Another 5K Personal Record

Saturday, July 4, 2009 marked the beginning of a great weekend for me! The day's agenda included lots of food, family and fun. I was torn between spending time with family and friends and running in the 2009 Homewood Run for Freedom 5K. A few days earlier I decided I had nothing to lose, so I signed up for the race which is held not far from home. Hey, I thought might even run fast enough to win a medal.

When I arrived at the Lions Club on race day, it was wet and rainy. I didn't feel that explosive feeling I had the weekend before when I ran my fastest 10 mile run. Hence, my expectations for winning a medal went awry. I thought perhaps I'd do average for my age group (40-49 year olds) which would be good enough.

After attaching bib #313 to my chest, I began preparing myself with some sounds from the Jacksons (it worked last weekend, so why not now). I ran into a friend Joe Butler, whose son plays ball with my oldest son. He's been running a lot longer than me and I knew he was faster too. I figured I'd try to keep up with him as long as I could and then just cruise to the end of the race. Joe had me convinced I could keep pace with him. I don't blame him for thinking he would run slower than expected because he didn't do any practice 5k runs prior to the race.

When the gun sounded, I sprinted off the line like I was running a 200m race. What the heck was I thinking? I couldn't keep up a 6 minute/mile pace...no way, no how! I stayed with Joe for about 1/3 mile and watched my son's 13-year-old team mate pass me by too before I shifted into overdrive. A 7-7:30 minute/mile pace was much more reasonable. The high school'ers and 14 & under runners were long gone. My strategy was to keep my current space and speed up only if someone who looked my age was approaching.

The next thing I know, a guy who looks like he's in his 40's or 50's is running side-by-side with me. When I speed up a little, he speeds up too. I look at my HRM and it says my heart rate is about 165 bpm, so I figure I'm okay. The guy speeds up a little about a half mile later. I'm thinking, "Shoot. I can't go faster than my current pace." But somehow, I'm able to stay with the guy for about 2.5 miles. It wasn't until the last 1/3 mile that he and a female runner took off. By that time, I'm thinking, "That's right. It's time for my kick. What do you have left, Will?"

I began to life my legs and push as hard as I could. To me I was running faster. But, the HRM said, "No, dude. You are agoing about the same pace you were on the last mile!" Oh well, maybe I'd be average as I thought earlier.

I'm now entering the park where the race started and I can see the clock. "If I keep running hard," I thought, "I can finish with a sub-24 minute 5k." Cool, I'll just keep running even though my lungs were starting to burn. I just ignored the pain and cross the finish line at 23:25...pretty good for a guy who started running a little over a year ago. Of course, I wanted to collapse on the grass for just a few. There were volunteers at the finish line who were waiting to recover the timing devices we'd tied to our running shoes. "Cool," I thought, "I'll get my breath back while I take my time trying to figure out how to remove this little piece of plastic."

After the race, I grabed a drink and some pizza. I didn't think I was hungry and the pizza was slightly burnt and bland, but I ate it anyway. A few minutes later, I saw another familiar face: Pastor A, as we call her, one of our church's co-pastors. She's happy just to finish which reminds me I should feel the same way. I give her a hug and a "You go gurl" as I walk towards the equipment tent to see my time.

Man, Joe got 2nd place in our division. He finished about 90 seconds ahead of me. I tell Joe, "Great run, bro" then I scroll down a bit farther and see my name: "William Daniels 23:25.8 3rd". A third place finish and a personal record: a 7:33 minute/mile 5k. I'm all choked up. I finished 36th out of 120 runners; 11 were in my division. When they called my name to get the medal, I ran to the Race Director (yup, I still had some pep in my step). I took a good look at the medal which was also my first top 3 finish in a race.

This was already a great weekend and Saturday was just getting started.

Summary
Last week @WillRunzForFun ran 18.2 miles in 2:25:52. I averaged 4.6 miles per run and held an 7:57 minute/mile average - my fastest week on record. Since I didn't do a Long Run, I burned only 2300 Kcal which is ok because I thoroughly enjoyed the 2009 HF Run for Freedom 5k.

Total Time	Avg Time	Max BPM	Avg BPM	Avg BMI	Dist. (miles)	Avg Dist. (miles)
2:25:52	0:36:28	169.8	156.0	25.0	18.2	4.6
Total Kcal Burned	Avg Kcal Burned	Max Pace	Avg Pace	Max Speed (mph)	Avg Speed (mph)	Total Workouts
2305.0	576.2	6:43	7:57	9.0	7.6	4.0

Week 28 Runs

I'm going to try something a little different this week. I've added a short, 3 mile Interval Run on Tuesdays that I'll do alone (without Isis). Isis will be limited to 3 runs per week on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Here's the schedule for next week:

Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
REST	Easy	Interval	Maint.	Fartlek	REST	Long

Friday and Sunday will be running rest days. Baseball & softball tournaments start on Wednesday, so it will be another busy week or two!

Monthly Goals
I'm shooting for 100 miles in July. I've run 14.2 miles this month. Since I've added a fifth run to my schedule, my goal seems reachable.
__________
If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my RSS feed!