Monday, February 3, 2014

Super 5K

February 2, 2014

A mediocre performance for an aging gazelle.

18:03.  5.49 average pace.  12th overall, 1st in age group.  Full results here.

Mile 1:  Followed in Nate's footsteps up to the mile marker on Earles' Court, before Nate hit the hyperspace button and flew ahead.  Disappointing pace of 5:52 (versus 5:39 last year); I knew right here I wouldn't be hitting any time goals today.

Mile 2:  By the time we turned left onto Gibson Ave, Nate had put three runners between him and me!  I passed one muscle-bound runner at the turn around, and had two more between us heading back.  As always, really cool seeing all the WTAC jerseys coming back at me.  Disappointing 6 flat pace.
The painful facial expression tells it all as
my form is breaking down and I'm just trying
to hold off my age-group competitor (rear left)

Mile 3:  I passed one runner at the bottom of Earles' Court, and now just had one to reel in.  Little did I know at the time, but the remaining runner between Nate and me was the only one ahead of me in my age group.  Passed him on Ocean Road just before the Coast Guard House.  Nate was too far ahead of me at this point, but at least I finally had a really good mile with a 5:32 pace.
Huge WTAC showing!

Negative splits (rare for me) are supposed to be a good thing, but in retrospect I really think I should've pushed it harder earlier in the race.  Next went to look for Matthew, but as soon as I turned around he was coming in as the next WTAC runner.  Great day for WTAC in general - both men's and women's team won!  Kudos to all, but special callouts to Mike G for an insanely fast PR in 15:29 and Nate for his impressive PR in 17:39.

2 comments:

  1. "Mediocre performance for an aging Gazelle?" Jeez, too hard on yourself! Come on, look at all the results, everybody ran or felt slow on the way out. It was easy to get lulled into the pack pace and lose time there. Double check that pic, champ, who's wearin a hat? Damn right. Walkers are. Don't read anything into your result, you're gonna be as fast as ever this year!

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  2. I'm with Mike. You still ran very strong and it's a winter race. With your training and volume expect a big 2014!

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