April 23, 2013

Race Recap: Crystal City 5k Fridays

One of my goals for 2013 is to run a sub-25 minute 5k.

My current PR is 25:03.

One would think it would be tremendously easy to knock 4 seconds off of my 5k time.

That would be true...if I actually knew how to do math.

I had hoped to be able to run the entire 5k series which happen in Crystal City every Friday in April at 6:30pm

As life would have it, I would only be able to run 1 of the 4 races so that would be my big attempt at a 5k PR.

I normally leave work early on Fridays and this past Friday was no different.

I got home, changed, drank a bottle of water and just kind of hung out before The Pilot, the puppy and I headed over to the start.

They were calling for a thunderstorm and the clouds were looming but the rain hadn't started yet.

The Race Start was crowded and I headed out at just below an 8:00 pace with the idea that if I maintained that, I would run in under 25 minutes.

5ks are short enough that this doesn't need to be a full on recap. Basically, I ran the 2nd mile a little bit slower than the first mile and picked the pace back up at Mile 3. I felt strong the whole time and thought I was on course to PR until my watch beeped at the 3rd mile marker in 24-something and I realized that I still had 0.1 to go.

Forgetting to calculate the 0.1 in the 5k when you're aiming for a PR is not the best way to achieve said PR.

I finished in 25:3x. My official results weren't recorded for some reason but I know I didn't PR.

Womp womp.

Fun Fact: The reason I ran a 4:01 marathon at Richmond is because I forgot to calculate the 0.2  in my pacing strategy.

Looks like I've learned a tough lesson.

Welp, 5ks are a dime a dozen. Let's hope I can hit that sub-25 sometime soon...and remember the lesson for Marine Corps in October. 

6 comments:

  1. hahah this is great! Well now you know that with planning you will hit goal for the MCM!

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  2. Bummer you didn't make it this time around - that just means you can set yourself up for a good showing the next 5K that comes by! ;)

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  3. I use Daily Mile to predict paces for race distances like that. Just pretend you're making a new entry and enter in the distance and your goal time. I also ran 26.44 in both of my last two marathons (no Garmin for my first), so that's what I go by when trying to figure out goal pace. Ex. goal time for my June marathon is 3:49:59/8:46 (official) pace. But really 8:41 pace if I account for not running the tangents.

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  4. I've been there! I've also had the issue where my watch distance and the course distance don't match up. For these reasons I usually display the total time elapsed instead of the pace towards the end of a race.

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  5. Ha, I do that a lot. I always forget the .XX Ruins everything!!

    You're right, though, there are tons of 5ks throughout the year, so you're bound to crush your PR sometime this year!

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  6. MCM BABY! I missssss you. I miss that we aren't in Europe right now. I'm actually really sad about it :(

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