Notes
Ran the Cranberry Crawl 5K on Saturday. There was also a 10K race, but decided to do the 5K since I don't like the 2 loop course so much. It is a hilly course. Temperatures were 62F and quite windy. I ran a couple miles warm up with Hugh and felt okay. I started out pretty fast and we go up a hill after the first quarter mile. At this point I am in 5th place. I decided to push the pace and see how long I will last. Ran the first mile in 5:43. I passed one guy shortly after and then Dan E. soon passed me. I couldn't keep up that pace so could not stay with him. Second mile ran in 6:24, and third mile in 6:38. There were more hills and no way I could keep the same pace and I ran the first mile way too fast. I was a comfortable distance ahead of the guy I passed earlier. Finished in 19:12, 5th overall of 87 runners and 4th in 40 - 44 age group. Six runners in my age group. Hugh finished first in his age group. There were 47 runners in the 10K. Winner of the 5K ran 17:02 and 10K winner ran 40:10. There was water, Gatorade, coffee, bagels, apples, bananas, pretzels, and cranberry crawl crunch. I had a water and a small glass of Gatorade. Prizes for the top 3 in each age group were items like socks, gels, Bodyglide, etc. that you could pick off a table from Tryathletics, a race sponsor.
I have run the 5K or 10K at this race in the past and missed at least 1 year. The course also changed at some point. Here are my results for the 5K on the current course.
2012 - 19:12 (159.6 lb - think I was a bit more since this was my weight on Wed)
2011 - 18:32 (149.4 lb)
2008 - 18:49 (157.0)
This race was a good test of where I am right now for short distance. I have some work to do. I'd like to get back to sub-19 min. Since the Backyard Ultra, I've run 25 mi, 29 mi, and 30 mi each week. Both ankles have been feeling sore after each run and legs some soreness too. I plan to keep the distance around 30 - 35 for a few weeks and see how I feel. I really need to make a training plan for the USATF 8K on Feb 2.