Ridley Run 3.1 Results

I had to get up very early for this race, about 4:30 am.  It was scheduled to begin at 8:00am and I had a ninety minute drive ahead of me.  Much to my dismay the temperatures were in the mid 40's and their was a mild wind which made it feel even colder.  I felt somewhat flat and not very energetic to begin my day.

The commute went very well as the majority was spent on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.  I arrived at the Ridley High school to pick up my bib no.  I drew the number 73. For some reason I was disappointed with the number.  I usually like to attribute some meaning to the number, i.e. 63 the year I was born or 77 the year my wife was born, etc.

This was a point to point race and we had to be bussed to the local YMCA, the starting point of the race.  It had probably been several decades since I had ridden on a school bus.  They haven't changed too much.  I thought they would all have video cameras installed, but the bus I rode did not have any cameras.

There was an extremely long wait at the YMCA before the race began.  I believe the turnout for this race was much greater than anticipated.  In past years, there were on the order of 200 runners.  This year the race contained about 400 runners.

The race began a few minutes after 8:30am and I found myself caught up in a hornet's nest of adolescent teens for the first quarter mile.  After I was able to navigate around the group I settled into my pace.  My mile splits were 7:01, 7:27, and  and 7:27.  This was a very good race for me as I did not falter in the last mile.  I set a new personal 5K record of 22 minutes and 48 seconds.  I had targeted a new PR of 22:45.  I am not going to lose sleep over falling three seconds shy of my target.

The race finish was on the local high school track.  I had to stave off the efforts of someone who was trying to pass me in the last sixty yards of the race.  I do not look back near the finish to see if anyone is behind me, because in large part I am not concerned.  The man trying to chase me down was vocalizing the agony he was enduring in an effort to get to the finish line so I had an audible alert someone was coming upon me in a quick fashion.

My GPS watch recorded the distance as 3.15 kilometers. My time at the 3.1 mile (5K) was 22:39.  An extra .05 mile is about 85 yards.

I finished 38th out of 381 runners.  To finish in the top ten percent of the field is an awesome personal accomplishment.  I was 6th out of the 32 male runners in the age group band of 40-49.