Yates City 5K 2011 Version

Yes, I did this race in 2009 when I was much further along in my running.

Things were different this year for a variety of reasons, not the least being my conditioning going into the race.
It was scheduled to start at 7:30 but a line of thunderstorms pushed the start back to 8:15 (ok, in this rural community); note that the race director was following the storm track on a computer in a nearby bank (which they had the keys to); hence they knew when they could start the race safely. Talk about a mix between the small town (of yesteryear) atmosphere and the ultra modern!

And yes, I was 3:37 slower this year than I was in 2009; those are the breaks.

When we started it was 73 F with 87 percent humidity; it was suffocating. Or I’ll put it this way: the WINNING TIME was 20:19 (by a 49 year old man!) When is the last time you’ve heard of a 5K run being won by a time over 20 minutes on a basic road course? Sure, there was one gradual incline at about mile 2, but the course was far from difficult. It was the sauna like conditions, IMHO.

I didn’t catch my mile split but I knew it was about 9 minutes; perhaps a shade faster. What I do know is that I started almost dead last and I could hear the “trailing fire engine” right behind me. I passed about 1/3 of the field in the first 10 minutes or so and then about 1/6′th of the field in the next 5 minutes. I didn’t pass anyone else over the rest of the race but I did move up just a bit on the pack ahead of me; much to my surprise the lead vehicle stayed in (distant) sight for much of the race. I am not used to that.

I didn’t have a clue as to how fast I was going and that might have been helpful. I finished in 27:44 which was a few seconds faster than last week’s race on a much easier day to run; I think that my conservative start helped a bit.

Oh it wasn’t a total loss; I got a great workout, I enjoyed myself and, well, remember that only 48 people showed up (I finished 23′rd) and I was the second male over 50 (the first was about 1:30 ahead of me); the females over 50 kicked our butts (22:xx and 26:xx). But I won’t talk about that too much.

On one hand, my lack of speed is discouraging. But on the other hand, running is FINALLY starting to feel better. I just need to keep losing weight and to stay patient; not too much too soon.

Note: from last week’s Brimfield race:

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