I headed out from the "8:00 minute per mile area..." Well I am guessing most of the people in that area can't read, because I was passing people like I was an Indy car on the highway. I think I ran about an extra 100-200 yards (well maybe not, but it sure was frustrating) because of all the weaving.

I think I hit the first mile marker in 8:28 per the offical time clock. I thought oh NO I have 28 seconds to make up.... then I remembered... DOH I didn't hit the timing mat until about 20-30 seconds after the gun went off. I was feeling pretty good most the the first mile, I was trying to keep it pretty consistant.

I was running smoothly and kept the same pace, hit the water station and ran past it. I was carring my 6 oz gel bottle with water, sipping from that when my mouth was too dry. Toward the end of the 2nd mile I was starting to feel a little tired and I could tell I was starting to slow down just a little.

Pacing was not going quite as well for the third mile. I was definately getting tired. I am actually pretty happy that I only lost 20 seconds on this mile from the pace on the other 2. When I was re-crossing the bridge I was not sure how I was going to handle the balance of the race. I was thinking about trying to kick it up a little more, but I was holding back just a little. When I heard the Garmin beep for the 3rd mile, I started to kick it a little more. I think I kicked a little earlier than I should have. I was thinking all I had to do was run into the stadium and I would be finishing. I didn't think about having to run AROUND the track again, that took the wind out of me for a short bit. I knew I was running close to my desired pace - 25:00, and I wanted to beat that. Per my Garmin I ran the 5K in 24:52, but the race finished about .05 longer so the final race time was 25:08.

My "Offical" race time is not correct, some how my timing chip caught the start, but then missed the finish. I asked about it, and they asked if I knew what my finish time was... I told them I thought I finished in 25:00, they plugged that in as the "clock" time so it read as 24:09 since it (apparently) took me 1:00 to cross the start line. The web site says I came in 26th out of 56, and 260 of 638 (men) and 312 of 1047 finishers. I don't want to take credit for doing better than I did, so that is why I checked and moved my self down to the correct spots.

This is a PR, although I am not sure that I am going to count it as such. I would have liked to have had real offical results... but maybe next race.

I think I would start out a little more in front, so I am not playing dodge runner. I think I would also push a little harder, even though I was tired. The mental aspect of this race was a little harder for me, and I need to toughen up with that part of the race.

Walked around grabbed a water and headed out to cheer Trigirl10 into the finish line.

She finished about 5 minutes later, and I headed over to talk with her. She had pushed pretty hard and was struggling to relax and breath again.


Just not running enough, not being willing to push as hard as I should in training.


Lots of oranges, bananas, and other food and drinks. They had a kids run where they gave out medals for all the kids. Great event and lots of fun.