Transition State
It's good to be back here in good ol AU and all moved in to my new apartment with Joe. There are still plenty of odds and ends to take care of around here but most of the important things are taken care of, eg. the xbox is all ready to go.
Last Friday night I participated in my first midnight race in Cullman, AL. With 691 participants this was the biggest 5k I had ever run. There was even a little expo with live entertainment in the Cullman Civic Center run by Fleet Feet. I decided to run the course backwards ahead of time just to get an idea of where the major hills where etc., but with nothing more than a not-to-scale map of the route printed on the registration form to guide me, I got a little off course and ended up running about 4.5 miles to get back to the start. Midnight approached and we all gather towards the starting line where I saw several familiar faces that I was not expecting to see that night. It was good to see them again before I headed off to Auburn. (I had left Huntsville Friday night for the race, then spent the night in Birmingham and went to AU the next day with all my stuff.)
The gun fired and off we were. I could tell already a ton of people had gone out way to fast. After the first quarter mile my pace was about 5:33, a little to fast for a race of this distance, (Maybe one day it won't be but I'm not there yet) but it did start downhill so this fast start didn't hurt me, really. I sustained what was probably about a 6:00 min pace for the first mile and a half as I began to reel in all those trigger happy runners ahead of me. I soon caught up to a pair of track runners (at least I assumed they were) and we leap frogged the next half mile until about half way through the race when a sustained ascent up a hill that lasted about half a mile+ slowed them down enough for me to pull ahead. I passed another 2 runners before I got a really bad cramp half way through the last mile. *Note to self: allow more than 2 hours of digestion time before racing. The final decent of the race was around the next corner. The street was dark and I could only see one runner ahead of me. The crap was really annoying but I knew I had less than a mile to go so I toughed it out and passed this guy before the second to last corner. I heard him try to catch up to me before the final climb to the finish but I was having none of that. I sprinted up that last hill (and by hill, it wasn't really what I normally consider a hill. It was really just a short sloped section of road but it's easier to call it a hill) and finished with a time of 19:30, pretty much my goal pace. According to my garmin, the distance was exactly 3.1 miles, as opposed to other "5k's" I've run in Auburn and fall short of that distance, plus this course was an "official" 5k route so it better be on target. It's been a while since I've run an official 5k so it's not a huge surprise that I PR'd. I placed 23rd overall and something like 13th in my age group. I wasn't entirely satisfyed with my placement but I was okay with my time.
So here I sit in my under-furnished apartment on this Sunday afternoon watching some liquid sunshine patter against my west facing window as I think about what my first route back in Auburn is going to be. I need to get in another 14 if I want to meet this week's quote. Think I might take a nap first and let the summer heat fall with the sun before I head out.
Last Friday night I participated in my first midnight race in Cullman, AL. With 691 participants this was the biggest 5k I had ever run. There was even a little expo with live entertainment in the Cullman Civic Center run by Fleet Feet. I decided to run the course backwards ahead of time just to get an idea of where the major hills where etc., but with nothing more than a not-to-scale map of the route printed on the registration form to guide me, I got a little off course and ended up running about 4.5 miles to get back to the start. Midnight approached and we all gather towards the starting line where I saw several familiar faces that I was not expecting to see that night. It was good to see them again before I headed off to Auburn. (I had left Huntsville Friday night for the race, then spent the night in Birmingham and went to AU the next day with all my stuff.)
The gun fired and off we were. I could tell already a ton of people had gone out way to fast. After the first quarter mile my pace was about 5:33, a little to fast for a race of this distance, (Maybe one day it won't be but I'm not there yet) but it did start downhill so this fast start didn't hurt me, really. I sustained what was probably about a 6:00 min pace for the first mile and a half as I began to reel in all those trigger happy runners ahead of me. I soon caught up to a pair of track runners (at least I assumed they were) and we leap frogged the next half mile until about half way through the race when a sustained ascent up a hill that lasted about half a mile+ slowed them down enough for me to pull ahead. I passed another 2 runners before I got a really bad cramp half way through the last mile. *Note to self: allow more than 2 hours of digestion time before racing. The final decent of the race was around the next corner. The street was dark and I could only see one runner ahead of me. The crap was really annoying but I knew I had less than a mile to go so I toughed it out and passed this guy before the second to last corner. I heard him try to catch up to me before the final climb to the finish but I was having none of that. I sprinted up that last hill (and by hill, it wasn't really what I normally consider a hill. It was really just a short sloped section of road but it's easier to call it a hill) and finished with a time of 19:30, pretty much my goal pace. According to my garmin, the distance was exactly 3.1 miles, as opposed to other "5k's" I've run in Auburn and fall short of that distance, plus this course was an "official" 5k route so it better be on target. It's been a while since I've run an official 5k so it's not a huge surprise that I PR'd. I placed 23rd overall and something like 13th in my age group. I wasn't entirely satisfyed with my placement but I was okay with my time.
So here I sit in my under-furnished apartment on this Sunday afternoon watching some liquid sunshine patter against my west facing window as I think about what my first route back in Auburn is going to be. I need to get in another 14 if I want to meet this week's quote. Think I might take a nap first and let the summer heat fall with the sun before I head out.
Sounds like a good start to an interesting blog!
ReplyDelete