When you run a race in July in Maryland you know it’s going to be hot and humid. This race was no exception. I ran 8 miles in the rain on Saturday (surprisingly refreshing), so I wasn’t hoping to PR or do anything amazing in this race…well mission accomplished as far as trying to beat a best time!
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| It's amazing the effect a little plastic trophy has! |
However, I got my first trophy (the first benefit of being 30 is that I’m now in the 30-39 group!), so 2nd place age group award and a nice little trophy. Anyways, here we go:
This is nice small race in Pikesville that benefits the Greenbaum Cancer Center. It start at the Woodholme Center and is an out and back course. And here we go with the recap:
Mile 1: Mile 1 was amateur hour…not that we all don’t go out too fast, but with a smaller race like this I watched a lot of people that torched me off the line. It was an uphill climb in the beginning and all I really knew about the course was that it was an out and back, so I would benefit when this would be downhill in Mile 3. I felt really good and settled into a nice 7:0Xish pace. After about the first half mile I passed a bunch of people. First split 7:05.
Mile 2: I passed on getting water because I felt I had a pretty good rhythm...here is where I thought the course … well … sucked. Two turnaround points…so I make the turn around a small cone…and then run about 100 ft then a right turn and then another turn around another cone. I was a little frustrated and then I hit mile 2 marker at 7:11 pace…I was sweating pretty bad, but nobody had passed me since about the first half mile..
Mile 3: In the beginning of this mile there was a slight gradual incline…it looks to be nothing on my garmin…however it was horrible…maybe it was the heat maybe it was the effects of running 8 miles the day before…either way I was slowwwwwing down. However, I dug down deep when someone came to pass me. I knew if I could hold this guy off to about the 2.75 mark I could beat him…..unfortunately my split came in at 7:35 as I was too concerned with just staying right with this guy and not racing my own race.
Mile 3.1: So at the mile 3 marker I basically made it a point to beat the guy I was running stride for stride, picked off another guy before the finish, and just didn’t have enough to catch up to one more guy. My pace for the last .1 was a 5:48/pace (my faster pace actually started at the 2.8 mark, which proves running is just mental at times as I was telling myself I needed to hold off that one guy until 2.75 mark).
The Good: This race benefits a good cause…it’s probably also one of the few 5Ks in July.
The Bad: Two turnaround points, the heat, the humidity
The Ugly: I’m not sure how I can sweat so much for a 5k…my shirt was more drenched than in Baltimore 10 miler.
Overall: 40 of 540
Gender: 34th out of ?
Age: 3rd out of ? (but 2nd on gun time which got me 2nd place age group award woo hoo!)
Nice job bringing home some hardware!
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