This morning was race day. I decided to go ahead and run the Beulah 5K - this a race sponsored by local high school to support their athletic group ( I think it's the athletic dept. - another race is held in November for the band). I figured it would be a small race - it consisted of a 1 mile fun run, and a 5k race. I had not set any firm goals for my time - I would be happy with anything under 30 minutes. This was to be a 'practice' race to see how bad the race day adrenaline would affect my pacing. How badly would I roar out of the gate, and burn out before the end of the race. I was not particularly worried about finishing the race because I usually train at between 4 to 6 miles a day, and still increasing mileage every week.
I arrived an hour before the race started so I could complete my late registration, and look around a little before the race started. There wasn't much to see, and there weren't' many people there yet either. I didn't get my shirt, and just figured I'd pick it up later since I didn't come for the T-shirt. They ran out shortly after more people showed up and registered late, but they said they'd mail it to me - if they do - great, if not - no big loss. The race got started a little late because of problems with the big clock.
By the time the race started, there looked to be about 60 to 70 runners for the 5K. I had planned on wearing my bright red VBS shirt from church, figuring that Steph could pick me out of the crowd at the finish line if I was brighter. Just before the race started, a light drizzle moved it and turned the area into a sauna. I did a short warm up run - probably only about 3/8 mile and I was drenched. I thought it might rain some more, so I elected to run shirtless - I had seen a few other runners come out of their shirts so I didn't feel like it was inappropriate to do the same.
I got directions from the coordinator ( I had no idea what the race route would be - luckily it was pretty well marked at the turns - firetrucks make great signposts), and lined up about 2 rows from the front. I didn't feel like I started much faster than my training pace (adrenaline), and I watched the people around me to find someone at a similar pace. The route took us immediately to a very rough dirt road - I later heard some of the runners commenting on how they had not prepared for that, and were not used to running on loose rock dirt roads. I didn't mind the dirt road, luckily the rain had knocked down any dust so it wasn't like running in a dust storm - although it was still pretty warm very early in the morning. The route went back to asphalt pretty quickly ( probably within 1/2 mile)
I was aiming (roughly) for a 30 minute race, which is about 9:30 per mile - at my 1st mile split, I was cruising along at 8:02 - - MUCH FASTER THAN I FELT I SHOULD HAVE BEEN GOING. I didn't feel like I was pushing to hard, so I just tried to maintain. At the 2 mile split, I was at 16:24 - I had lost 20 seconds off my pace - not surprising given my speed. It's worth noting that on last night, I only ran 2 miles, and tried to run them fast to get an idea of what I could do in a pinch, I was only able to post 8:45 per mile - so the race got me somewhere between 20 and 45 seconds worth of adrenaline boost - WILD! We had to run past the final turn and come back to it to finish and I'd decided to give my final boost at the top of the last hill. That would give me a little over a 1/4 mile to run out the last of my reserves. In that last 1/4 mile or so, I passed about 5 people. I crossed the line @ 25:23 - more than 4 minutes ahead of my loose target. I was thrilled with the time. I ended up winning 1st place for my age group - although there were only 2 in my age group. I finished 26th overall. I had a blast, and am looking forward to Country's in August.
My race time presents a small problem - but it's a good one to have:
In January when I started this, I had set the goal of 27 minutes for the Country's race. Obviously I can make that now, but I just set a time of 25:23, which means I need to train to break that time at the Country's race. I figure I'll target a flat 25 minutes for that race.
