Race Report - Irish Jig 5K

The Irish Jig 5K is a much larger event than I expected - almost 2500 runners!  I'm sure St. Patrick's Day is part of the draw since it provides a good excuse for those who want to drink on a Saturday morning.  It was COLD, too!  This past week we saw temps in the 50s and 60s but it wouldn't last.  While we had clear skies, a bright sun, and light wind to cheer us up, the 20-degree air wasn't exactly ideal.  Of course, I wore shorts. 

Several of my co-workers were there, most of whom I never was able to find among the huge crowd.  I did get to talk to a few both before and after the race, however.  A couple of them were my lunch-hour running buddies so we'll have a lot to talk about during Monday's run.

My goal for this race was to get under 22:00, a goal I failed to reach in my last 5K.  This wouldn't be easy, as my modern-day (i.e. after high school) PR for a 5K is a dog-assisted 22:42 last October.  There was such a throng of runners that it took me 40 seconds to reach the start line!  In the first mile I passed literally hundreds of runners, so while I may have started too far back I think the real problem was the slow runners starting from the front.  I suppose they didn't know any better, but it was still a pain to weave past these folks.

I wanted to start out fast and see how long I could keep it up - I figured that if I crashed, at least I'd know my limits but no way was I going to start slow and finish with too much in the tank.  I was hoping to get close to a 7:00 pace and was shocked when I passed the 1 mile mark in 6:50!  Sweet.

Now I just have to maintain that pace...  while it was certainly easier said than done, I was still able to hold a good pace.  I was still passing people frequently, yet a few others passed me.  For a while along this stretch I was following a young girl who must've been three feet tall!  She was amazing - she couldn't have been older than 10 - wearing little pink sunglasses and a day-glow jacket that was probably necessary so that other runners wouldn't step on her!  The course wound through a residential neighborhood with a fair amount of spectators, so I wonder what they though to see this bright little girl being chased by a guy twice her height wearing black. :) 

Finally I passed the 2 mile mark at 13:50, which means I ran a 7:00 second mile.  Not bad!  Going up a slight hill I passed the little girl but just a minute later I was feeling TIRED.  There aren't supposed to be any walls in short races but it felt like I was running through mud.  One of the neighborly spectators was sitting in his driveway playing a well-known tune on his bagpipes!  Awesome.  I wanted to say something but I could barely breathe.

Actually it was all I could do to keep my pace up.  If my attention lapsed for a minute I found myself unwittingly slowing down so I had to frequently remind myself to push the pace.  I started looking for the 3 mile marker at around 15:00 - WAAAY to early but I was dyin' for the finish to be near!  For inspiration I started thinking of my dogs and how excited they get when running - it kept my mind smiling rather than thinking about how much pain I was in!

I finally reached the 3 mile mark and looked at my watch, but I couldn't do the simple math to calculate my split and for the life of me I can't even remember what the time was.  My mind was turning to mush.  It was already a slight downhill at this point (thankfully) and I was picking up speed knowing that the finish was near.  I rounded the last corner just 50 yards before the finish and kicked in the afterburner.  Holy cow, doing that on a downhill can really make me go fast!  My legs almost got away from me and my mental reaction time was so slow that I was afraid I'd crash into someone at the finish! 

Almost There!

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Luckily I squeaked into the chute without incident.  Did I mention that my mind was complete gone?  Amanda was photographing along that home stretch but I never saw her.  At the finish I forgot to stop my watch and I never noticed the giant clock they have there, so I had no clue what my finish time was.  Amanda thought she saw me cross at 21:47, which would be sweet if true.  Unfortunately I had to wait until they post the results online to know for sure.

The results are in!  I finished in 21:07!!!  Wow, that's much faster than I'd hoped.  Before the race I would've predicted 21:45 to 22:15.  Amazingly a 21:07 is a 6:49 pace, so I must've been pushing hard in that last mile.  Needless to say I'm very pleased with my effort today.  The results put me at 28/191 for my age group and 237/2488 overall. 

That's almost enough for me to feel a bit fast, until I look at these guys below...  Amanda got photos of the top four finishers and they all crossed the line under 15:00!  Damn.  The winner blazed in at 14:23!!  Unreal.  He finished 30 seconds after I crossed the 2 mile marker!  Now those guys are FAST.

Irish Jig 5K - winner

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Irish Jig 5K - runners up