I woke up Saturday morning about 6:00 am. I still had a touch of the flu. I had run three miles on Friday and did not feel the flu had impacted me to any great degree. I was relieved to not be suffering from any major muscle pulls or strains for the first time in several weeks. I had a small tinge of shin splint pain, but the pain was mild in comparison to what I had been enduring for weeks.Newville is a small town about twenty minutes west of Carlisle Pa. It took me about an hour and fifteen minutes to arrive at the race location at the rails to trails site. This race was a smaller one, consisting of about 70-80 entrants, with a few of them sporting Shippensburg University apparel.
The weather was sunny with the temperature at race time in the upper 50's. Nearly 3/4's of the race trail was in the shade. This was an out and back race, i.e., you return on the same route you began.
I was initially impressed with the registration table containing two laptops and a couple of bar code scanners to facilitate the registration amd results posting processes. The high tech command center lost its luster at the end of the race when the finisher's times were scrambled. The order of the runners allegedly was accurate, only the times were inaccurate. Runners were told to count up four spots to determine your time. Fortunately, I wore my Garmin Forerunner watch and was able to record an accurate 5k time.
I began the race at an easy pace. I had decided before the race to relax as much as possible and remain loose as I ran. I believe I had a tendency to become very tense as I ran in the past. I wanted to focus on my breathing and maintaining a relaxed pace.
I had my watch set up to give me splits on the half mile. In order to establish a PR, I needed to run 3:47 half mile splits. This translates to averaging 7:34 minutes per mile.
The first mile was a slight uphill grade. I ran the first mile in 7:19 and as a result knew I had some time to spare for later in the race in terms of establishing a PR. In essence, I had fifteen seconds to spare for mile two. I could run a 7:49 and still be on track to set a PR.
The second mile was initially uphill, followed by the turnaround, and finishing with a downhill grade. I ran the second mile in exactly 7:34. My concern at the end of the second mile was how much energy I had remaining in the tank. Up to this point I had remained relaxed and was running my race. There were runners ahead of me, but I maintained my predetermined pace.
The last mile was a gradual downhill. My typical third mile of a 5K is marked by running out of gas and having a half dozen runners pass me. For this race I was able to catch one man in the last mile and maintain my pace until the end of the run. I ran the last mile in 7:32. I was able to maintain my pace until the finish line. While I would not regard my last 100 yards as a finishing 'kick', I did not slow down.
My time as recorded by my Garmin Forerunner for 5K (3.1 miles) was 23 minutes and 11 seconds, a new personal record. This averages to a 7:28 per mile pace or a 3:44 per half mile split. Per the official results posted on http://cvrtc.org, I finished 15th out of 68 runners.
I was proud of my performance because I ran my race without regard for what others were doing around myself. I was able to maintain a personal pacing discipline which resulted in my best 5K time of the year.
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