I would like one more opportunity to set a personal record (PR) for the five kilometer distance this year. I finished calendar year 2009 with a 5K PR of 23 minutes and 11 seconds. My 5K personal record for this year to date is 21 minutes and 37 seconds. If I were not able to improve upon this time this year I would be pleased with ending the year with this 5K PR time.
I am always perusing the internet for races in the area. Only the more established and larger races send mailings to prospective runners. The larger races use previous race entrant lists as the basis for their mailing lists. In most cases you have to seek your next racing adventure.
This race is unique because the course is a slight uphill climb for the first half of the race. You then turnaround and return on the same route. You are finishing the second half of the race on a grade that is downhill the entire way. Looking at an elevation chart for this route there appear to be no hills. Finishing a race on a downhill grade is very conducive to recording a personal record caliber time.
I typically review the prior year's results for a race I am considering. In this case I noticed the name of Ron Slozat in the 2009 Shippensburg Fair 5K results. I met Ron last year at the Cumberland Rails to Trail's Fall Down on the Trail 5K. I believe he mentioned he was a cross country coach at Shippensburg University. He is in excellent shape for a 60+ year old. I confess. He was faster than I. His time for the 2009 Shippensburg 5K race was a full thirty seconds faster than his 2009 Fall Down on the Trail time. I set my 2009 5K personal record time at the Fall Down on the Trail race.
If I set a personal record this Saturday I will hang up my cleats for this season with respect to running 5K races.
The Shippensburg Fair 5K race also features a very low race day entry fee of $8, sans a T-shirt.
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