While I didn't set any formal goal going into the race, in the back of my mind I was aiming for a reasonable time; something that averaged well under 8:00/mile. Considering my training and "recent" race times, I thought this was more than attainable. At the end of September, I ran my fastest 5K since May 2007 in 22:50. While it's still pretty far off my PR, I was happy to see that I was actually improving for the first time in over a year. My training has also been fairly consistent recently; I've successfully followed my training program for the past four weeks. Granted, the training program as of now only calls for running 3 days a week at 3-4 miles a day, but still--this was a huge improvement from my sporadic training that I had done since college. All things considered, I thought that I could pull off atleast a 23:30. Instead, I ended up clocking a 24:33 (7:55/mile).
Needless to say I'm a little disappointed. I had hoped that I would be getting somewhere and that it would show in the race. Instead, I ran my slowest time since April. This may not have been entirely my fault. The race had undergone some changes in the locations of the start, finish, and registration which created a nightmare situation. Despite pre-registering for the race for the first time, my family ended up waiting in line for our packets for a half an hour. This left 5 minutes for a warm-up which, given the crowds and the obligation to meet up and stick with family members, was impossible. This led to heavy and tight legs for the entire 3.1 Trying to get to the start was another major issue. The new start was positioned on a street that was not wide enough for everyone which led to runners being squeezed out to the sidewalks and onto side streets. The mile markers on the course were also way off, so I had no idea how fast, or slow for that matter, I was going. My splits were as followed: 8:02, 9:46, and 6:01. I'm pretty sure I couldn't run a 6:01 mile all out right now mind you one at the end of a 5K.
I guess I can't complain too much though. 24:33 is 2 1/2 minutes faster than last year's abysmal 26:59 at the same race. I did also have a lot of fun. Unlike my recent road race experiences, I knew a lot of people who were running; almost 10 of my family members ran including my brother who hasn't ran a step in 4-5 years and I ran in a couple good high school friends, one of whom I hadn't seen in two years. The post-race festivities were great fun too. Following tradition, me and four of my cousins stopped at the Ale House for a few beers (free to runners!). Despite being freezing because we were drinking outside on the street to watch the 10K (which is surprisingly ok with the cops), we had a blast catching up and laughing. So, while I didn't run a good time, I had a good time, which is fundamentally more important, despite what my competitive self may think.
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