Sunday, November 1, 2009

Shoes Too Slow?

5K this morning. Wasn't sure if I was fully recovered from Chicago but decided to go for it anyway. Flat, certified race, good weather, looked some there'd be some competition around about 18-18:30. Hoping to PR (under 18:22 - 3:40/KM, 5:55/mile)

Started fast as usual with a half mile at 5:44 pace. Found myself in 4th place, with 2 much faster guys ahead and one person just ahead. Then I kinda lost focus and had a crappy mile at 6:02 and let about 4 people go past. Very lame. Definitely need to work on that part of the race.

Got it back together at 1.5 miles and did a 5:42 mile, starting to catch a group of 4 people who were about 100 yards ahead. Then I couldn't keep it up and did the next half at 6:04 pace.

It was about here that we got detoured due to construction and instead of a nice path, ran up a ramp, round a fountain and down another ramp. Managed to pick it up for the final stretch and closed at 5:27 pace feeling pretty bad.

Got 8th place overall in 18:38, which was only 4th in my age group (too many fast old people round here!). Course was a little long due to the detour - Garmin measured 120 meters over 5K, which from looking at the map seems about right. So official pace was 6:00, Garmin pace was 5:51. No PR today - I think the shoes aren't quick eneough.

A little annoying when you choose flat, certified races and then they don't run the same course as they have a certificate for, but I guess that's part of the challenge.

10K is next - Hopefully that'll be better. 38:38 to beat, which is a relatively soft PR.

Update: just checked the results online and it seems I was 7th overall and 3rd in my age group. So I guess I should have hung around for my award. Oh well.

1 comment:

Peter Lubbers said...

Fast!
And 38:38 is now soft? Wow!