Give Thanks for Lebanon 5K Results

I woke up very early for this Saturday morning race, around 5 am.  Race time was a bright and early 8 am.  I was very anxious to race since I had not raced for nearly a month.  I used my automotive Garmin GPS to find both the Lebanon Farmer's Market and the Lebanon High School. Even though I have lived here the majority of my life, I have never been to the Lebanon Senior high school.  Fortunately the farmer's market and high school are only about 3/4 of a mile apart.

I wasn't sure where to pick up my registration packet. I initially drove to the farmer's market. Fortunately the farmer's market was the registration area.  Since I pre-registered my packet was waiting for me.  I drew the race bib number 32. I was also very pleased to see a long sleeved blue technical T-Shirt for this race inside the packet.  I then drove back to the Lebanon High school to park my car. The finish was at the Lebanon H.S.

Because the temperature was in the mid 30's, I remained in my car until 7:30am.  I then shed my warm up jacket and pants and jogged down the road to the farmer's market.  There were on the order of 300 plus runners congregating on the road for this race in front of the market on South 8th St.

At 8:00 am a few brief comments were given and then a young girl belted out a very good rendition of the Star Spangled banner.  Aside of some nagging coughs from my recent cold, I felt very good for this race. Even though I was wearing shorts in 35 degree weather, my legs were warmed up and loose.

This race was unique in that there were two races being run simultaneously, a 5K and a 10K.  Each one was a different route except for about 3/4 of a mile at the start of the race. I came out of the blocks fast because of adrenaline and the route was downhill for the first 3/4 of a mile. I completed the first 3/4 of a mile at a 6:46 pace.

I was using my virtual partner function on my GPS watch and knew I was ahead of my goal pace for the first 3/4 of a mile.  What I didn't know was from the 0.75 mile to the 2.0 mile point the route was going to be all uphill.  I knew after the first mile I was behind my goal pace already.  All of the gains I had accumulated were wiped out by a large hill from 0.75 to the 1.0 mile point.

Even though I knew I was not going to come close to setting a personal record I tried to focus on having a good time.  I was grateful for being in good enough shape to race this distance.  I was passed by three runners in the last quarter mile - I really need to be able to finish these races stronger.

I finished 18th out of 186 runners - a very good day when you look at the race from that perspective. i finished the race in 23 minutes and 23 seconds - my worst 5K outing of the year. After this race I was not sullen. For some reason I was filled with a desire to try and improve even more next year.