had just recently passed came flying by the both of us and beat me out for 7th place.

When the overall results were posted 5 of the 7 runners ahead of me were in their 40’s.

Overall I was satisfied with my race. I beat last week’s time by 30 sec and just missed tying my PR by 2 sec. It will be a while before I run a competitive 5k again (July 4th weekend maybe) so I may have to settle for this as my top 5k of the year. I have 2 marathons in the next 10 weeks to focus on now.

Results

Armadillo Run

Boston Marathon #12354

The Boston Marathon has finally announced race number assignments. My number is 12354 which means that I had the 12,354th best qualifying time (and missed a very cool number by 9 places) putting me just inside the top half. All numbers under 14000 will start in wave 1.

I can’t believe that the race is only 1 month from tomorrow. I still have a lot of training to get in so I know that 1 month will fly by and before I know it I’ll be boarding the plane heading to Boston.

Weekly summary 3/15/09

Weekly Total 37.4
Tuesday 8.71
Wednesday 7.76
Thursday 5.2
Friday 5.63
Sunday 1, 3.1, 6.03
Average pace 7:19

Last week was my lowest weekly total in a long time. Easing up on the miles didn’t help my 5k time though. For the week I focused more on increasing the speed of my runs. My weekly average pace was 7.09, not counting my easy runs on Sunday, and 7.19 overall. Overall I was pain free this week. My heel was a little sore on my Sunday afternoon run but after a race that should be expected.

Since I have another 5k this week I going to keep the training schedule about the same. Easy runs on Mon & Thurs and medium runs on Tues & Wed. I’ll take Friday off before the race and try to get in an easy run after the race and a long run on Sunday. I should be around 45 miles this week and then it’s back to the big miles as I get ready for Boston.

5 weeks until Boston

Brandon 5k

Time: 20:19
Overall : 7 out of 248
Age Group: 1st Place

Overall it was a pretty disappointing first 5k of the year. I really thought I had got myself under that 20 minute barrier and was ready to take a shot at 19 minutes. Not today.

Starting out I knew that the race was going to have a stronger field than last year. My hope was that there would be people running around me this year. At the start the first 4 immediately separated themselves from the group. I was just behind with a couple of other guys. I reached the mile 1 marker at 6:10 which was where I wanted to be but that took more out of me than I expected. At that point the 2 guys that were right in front of me starting pulling away and I was running by myself. My second split was a very disappointing 6:48. By that time I was a good 30+ seconds behind the guy in front and about 20-30 seconds ahead of the guy right behind me. I tried to pick it up a little but I didn’t have much left. I hit the 3 mile mark with a 6:30 split.

I’m not sure if I could have done anything different the week before. Maybe if I would have taken Friday off that might have helped a little. I don’t want to change things too much so I plan to train the same this week as last week. My plan for Saturdays 5k is to go out a little slower 6:15-20 and see if I can hold that for the race. That will at least put me in a position to PR.

that's me in the red shirt

Results

Brandon Running Association