The last two weeks at work have been difficult so I never got around to writing a Broad Street Race report.
Juxt pretty much got it right anyway, and it wasn’t much different than the previous 2 efforts in that race.
Friday night my sister (youngest sister – not the one some of you met in Indy) and brother-in-law were the race directors for a 5k at their kids’ school/church. They convinced my son to volunteer and me to run in it, I didn’t want him racing as he had a lacrosse tournament with 4 games the next day. I knew going in that I had a chance to win it as last year’s winner ran around 18:30. I had never done this race before, but had run a race that was about 90% common with this course back in 2011 (20:20). I knew the first 2 miles would be fast and the 3rd mostly uphill would be a challenge.
It was 84 degrees at the start and I settled in in the 2nd row behind a bunch of elementary school kids, including my ever confident 8 year old nephew. The wiser 10 year old nephew knew to line up behind me. The race starts going uphill a bit and I thought I got off to a good start as passed the little ones ahead of me, but I saw 3 runners ahead of me. One of those runners (last year’s winner) was way out in front, he had some serious sprinting speed.
About ¼ of a mile in while still in 4th I took a look at my watch and it showed 5:10 which was ridiculous. Shortly thereafter I see the 2nd and 3rd place runners starting to fall back to me. I’m in second by the time I get to the 1 miler marker at 5:22 and gaining on the leader. Around 1.25 I caught the leader and encouraged him to stay with me, but as expected he dropped off after a few seconds. I pleased with how I ran the 2nd mile even if it was helped by running mostly downhill (5:33). I started the last mile strong as I felt like I had a chance to do something. I don’t know if it was the incline or the heat but that last mile destroyed me, and I’m annoyed I didn’t have more fight in me. It was cool see my son cheering for me as I made the last turn. I finished in 17:25 which is a PR time for but the course might be short as Garmin had it at 3.09. 2nd place came in at 19:56.
My mom also volunteered at the race and she got to see me finish, I think the last time she saw me race was in 2005 when I ran a half marathon with my sisters. The kid that finished 2nd is 19 and I used to play basketball with his father in high school.
I feel fortunate with the results of these past two races, and it’s funny that they almost feel like lifetime achievement awards as they are better outcomes than I should expect based on my recent training. I’m sort of being rewarded for the work I put in last fall and previous training cycles. I also have to give some credit to magic shoes. I need to race some more 5Ks as I think sub 17 seem more achievable now, on the right day and course. I'm going to take it mostly easy this week, and then start base building in June ahead of the start of marathon training 7/17.