Quick post about yesterday’s Independence Day 5k at Mount Trashmore, Virginia Beach. Wasn’t expecting a super-fast time after a week of non-running whilst vacationing in Vegas, but I was determined to run as fast as possible as I’d be basing my marathon training paces on my finish time.
Start of race:
Note how fast 11 year old Travis Redmond takes off for his brief moment of glory. Also note how quickly I drop back into about 12th position in an attempt to establish a good pace.
The first mile felt comfortable despite several 90 degree turns and a quick 180 thrown in near the start of the race. Split was 5:43 and at this stage in the game I found myself sitting pretty in 6th place and feeling good. I surged slightly, passed a couple of runners who were already fading but then struggled badly with a right turn on the gravel. I was wearing my Newtons Racers and one thing I’m not totally happy with is the way they handle around sharp corners. The four forefoot lugs are much better in a forward dynamic than on a lateral plane and I ended up running against all the other runners who were heading out on their loop around the small Mount Trashmore hill. Sorry everyone! I made sure to run way off the side of the road and crossed over to the correct side when there was enough of a gap to not cause a problem, but still felt a little guilty…
Heading towards the second 180 turn, I still felt strong and had hopes of catching the guy in second place who was 45 steps ahead of me. The turn seemed to be in a slightly different position to last year, but the volunteer was in place with his flag and waved me round the cone. As we headed back towards the start line, hopes of catching runner #2 faded and my third place disappeared too as a stealth-like runner breezed by me at the two mile mark. The second mile split was 5:36 and despite dropping down to fourth, I still felt pretty good.
I crossed the start line at about 14 minutes and told myself I just had about 4 minutes of running left in the race (2 minutes out, another 180 degree turn, and 2 minutes back to the finish. In the 2 minutes out I managed to catch runner #3 who may have not realized there was another out and back to run. However, when he saw how close behind I was, he kicked for home and finished about 5 seconds ahead of me. My official finish time was 18:10, but the course turned out to be about one tenth of a mile long giving me an adjusted time of somewhere in the 17:30’s. Not too bad considering the week off and a nice time from which I can base my marathon training.
Finish of race:
YMCA Independence Day 5k – Finish from steve speirs on Vimeo.
Race video courtesy of my wife Ally and the FlipUltra HD Camcorder (currently on sale for an incredible $180.37!).