Saturday, June 13, 2009

First race since 2003 this morning!


Well, where to start? I've been anticipating this little 5k for months now. I'll give you the short story first: I finished in 22:20 (7:12 pace) and finished second place OVERALL! Okay, so there were only about 40 runners in the 5k, but I didn't expect to place at all! What was even better was that the guy who beat me was 44, so us old guys held off all the young'uns. MASTERS POWER! WOOHOO! My goal was 23:00, so I'm happy there (not a PR, but for not racing for so long, I can't complain). The course was hilly, and I could definitely tell that the hills I've been running REALLY paid off! The longest hill was on the way out, starting probably around the half mile mark. At that point, I was probably in 5th or 6th place. That's where I passed everyone except the leader and held on. There were no mile markers, so I had to just go by perceived exertion. I wanted to go out slow, and felt like I held back some, but I have no idea how fast it was.
So, if you can't tell, I'm JACKED about getting back out there and running more races! I'm not really suited for 5k's, so I'll be looking for longer races. I'm planning on a fall half-marathon (not sure which one yet), with maybe a 10k leading up to it. Next up is the bike leg of the Whisky Dick Triathlon on Aug. 9th. Talk about hills...the bike leg starts with 12 uphill miles. Time to hop back on the bike (while still running a little...'cause I gotta!) starting next week.
Hope everyone enjoyed their races this weekend!

7 comments:

  1. Great job Colin! I would like to hit that time soon..... very nice returning race!

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  2. Thanks Tim. Did you run your race yet?

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  3. That's an awesome comeback! Grey power, woohoo! I've NEVER placed in a race so far...Sounds like it's worth the effort!

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  4. Hey, who's grey? ;-)
    Thanks Nicole. It was a hoot to be back out there, stiff competition or not!

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  5. Wow! That is so awesome!! I knew that you would run a great race but I was totally not expecting to read "and finished second place OVERALL!" That has got to be the best feeling for you!!

    [cough] Excuse me, but now that you're a master you will be setting all these new master PR's for yourself. So, you just set your very first master PR.

    Way to go!!!!!

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  6. Fantastic time, way to go. Pretty good for your first race in years. You must be pretty happy with the results. Congrats

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  7. Thanks Chris & SS. You know, it never really hit me that this was my 5k PR as a master, but that's a great way to look at it. I keep comparing my current running with what I did 20 or 25 years ago and it's not a fair comparison. Thanks for reminding me (not that I'm getting old, but that this is a "fresh start"). But I still think I could hit many of the times I did years ago...IF...I stay healthy. As for the finishing position, I almost found it humorous. In a big race, I wouldn't have placed in my age group, let alone overall. But it was still fun to do so!

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