I woke up around 6:30 am and made myself eggs and toast for this race, a departure from my normal cereal and milk pre-race diet. As this race was about two or three miles away from my house, I only had a five minute commute for this 8:00 am race.
I felt very groggy and decided to go to the local Redner's grocery store to get a Mountain Dew soft drink in an effort to ingest a fair amount of caffeine quickly. I could not find a cold Mountain Dew and opted instead to drink an energy drink named Amp. This was the first race I had ever tried an energy drink before the race. I've talked to runners who like the energy drink Red Bull before a race. My primary motivation for the drink was to wake myself via a caffeinated drink.
I arrived at the race start / finish area about 7:15 am. This was going to be a small town race with a modest number of racers. I had registered for this race on Friday June 25th and at that time they had 88 runners registered. 124 runners eventually registered and finished the race.
I saw my new running friend Jarrod Kulp and we began talking about the race. We've both been running for long enough to be able to recognize other runners who we will compete against within our age bracket.. Neither of us saw anyone we knew from previous races this year.
There were only four or five runners who looked like they were college aged or younger who congregated at the front of the starting line. In contrast to most races, no one wanted to start this race on the front row. The race began at 8:03 and I ran with Jarrod for the first quarter mile before he left me in his wake. My only pre-race thought was to run the first quarter mile in a moderate pace. While I was running with Jarrod I felt as though I was running at a sustainable pace. Turns out I finished the first quarter mile at a 6:20 pace, a pace sustainable by Jarrod (who finished the race at a 6:30 / mile pace) but not personally sustainable My overall personal best pace for a 5K is 6:59 / mile.
Because I was very familiar with the course, I expended no mental faculties wondering where the next turn or hill would be. As a result I was entirely focused upon traversing each quarter mile segment of this course as fast as possible. I finished the first mile in 6:43, the second mile in 7:01 and the last mile in 7:18. I had the best finish for the least tenth of a mile I have ever run at 38 seconds. Add this all up and you get a 21:40 5K race time. I was hoping to finish under 22 minutes, so this time was a pleasant surprise.
As I was approaching the turn to the finish line I overheard someone saying something to effect 'That's Jeff running there !' Not wanting to embarrass myself I worked a little harder toward a fast finish. After I finished I went back to the corner to find Nancy Stamm, a very good friend of my mother. She was with her daughter Kelly, son-in-law Walt Grudi and granddaughter Karlee. It was nice meeting them. Karlee is an aspiring cross country runner.
I finished thirteenth in this race, my best overall finish ever. Unfortunately there were four gentleman aged 40-49 who finished among the twelve runners ahead of myself. The 40-49 age bracket is a very competitive bracket, if not the most competitive bracket.
I am finished with 5K races until the end of August at the Tim Russell Memorial run in Hershey Pa. At that time I will try to set my final 5K personal record for the 2010 calendar year
My next race will be the Miller's Mutual Mile in Harrisburg on Wednesday July 21st. My current personal record for the mile is five minutes and fifty-seven seconds (5:57). My goals for this race are to run a 5:45 mile and finish in the top twelve in my age band, 45-49.
http://www.evansnsons.com/RunResults.aspx
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