2010 WellAware 5K

Ran a 3 mile warmup before the race.  It was kind of cool at 52F and a little wet today with a light rain.  I decided to ditch the jacket after the warmup.  Overall goal was to go under 20 since this was my first race other than the Sedalia 5K I ran my first week back running post-surgery.  This felt tons better.  I really hadn't pushed the pace too much other than a couple miles on one of the Tu/Th runs.  Started off going down the hill out of the parking lot and passed quite a few people at the bottom that started too fast.  At this point I was in 6th place.  After mile 1, I passed another guy and could still see Bill S. ahead of me.  I felt really focused and relaxed and the first mile seemed to go really fast.  I wore my HR monitor and it says my Avg HR was only 145 the first mile at a 5:55 pace.

Second mile just tried to maintain pace.  There was a bit of an uphill in one place so slowed down some and ran in 6:03.  Last mile I was just hoping to hold the pace and kept it at 5:56, avg HR up to 160 for that mile so guess I was working harder to maintain pace.  The last 0.17 had to go up the hill we came down in the beginning.  Did not push at all up the hill but once got to the top, let myself go.  Saw my time was about 18:30 so really pushed to get in under 19 minutes.  Overall time was 18:57, 5:59 pace so beat my 20 min goal easily and ran this course just as fast as I ran it 2 years ago.  Honestly, thought I was a lot slower and didn't have speed back yet.  This race was a test to gauge where I am at.  I didn't feel like I pushed all the way and my avg HR for the entire race being only 153 seems to indicate that.  That is about the average I would hold for an entire marathon.

Ran some cool down miles with Christian and Matt, the first and second place guys.  Overall, I was 5th and got the coaster for 1st in the 40 - 49 since Christian (in my age group) was the overall winner.

Nice coaster for first place in age group.

Tech shirt and belt with pockets and bottle holder given to all entrants