The finishing field.
Perfect August weather (about 70 with low humidity) + a flat course = a recipe for a great 5k.
Yesterday morning, I saw a post on the Mountain Junkies Facebook page with a map of the Fab 5k race course — very flat with only about 40 feet of elevation gain.
Start of the Fab 5k
While I knew much of this course was off-road — some gravel, dirt and grass — I had the brief thought that I should be able to set a PR.
In the time since my 5k PR in Ohio in July, I’ve continued to push myself and my forced hill training has proven to work in my other flat race — the Percival’s Island 5 Miler. While I wanted to run hard, I tried to push off PR thoughts until I started running.
With more than 400 people running, and a narrow bridge about a half mile into the race, I took off. I glanced at my watch about two-tenths of a mile in to check my pace and a co-worker pushed my wrist down and told me to stop looking at it. I managed to pass quite a few people before the potential bridge jam and then just pushed the pedal harder — 6:45 in the first mile. I didn’t feel like it was too fast, but I knew it would be tough to maintain.
Much of the second mile was on the road — I was feeling good and was able to hit 7:01. In my head I knew that as long as I didn’t fall in a hole I could set a PR, but could I break 22 minutes?
With most of the third mile on grass, and very mentally challenging as I could continuously see the finish line, I kept telling myself to hold it together. Don’t look at the watch. Keep my head up. Go. Just go.
I can see that I'm taking a quick glance at the clock. (The time on the other side was a few seconds off for some reason.)
As I hit mile 3, a younger woman passed me and said something — I think “good job” or “almost there” or something like that.
It was what I needed for a final surge and pass her just before the finish mat and get under 22 minutes for a 5k for the first time ever.
I looked at my Garmin — 21:54. I almost threw up. My official time was 21:52, nearly 20 seconds faster than my PR from July 4. I’ve shaved off nearly 50 seconds off my 5k race time this summer.
I was 83rd out of 402 finishers; 8th in my age group out of 23.
My co-workers also did a great job with one of them running under an 8-minute mile pace for the first time ever.
It was a great day all around that course as more than 30 people had less than a 6-minute mile pace. It’s the type of day that gives me thoughts of getting my 5k time even lower and one day breaking a 7-minute mile pace.
It's great to have some co-workers at a race!
As I look ahead to the next couple of months, this will very likely be the last race until the Baltimore Marathon. As great as I feel about yesterday’s race, today’s long run is a different story. But that’s for another post some other time. This 5k PR is worth celebrating.
Thanks to Sam Rice for all the photos!
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Congrats on the result. That is a great time!
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AWESOME! Congratulations!
Great job David!
That's an intense 5k recap, jeeeeez, I think my blood pressure just went up.
Awesome of your coworker to tell you to not look at your watch too.
Congratulations on the beastly 5k!
I'm glad I was able to get the feeling across. It was an intense race – I hope I can have that intensity at a slower pace for 23.1 more miles. Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Congrats on a great race!