5K for Clean Air

Saturday morning was warm and humid at the start of the 5K for Clean Air. This was my first 5K since December and I had put in a lot of miles since then. Many more than last winter and I was really hoping to put up a good race and crush my 5K PR of 18:54. At the starting line I was reminded of how it felt before the start of the Philly Distance Run last September, warm, sunny, and humid with a sheen of sweat on my brow. Luckily this was only a 5K so the weather wouldn't be to much of a factor.

I was worried that I would start this race to quickly and then fade the remainder of the way. Before I saw the mile split I felt that I was running right about where I wanted to be, 5:50 pace. However, my worries were confirmed at the mile split when I crossed it in 5:27. I was kind of happy to see it, as this is my fastest mile to date, but I also knew I wasn't going to be able to keep this up.

The field had thinned a bit by this portion of the race. I saw the leader on his return moving way faster than I can even imagine running an 800. I had several people directly in front of me and I just kept it cool and stayed behind them. I didn't want to press to hard in the middle mile because I wanted to have a bit of a kick at the end. Mile 2 went by in 6:20. I was disappointed to see this. I didn't realize I had slowed down this much and knew I was going to have to pick it up if I wanted to break my goal of sub 18:30.

20 yards in front of me was, who I found out to be the second place female and I concentrated on passing her. My pace had picked up a little but I knew I wasn't moving to much faster than I had in mile 2. DAMN that first mile! I eventually passed the runner in front of me and now I just held on, making sure nobody passed me. A guy a good bit ahead of me glanced back several times to make sure I wasn't gaining but he didn't have to worry.

I crossed the 3 mile split in under 18:00 but I didn't get the exact split. At this point I knew I had the sub 18:30 in the bag and I pushed to the end. I heard Seebo and a few other cheering and I was able to pick it up just a little bit to finish in 18:21.

I was very happy with my time, my first 5K under 6:00 pace. The finish was just about what I thought I was capable of. At this race last year I ran a 19:01 and I had really surpised myself by running much faster than I thought I could. I don't really think that I am going to be hugely surprised like that anymore. Over the past year I have paid a lot closer attention to my running and have increased my fitness but I think I am at the point where I am not going to see race time that I don't expect. Now I can only chip away at my times in increments of seconds and maybe on a longer race, over a minute. (I should note though that I signed up for the Chicago Marathon, October 22nd. In that race I will crush my time by many, many minutes. That is at least plan.)