Friday, May 16, 2008

Bluff Ridge 5K race - new PR (23:58)

Today is the 5K race. I haven't done a 5K since May of 1996. My time was 33 minutes or so. My goal for this afternoon's race is under 30 minutes. My 5K personal record was set in the seventh grade where I did it in 25:25. Easy number to remember. I don't think I'll come close to that, but would like to be able to run the whole thing without walking.

I wasn't able to sleep very good last night. Last time I looked at the clock it was 12:15pm. This morning I was feeling very groggy so I took a caffeine pill. I also read recently that Caffeine has a positive effect (barring any side effects) on distance races. The pill was taken at around 10:00 am, so I plan to take one more pill around 2:30 in order to get an even more enhanced affect for the race. They're 200 mg pills, so it should pump me up pretty well. Similar to about 80 fl oz of Mtn Dew without the calories. The key thing though is to not turn into a regular user. After today, no caffeine until a triathlon or something.

Will update this blog with the results tonight....

OK I just got back from the race. I am totally excited. I got a new PR! I did the 5K in 23:58 which shatters my old 25:25 time in 7th grade. That is a 7:48 min/mile pace. Which for me is awesome. I kept the goal of not walking except for the two times when I took water at station 2 & 3. I only walked as long as it took to drink 4 fl oz and splash 4 oz on me. Total walking time was only around 15 seconds.

I was breathing like an old man at the end, but I had enough energy to go back about a mile and get Jonas and run with him to finish and fireman carry him about 1/2 of that last mile.

Jacob took second place in his group, and Cathi took second in her division (18-39 yr old). Cathi's time was 25:40 and Jacob's time 24:10. I took first in the family. Granted Cathi was pushing the double stroller with Sam and Oliver and it wasn't going straight so she had to keep lifting the front wheel to correct. She would have probably cut a full minute without the stroller.

I took fourth place. Had I known I would have sprinted harder at the end. I caught up to the guy in front of me and at the end he sprinted when he saw that I was. I wasn't in the race to compete against anyone really, just to get the time I wanted so I let him stay just in front of me. Had I known there would have been a medal to win I would have definitely beat him. Oh well, I'm still very happy about the time.

In fact I'm going to look for a couple other 5K's this summer and try to beat that time. That means I'll have to train more. I didn't have any knee or back issues at all. Cathi rubbed out the huge knot in my back before the race which was a huge help, and the caffeine pills I took really got my wired.

Now I'm off to WFTTC with Austin. Cathi is running her Ogden Marathon early tomorrow morning too.

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