Lee Pfefer Memorial 5K

This race took place at Stephen’s Lake Park on the paved walking trail. I ran a race at this park a couple months ago, but it was a slightly different course. Hugh and I warmed up for 1.5 miles which was enough to figure out the course. I wasn’t sure what to expect since I’ve had a cold since Wednesday and ran the Berryman Trail marathon last weekend, but was feeling better today but still not 100% due to the cold. The temps were in the 70s and quite humid. I was dripping in sweat after the warm-up, but had a few minutes to cool down.

The race started in the parking lot and I lined up near the front. A lot of fast runners in the area were there including a guy that had just run a 3:49, 1500 m this weekend. I predicted he would win. The race started on a downhill, but at the end of the race we had to run up the hill. I started off with a couple runners in my age group running with me. My first mile split was 5:45.

I continued to try to stay with these guys and managed to do so until the second mile. Second mile split was 6:15. At this point, they picked up the pace and I just tried to hang on hoping for a 3rd mile at least as fast as my second. I passed a 15 yr old guy in the 3rd mile and he passed me back. Then another runner that normally beats me passed me, but seemed like the closest I’ve been to him in a 5K.

The 3rd mile split was up the hill we came down at the start and my split was 6:20. I could hear someone coming up behind me and it was Phil. He hadn’t done this in awhile, but we do run nearly the same pace. He passed me and I let him go since I didn’t have much left up the hill. Last 0.1 mi was 44 seconds with a finish of 19:04, only 5 seconds behind Phil.

I walked to the car to get my camera and take a few pictures of some finishers. I placed 4th in my age group 35-39 which seemed to be a fast age group today and Hugh placed 2nd in his age group 45-49. Overall I placed 13th of 157 finishers. I was happy with my time considering the conditions. This was good speed work for the 8K I’ll be running on Saturday.