Thursday, January 01, 2009

2008 First Night 5K

We barely made it to the race on time to run a half mile warm up since we had about 10 minutes to the start. Temperature of 31 F is a little cooler than I like for a 5K. I ran once around the block with Hugh before heading to the start line. I started at the front behind Nicole M. and ran a good pace up the hill before 6th street so barely noticed it. Right away though I could tell I was not quite warmed up since the cold air was hard to breathe.

Tony R. easily passed me at the beginning and seemed to be running a good race ahead of me where he should be so I didn’t try to stay with him. Jacquie was ahead and I passed her and figured we were about the same pace. At the turn around I thought I counted I was in about 15th place. I could hear Jacquie behind me on the way back but she never passed me.

In about the last 3/4 mile or so John H. catches up to me. I decide to just stay with him and we cross the finish together. I motioned for him to get in line ahead of me since it really didn't matter and this race was just for fun. I really didn't feel like pushing it since the race felt more like a warm up for me. I guess I am now used to the usual 3 mile warm up for a 5K and I think that would have helped with the breathing.

Considering I didn't really push it, my time of 19:01 is decent for this course. Placed 15th overall and 2nd in age group and John took first. No awards though since this is a non competitive race.

Hopefully, I will be able to make myself taper enough to run Disney. My temptation is to go out and run a lot of trail miles training for 3 Days of Syllamo when I should be tapering. I am guessing that I going to place 3rd in the Serial Competition beating out Bill S. by one point. This race helped him catch up a little to me but didn't count in my top 10 for the competition. The other 2 guys behind me easily passed me up since this was their 10th race. I think Dan will place 5th and Hugh 6th.

After the race, my mileage for the year ended at 3014.5 miles. Last year ended at 2572 miles which is about what Hugh ran this year. I won't be trying to hit a certain amount of miles next year. Really, I have no goals other than to continue staying healthy and enjoying running and running races.

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