Race Report – Fall Down on the Trail 5k
Mark Rebuck and myself went down to Newville this morning for a 5k race that is held on the rails-to-trails path. We got there a bit early and initially I was surprised because only about 10 runners were milling around, but soon a bunch more people showed up. I think the race ended up with about 40-45 people. It was also nice to see that Nate Powell decided to come for the race. The course was an out and back layout, with a small decline for the first 1/3 of a mile or so, then a very slight incline up to the turnaround at 1.55 miles. The conditions were nice, it was about 55 degrees, brisk but not too chilly.
I did a bit of walking and a short jog warmup and then lined up in the 2nd row for the start. The whistle blew and we were off. I was really happy with my starting effort, it was a fairly even pace hovering between 6:16 and 6:20/mile. By about 1/2 a mile I had moved into 4th place. I had a 6:18.83 first mile split and was about 5-6 seconds behind the guys running in 2nd and 3rd place (the first place guy had about 15 seconds on them at this point). I started struggling a bit on my second mile and could see the average pace rising to the mid 6:30s and the 2nd and 3rd place guys pulling away. The turnaround point was a bit odd. There were cones to indicate where to turn around and a guy with a pickup truck who was handing out cups of water. The distance between the final cone and the pickup truck was less than 2 feet, and it was a bit awkward to swing a 180 around the cone and avoid hitting the guy and the truck. I grabbed a dixie cup of water, downed it quickly , and then was off again. I’m sure I didn’t physically need the water on this short of a race, but my mouth was getting dry and I think psychologically it helped by giving me a second or two to get my head together. I started trying to increase my effort, but my legs were still feeling a bit flat. My second mile split was 6:34.01 (2 miles in 12:52). I started feeling a bit better mentally after crossing the 2nd mile marker and worked on trying to keep a steady effort. I was holding a fairly consistent pace between 6:10 and 6:20 for the 3rd mile and was delighted when I saw the bridge ahead which meant about .3 miles to go. My 3rd mile split ended up being my fastest of the race at 6:14.21, and my final .1 miles was at 35.55 seconds. My overall time ended up being 19:43, which is a new 5k PR for me. I placed 4th overall and received a medal for being 1st in the male 30-39 age group. My first time placing in an age group and winning some hardware!
Mark Rebuck did well, he clocked in 23:59 and with it handily won a bet with me for a Neato Burrito. Nate Powell also did great, clocking a 23:23 and busting his old PR by 5 minutes and change!
My GPS measured the course at 3.10 miles and Nate’s had it at 3.12, so it seemed very accurate. I think the race directors did a nice job putting the event together. If they can have the pickup truck at the turnaround moved back a few more feet next year I think it will be close to perfect.
October 20th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
What a great time today, I am still smiling from ear to ear thinking about that race.
I should have mentioned in my post, as you did, it was a very well put together effort by the race coordinators. Small races like that have a tendency to be poorly done, this was not. Kudos to them. I am looking forward to the 15K in the spring by the same people.