I decided to go ahead and run the 5K in downtown Charleston this morning. It was a small race, probably about 150 runners. Before we started, the race director (who was standing under the Finish sign that a couple of guys had just put up) announced that the course was 250ft short and there was nothing he could do about it. I wanted to point out that perhaps they could move the finish sign back 250ft along the path (there was plenty of room). I guess that would have been too difficult. The organization was less than perfect but that's ok because I PR'd. It's nice being slow because there is so much room for improvement.
The race started in a park with lots of overhanging trees that confused poor Gary. He didn't know how fast we were running. My previous 5K PR was 29:39, so I knew I needed to stay around 9:30 pace to beat that. Mile 1 split was 8:54. Holy blazes, that's superwoman speed for this gal! I tried to slow it down a bit for mile 2, and finished that at 9:15. I was really huffing and actually had to stop and take a couple walk breaks in the last mile. I was berating myself for going out too fast and blowing my shot at a PR, but it turned out that I had enough gas in the tank to finish up in 28:55. I kept running past the oddly premature finish line until Gary told me we had run 3.1.
Final details:
My fastest ever mile = 8:54
5K PR (according to Gary, not their no-time-chip, unorganized, short "official" time)=28:55
Average Pace = 9:18:44
I'm very excited and glad I decided to run it. Now I have to figure out how to spend the rest of the day since the severe storms here have eliminated all chances of getting the yard work done that I had planned. Hope everyone has a great weekend!
20 comments:
Congratulations!!! You should spend the whole day celebrating since you can't do yardwork!
Great job!!!!!!! That is weird that they wouldn't just move the finish line back???!!! I usually find race courses are longer than stated. Like my 15k which is 9.3...Geoff said 9.65...I run with Geoff almost every run, I believe him!
I don't know if I've ever held a mile in the 8's! Congrats!!!!!
Congrats! That is awesome!!!!!!
Congratulations!! Great job on shattering your previous time. Enjoy the weekend.
Congratulations. You should be smiling all weekend!
Yikes, the course was SHORT?! Good for you going the extra. Congrats on the nice PR, too!
Congrats on the PR! That is great!
Congrats on killing the 5K!
Nice work - congrats!!
Congrats!!! It is great that you ran the 5K anyway.
I have never run a race that small, there aren't many like that around here. I think if a RD announced that the course was off here, he would be lynched.
I need to find a name for my Garmin. Gary is a good one.
congrats! great job on the pr and running the few extra steps to make it official :)
that's still a great pr! my 5k pr is 32:00, so you've just blown me away sister! congrats.
Yaa! Congrats! Thats crazy about the course not being able to be 5k, haha. I love race stories because we all will have those weird un organized races to talk about :)
Great job! Totally LOL at the short course. I guess that's better than the year the Army 10 miler became the 11+ mile "fun run".
i TOTALLY hear you about starting out too fast. CONGRATS on a new PR!!!!!! i love tracking stats, just by continuing to run your fitness and speed will improve!!!!! i definitely recommend track workouts too (repeats of 400s if your goal is a 5k), they make a HUGE difference!!!!!! i am going to add you to my blogroll so i know when you post :) is this your main blog? i saw you have another one listed on your profile.
great job on the PRs!!!
wooo great job!!! YAY PR!!!
Congrats on a new PR! :) Great job! :) The courses are always so weird and off, but oh well!
Congrats on the PR!
"It's nice being slow because there is so much room for improvement."
I love this so much I might just steal it soon. (I might even credit you for it:) )
So, so, SO true. I have no apologies for being slow!
CONGRATULATIONS, speedster!
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