January Race Report

Race: Judson High School ROTC Resolution Run
Distance: 5K
Goal Time: 40-42 minutes
Actual Time: 37:50

This past weekend I squeezed in a 5k in the midst of an already very hectic weekend.  I'm really glad I did.

The race itself was atypical of the ones I normally do.  It was a fundraiser for the Judson High School ROTC put on by their boosters. This probably was one of the first times that this group had ever done a 5k.  I'm not sure the people running it had ever been to or participated in a 5k before.  They had few enough people preregistered that they were calling out names to pick up numbers.  That was awkward. They had no chip timing, which wasn't a big deal since the event was promoted as a fun run.  There were no refreshments other than water, which is fine for a 5k course, but I was really glad I thought to pack some before I left home that morning.

Included in this event was supposed to be a guidon challenge for the JROTC groups. Except I didn't see any flags, or groups who were running in sync.  There definitely were a greater percentage of high school kids there than I am normally used to.  I didn't stay to hear the results, so I don't know who won that.  I just know I didn't win. Anything.  But that's not unusual.

When they were giving race instructions, the guy on the mic said that this was the "flattest, fastest course in the world!"  I think the only reason that's the case because I live in one of the flattest cities in the world.

There were two very cool seniors (as in senior citizens) that I chatted with at the beginning.  One was a old black man whose pace was barely more than a shuffle, but he was really good spirited and friendly.  He fell to the back of the pack almost immediately after the start.  I waved to him at a switchback in the course and he was still smiling.  The other was a grandmother with a super cute outfit (in the fluorescent green) .  We chatted for a little bit at the before the race started.  She left me in the dust at the start line.

I wish I got a picture of it, but a little girl and boy had homemade "Go Mom Go!" posters.  They were super cute.  What wasn't super cute was different mom telling her two kids that they couldn't be passed as I came up behind them.  We leap-frogged for a little bit, but then I won.  Take that!

I felt really good during the race. I was worried with all the warm weather that it would be gross, but it cooled down overnight and there was a nice cool breeze that morning.  I did a pretty good job pacing myself and ended up with a pretty even effort throughout with enough left to pass one more person before the finish.  And I didn't have to peel myself off the pavement afterwards!

I'm really happy with my time.  I blew through what I was expecting, and that makes me look forward to the next few weeks of training. It means I'm in a better position than I thought I was and that the year-end goal of a full marathon isn't going to be as hard as I had imagined.  It's still going to be really freaking hard, especially since I usually do better on 5Ks than I do on longer races.  I used the time on this race to predict my full marathon finish time, and it comes in well under what I'm shooting for, so at least that's a good sign.

Don't know what February's run is going to be at this point, but I'm looking forward to it!

Official Race Results