Shamrock Shuffle 5K race report

Sotally Tober · #1 03-15-2010, 12:57 PM

Sotally Tober is Runnin' to the Finish Line: The 5K PR...that wasn't

Ran a 5K yesterday. Well, it was supposed to be a 5K. It was an out-and-back, and apparently the cop who was responsible for telling us to turn around, had us turn around too soon.

I went into the day thinking I didn't want to run hard (I had a long run to do later in the day). I thought I'd run it about 24 minutes, enjoy the run, and be done. But the day was cold, wet & windy, so I decided I wanted to get this thing over with. So I went out early and tried to run hard, without going all out. About an 8.5, or 9.0, on a scale of 1-10. No redlining. I was successful at that, regardless of the actual distance we ran.

I hit the 1-mile mark in 6:03. OK, about what I expected. Just gliding along. I'm literally looking around, just having fun.

When we got turned around by the cop, it didn't feel like I'd gone 0.55 miles past the 1 mile mark (I wasn't wearing my Garmin for this, just my Nike watch). When I got to the guy at the 2-mile mark calling out splits, the guy calls out "10:30!" 10:30?!? WTF?!? Now I knew something was wrong. So I decided to stick with my plan and just run at the same level I had been.

I got to the finish in 17:18, I just didn't know how far I'd run. I learned that the course wound up being 2.8 miles. At that pace, I'd have finished in 19:09 for a PR by a 1:18. That would have been nice, but it was not to be. It does tell me what my goal 5K time for 2010 is...18:30. Good gawd, I can't believe I just posted that. But that's what I'm shooting for. On a wet, nasty, windy day, I could have gone sub-19, no doubt, had I chosen to. And had they actually marked the course correctly.

The race had 231 men, 296 women. I finished 4th overall, 2nd in my age group. I don't care what the distance was, I'll take 4th overall any day. http://www.runningtime.net/Races/sha...lts/5KOver.htm

But since I ran considerably harder than I had planned to, my 18-20 miler later that day turned into a 15-miler, in pouring rain. Dinner tasted very, very good that night.

upnorthmom · #2 03-15-2010, 04:39 PM

Glad to hear that you surprised yourself with the speed you had available to you. Sorry that the course was inaccurately marked. I have a gripe about that. In the world of GPS, where almost any runner has one available to them . . . why in the world would a planned race have an inaccurate course? I just ran in a race in early December and it ended up being just over 2.9 miles. That is frustrating to me since I don't go out to win, I go out to complete the distance and hopefully beat my previous score. I can't even compete against myself properly if the course isn't marked right. Arghhh.

Anyway, I hope that you ended up having fun at the race nonetheless.

Sotally Tober · #3 03-15-2010, 09:11 PM

Actually, the course was accurately measured. The cop on the bike leading the race turned too early, and everyone followed. Race director is a friend of mine, and he was PISSED when he figured out what happened. So now, they're actually going back out in the next day or two to re-measure what we actually ran, just so people know. I heard a lot of Garmins had it right around 2.8. My wife's read 2.83.

In the end, I'm not upset, but I'm sure there were plenty who were disappointed that they had no shot at a PR, no matter how well they ran.