justa number
the month of june was kicked off with a small 5K race here in town around frame park. i ran this race last year and was able to get the overall win, which was a thrill. this year, i started the race with a bit more controlled pace and essentially ran uncontested the whole way to defend the title.
it’s rare enough for me to win a race but this was a first time that i was able to repeat the feat a year later. for the effort, i received a medal and a gift certificate to Performance Running Outfitters. a few days after the race i went to PRO’s store and picked out a pair of “better than naked” running shorts from The North Face. i’ve been wanting to try these shorts out for quite some time, simply due to their name.
fast forward to last friday night, i ran another small 5K race here in town which started near our first house. the race started with a long downhill stretch which was lead by a pack of four high schoolers and a college kid which left me trailing behind in their wake.
over the first half mile, they strung themselves out single file one behind the other with the college kid out front. one of the runners ahead of me began to slow a bit so i zeroed in on him and moved past before the first mile marker.
my focus was then aimed at the next three runners ahead of me as the college kid was out front and pulling away. ever so slowly i began to reel the next three runners in and shortly after turning onto my old block i was right on their tail.
i surged past one then another to move into third place when all of the sudden the guy running just ahead in second place pulled to the side of the road and came to a complete stop. within the span of only a few strides i had moved from fifth place up to second place on the road.
figuring that the kid who stopped simply went out too fast, i motored through the remainder of the second mile which was signaled by a beep from my GPS watch. with the volume cranked on my ipod, i’m surprised i heard it but there wasn’t time to look down at my watch. all of my focus was on moving forward as fast as possible to hold off any impending charge from behind.
gasping for air and sweating profusely from the humidity the third mile boomeranged back up the hill we had descended at the start. leaning my torso slightly forward, and turning my legs over as fast as i could, i climbed to the top of the first uphill section then made a sharp right turn onto the final uphill stretch to the finish line.
as i closed in on the finish, the digits on the timing clock came into focus…leading with the number 17. mercilessly, time ticked away and i was unable to get across the finish line until 18:02 for second place overall.
initially lost in the moment was the fact that i had managed to hold off a high school kid by only five seconds. i doubled back and gave him and the kid who finished fourth a high five then shuffled off for a cool down run.
later on i found out the guy who had stopped ended up running slowly for the rest of the route and was high fiving folks on his way to the finish. while i would have liked to get under eighteen minutes, the effort still made it into my top ten fastest 5K’s…and was my fastest 5K in ten years.
6/1 – 5K race in 18:42 plus 6+ miles for w/u and c/d
6/2 – 8 miles
6/3 – 6 miles
6/4 – 7 miles
6/5 – 7 miles
6/6 – 6 miles
6/7 – 7 miles
6/8 – 12 miles
6/9 – 7 miles
6/10 – 7 miles
6/11 – 7 miles
6/12 – 7 miles
6/13 – 6 miles
6/14 – 8 miles
6/15 – 8 miles
6/16 – 7 miles
6/17 – 9 miles
6/18 – 6 miles
6/19 – 7 miles
6/20 – 7 miles
6/21 – 5K race in 18:02 plus 5 miles for w/u and c/d
6/22 – 10 miles
6/23 – 7 miles
6/24 – 7 miles
MTD – 180.5 miles (24/24 days – 25 hours 47 minutes)
YTD – 1,270 miles (171/175 days – 181 hours 37 minutes)
Odometer – 36,208 miles