The Great Pumpkin 5k

I ran the Great Pumpkin 5k in Davison, MI this morning. I rustled the family out of bed early and we all rode up to the race at Davison High School. It was a great morning with perfect running weather.

I wanted to do this race because the course looked flat and fast (it was). Perfect conditions to set a personal record and meet my goal of a 24 minute 5k in 2011.

At the start of the race, I went out way too fast. My goal was to keep 7:20 (or 23 min) pace for as long as I could. For the first half mile, I was closer to 6:45, though by the end of the first mile, I was at 7:10. I was struggling a lot more with my breathing than I thought I would and the second mile was at 7:44 - still at 24 minute pace. The last mile was just bad - 8:35. While I finished the very end strong, my time was disappointing - 24:45 (24:40 per my watch and the clock).

While I was disappointed, it was an adult 5k PR by well over a minute and I finished in 3rd place in my age group. After I had a little time to be ticked off that I didn't meet my goal, I realized that, with my half marathon training, it had been nearly a month since I ran anywhere near 5k pace. Most of my runs were at a slower, half marathon pace or less. You run like you train, and I haven't been training for a 5k since June!

The other thing I noticed about today's race is that the course was almost a tenth of a mile long. I was hoping that my Garmin would show that I did the 5k distance in 24 minutes, but it was actually 24:15. It is closer and makes me feel a little less badly. :) While the result wasn't what I expected, I ran as well I ever have, got a medal and had a good time.

There was a kids race after the 5k was done and my lil' boy decided he wanted to run - right before the race started (not earlier when I could have registered him). He was upset as the kids ran by, so I told him to just go. So, he joined the race as a bandit runner and was cute as he ran around the track. He even got the plastic metal and a lollipop when he was done.