I am only a week and a half removed from my last race, the PA DUI Association's 10K in Harrisburg. The results for this race were recently posted. I missed earning a third place medal by thirty five seconds. I was fourth in my age group. I have come a long way from merely trying to finish races last year.
Ironically, the Colon Cancer Prevention 5K course uses much of the same route as the PA DUI Association's 10K. The temperatures will be similar, as Saturday has been forecasted to be hot and humid. This race begins a half hour earlier than the 10K - it is scheduled to begin at 8:30 am.
This course will be relatively flat although there will be a short steep hill or two to contend with. These hills will only be about 50 to 75 yards long combined. I am slightly concerned about course congestion. Using last years results as a barometer, this race will have over four hundred entrants. I would like to finish in the top forty or fifty runners.
I don't believe I can run much faster than my 21:37 personal record from just three weeks ago. I think it is reasonable to expect a 21:25 or about a twelve second gain over this short time frame. Since there are twelve quarter miles and one tenth of a mile split in a five kilometer race (equivalent to 3.1 miles), I will need to record each quarter mile one second faster for this race to match my 21 minute 25 second goal. Sounds like a fairly easy thing to do, but it will become progressively more difficult to lower my personal records as I become more fit.
My quarter mile splits will need to average 1 minute and 43 seconds to achieve this goal. That averages to 6 minutes and 54 seconds per mile for 3.1 miles. Last July at the Millers Mutual Mile I was only able to record a 6:54 time for the MM one mile race . Now I am trying to run at that speed for 3.1 miles. I am grateful for how well my body has responded to exercising.
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