2nd Annual Get Ready! Get Set! Get Fit! 5k September 21, 2008 Towson University – Towson, MD Great fall racing weather today. The temperature was in the mid to upper 50s by race time, but it was much chillier when I got up at 5:30am. I did my usual race day activities – bagel with applebutter, nice long walk with Molly, and arrival at the race one hour before gun time. After picking up the race packet (another terrible race tee, and a bunch of brochures) I used my first of two packs of GU. This is something I have been trying before my hardest workouts – one GU 60 minutes before, and another 15 minutes before the race – and it has been working out pretty well. The start of this race was a lot like last year’s race. Of course, walkers and slower people lined up at the front, only to move back when the announcement of “6:00 and faster” was made. That happens at every race, though. Unique to this race is the downhill start. That led to me being in about 30th place at the bottom of the first hill. Much like last year, I quickly began picking off people in front of me throughout the first mile. Again, most of the first mile was a gradual downhill, which led to faster than normal splits. I hit the first mile in 6:02, probably 9th or 10th overall. I regretted going so hard in the first mile, but I knew that was going to happen. It probably hurt me in the long run, but I tried not to think about that possibility. I now had the uphill battle of the first half of mile two. Obviously, people were getting worn down. I passed a pack of four high schoolers before the top of this hill, and none of them caught back up to me as we hit another downhill to take us to the two mile marker. My second mile split was 6:24. Obviously, it looked like I was in great shape to break 20:00. However, there was one obstacle left to tackle: the third mile was essentially the first mile in reverse, meaning the final mile of the race would be mainly uphill, and would feature a rather steep hill leading up to the third mile marker! Negative splits would be nearly impossible on this course, especially for those of us who used too much energy in mile one. Regardless, I believe I went into the final fifth overall. I worked diligently into the third place spot, but was passed on the final hill by a 16-year who ultimately beat me by 5 seconds. As for me… I hit the three mile marker in 19:16. I opened up my stride and gutted out the final 200 meters as hard as I could. Luckily, the final 200 was on a downhill, so I completed that portion in 0:40. My unofficial splits, plus my official time: 1 – 6:02 2 – 6:24 3 – 6:50 200m – 0:40 5K: 19:56 The official results haven’t been posted yet, but my time was announced during the awards ceremony, when I was called to accept my first ever 1st Place age group award. It wasn’t a medal, but fortunately it wasn’t a cup and a pair of socks (or a cutting board). It was some kind of curved glass plaque with the race logo, date, etc. Obviously, the age group wasn’t ultra competitive. I believe the individual who would have won, with a time in the low 18s, finished second in the men’s overall division. It hurts to know that my fourth place overall effort was only five seconds off of placing in overall. I was bitter about that, but quickly brushed it off. After all, I put together my first top 5 finish (or top 10 finish, for that matter!), my first age group winner award, and a lifetime PR all in the same day. Val has obviously recovered well from the first third of the year, when she was plagued with ITBS. This was her first 5K (and first hilly race) of the year. Still she improved off her time from last year (26:01) by finishing ~25:55. I’ll try to remember to update that when the official results go up. ---- EDIT: Results are up... http://www.charmcityrun.com/eventResults.cfm?eventid=788

Yeah, I'll second those congrats, great run Rick!

Awesome time! That's almost a whole minute faster than your previous 5k time, right? It took me until November last year to get down to the 18:40s, and I doubt I'll get there much sooner this year. And Paul Serra certainly got a lot faster, too. I remember him usually finishing around 19:15-19:30 last year. Ah, indeed, this is what Paul ran at Chaptico just three weeks ago: 7 Paul Serra Lusby MD 52 1 19:19 6:13 Then again, this past Saturday was an exceptionally better day for racing.

That's an average pace of 27:59 a mile!

Well, it was Pet Day -- maybe some of them did lots of dog stops... (I dunno really.)

Some days while walking my dog, I can definitely see taking 20:00 – 25:00 to go a mile. Sometimes she just wants to sniff everything. If you add other dogs in the mix, then it would definitely take longer.

A PR is a PR. Nice job! I believe this crushes your half marathon pace of a few weeks ago, correct?

Adubb has proven himself to be a master of both endurance and stamina. I will be truly hard pressed to come anywhere close to matching your 10-mile time in two weeks.