Parkway 5K

Before I get to the race just a note about the rest of the weekend.

Fri - 8+ miles in 62 minutes. Easy pace on tired legs up and down Kelly drive. It was a run that ended better than it began.

Sat - 15.3 miles in 2 hours flat. I met Ian, Deidre, Devon, Jaime, and Jeff at the Art museum to run a 15 mile route that Ian suggested. All of us except for Ian and Jeff were dragging a little at the start and quickly fell behind the leaders. I was content with a slower pace and enjoyed the beautiful weather and nice conversation that you can only have when running with friends for a couple hours.

Sun - The Parkway 5K.

Last year our team won a dinner for 10 at the Four Seasons Hotel. This year we were going to to need the competition to be extra soft, like a down pillow. Our team just never really came together due to injuries and people out of town. Ryan managed to scrape a full team together, just before the start, by grabbing "some guy" who would be our fifth. Sadly, the race officials weren't able to get all of the results together this morning so we won't know if we actually won anything until later.

Anyhow the race. I lined up right in the front so I'd be in the clear at the start and not caught in the pack like last year. In the first 1/2 mile I don't think my legs realized what was going on, I just felt like it took me a while to get up to speed. However, the first mile went by in 5:47, just about on schedule and I felt decent.

I continued up MLK passing a few people and holding pace. At the turn around I was running alone but there was a pack of 4 guys up ahead so I made an effort to try and catch them. By the time I got there that pack had stretched out and I only caught one guy. Mile 2 went by in 5:46.

On my way back up to the parkway I was able to pass one more guy. I like this race in that it goes from parkway to MLK and back to the parkway. I can concentrate on each section separately and it makes the race seem shorter and I can better manage my pace.

Back on the parkway again and at this point I knew a PR and the guy in front of me were both out of reach. I think I held back a bit because of it. With 200 meters to the finish I realize I am getting passed and the guy is really blowing by me. I tried to answer but I couldn't match the pace and he easily took the lead.

I finished in 18:03, for 21st place. I was happy with the time, I definitely wasn't in PR condition. Looking at the early results I think I finished 2nd in my age group and should be up for one of the great prizes that this race is known for but I won't know for sure until they get the official results up.

58 miles for the week and just over 200 miles for the month. Not to bad considering the time off.