Race Report - Mystic Runners Wed Nite 5K (Read 315 times)

So it is a weekly 5K, but I wanted to put up a report because I was pretty happy with the results. I came home after work before the race and when I left, I forgot to bring water with me. No big deal. I drank water all day and it's only three miles so I figure dehydration is not really an issue. I was dressed in running shorts and a shirt, but I brought my running tights, jacket, hat and gloves just in case. It was 52 degrees out, but the wind was pretty chilly at 20mph. I drove the course first to check for puddles - a few big ones in the last mile but I made a note of where they were and shouldnt be a problem. As I stepped out of the car, the wind was howling so I grabbed my jacket and hat but left the gloves and pants in the car. A half mile warmup and some strides and then I went inside to register. Hung out with everybody for a few minutes and headed to the start. I know a couple of the guys in this race now and there is one guy who pretty consistently can do the mid-20s so my initial goal was to keep with him for the first two miles and see what I had left after that. And we were off. I stayed right behind this guy as we took off around the first corner. Another person joined him and I pretty much hugged their backs. The wind wasnt too bad down the first mile. I checked my watch at mile one and I came in at 6:31 but I was feeling pretty good. I still hung by them as we came towards the other side of the lake. And then it hit. As we hit the next corner (around the 1.25 mile mark) the wind just slammed us in the face. The wind stayed in front of us for the next 1.5 miles and was brutal. I tried to draft behind the two guys in front of me but it was sort of a diagonal wind so that didnt help much. I hung behind them for the second mile - mile two came in at 6:48. And the wind still kept coming. It was at this point that the two guys in front of me started to ease ahead of me. I never lost sight of them, but they slowly were losing me. So I tried to hold on and keep them as close as possible for the last mile. The wind died down for about a quarter mile around the 2.75 mile mark but then kicked up again for the end of the race. Then I am sure I lost a second or two at the end. I came towards the finish and hit what I thought was the finish line (there was a line on the road that said 5K Finish) but apparently it was another 15 feet ahead and I basically slowed to a jog for those 15 feet. At any rate, I did get a PR with an official time of 20:54 (finally broke 21 minutes) - only six seconds but a PR is a PR. I was pretty happy with the run and would be interested to know what that would have equated to had I not had that brutal headwind for half the race. Thanks for reading Jeff