St. Patrick's Day 8K - Run8k

My watch lost the GPS signal in the first mile so it was off the rest of the way. I should have remembered to hit the button at the first mile marker, because that was pretty much the only one I saw. We had a fast first mile, it seemed to me, mainly because there was a tailwind, and as we went past the first mile marker I remember seeing the race time at about 7.25, but my watch recorded the eventual first mile as 8.12, and I'm sure I wasn't that slow. My sense is the pace dropped back a little, particularly in the third mile, (this may have been due to us beginning to get a lot of head and crosswind) so I stepped it up after that.

I caught up with Alison, a fellow Potomac River Running club member, and we ran most of the way together until I began stepping it up about mile 3.5 and then she dropped back.

I wish there was a place on this log where you could be more specific about the conditions: yes, it was "sunny" but it was also blowing like 40 bastards. Nice at the start, but hard running into it, and blustery crosswinds made worse by the fact that you were twisting and turning all over the place.

All things considered, however, this was a great result for me. Even with the possible course mix-up taken into account, this would still be around 2 minutes faster than when I did the race in 2006. I've been working hard on starting harder in the first mile, taking short recovery legs in between, and maintaining a harder overall pace and it has really helped.

Memorize the course map, so I know when the mile markers are coming up and I can watch for them.

Make sure to hit the lap button if the watch is off.

I lost focus a little in the last half mile, mainly because of that odd dogleg. You see the finish, then suddenly you don't, then it's there again but at the end of a wide sweeping turn. . .it's little hard to drive for it.

Water and a chocolate chip cookie afterwards; picked up my gear and walked to the metro, ran home about half a mile from the metro. Stretched once I got home.


Not really knowing what my pace was at any given time was a little odd, it's something I've grown used to, but I really tried to put it out of my mind, to run by feel, but not run according to feeling good, but feeling as if I was working hard, but not struggling.

Losing focus in the last half mile meant that I couldn't really wind it up for the finish. I felt I still had a little bit left but I just didn't have the motivation and will to release it.


Logistically this is a great race; excellent support, food, etc. But the course could be a lot better and they have to mark the miles a lot more effectively. I also think that with 5000 registered runners its probably a good idea to try some kind of seeding system. To be fair, however, since they shifted to an 8K they have seemed to gear this race more and more to the "fun run" end of the spectrum (hence, I suppose, the crappy course design) and that's fair enough. It's still a great kick-off event for the start of the season.