Race Report - 2009 Race for the Cure 5k

Bright and early this morning I went to Brentwood for the 2009 Race for the Cure 5k. From a race perspective it was the most unorganized race I’ve ever been to. Registration was a nightmare, getting your timing chip (actually a strip) required standing in 2 lines but you had no way of knowing that until after you’d waited through the first line, the start was delayed over 10 minutes, the course was not flat like they had said and it was not measured correctly. Basically they organized an “event” not a race. Nothing wrong with that, but I’m not sure I want to plan on running it next year, at least not competitively.

So after a delay they finally started, but most of the people in front of me obviously didn’t understand how a race was supposed to work. I was fairly close to the front of the pack, but still stuck behind people doing ridiculous things like walking (there was a separate start for them), running backwards while trying to take a picture or just running incredibly slow. As a result my first mile was slower than I was trying for, even with me running up on the grass to try to pass people.

My initial plan was to run 8:00 miles and sprint the last .1 to try to break the 25:00 mark. My first mile was 8:09 thanks to the slow people, but I rebounded with a 2nd mile of exactly 8:00. The faster than normal pace started taking it’s toll and my 3rd mile was 8:15. Realizing I wasn’t going to beat 25:00 I wanted to make sure I at least beat 26:00. Right after I crossed the finish line I looked down and saw my new 5k PR of 25:29 and then came really, really (like made the noise and everything) close to throwing up. Luckily I held it in, but I guess I pushed myself literally as hard as I could have today and I have a new PR so I’m happy. After I recovered I looked at my Garmin again and realized that I had actually come closer to my original goal than I thought because the course was actually 3.16 miles. The results they posted showed me as #100 out of all men and #18 in my age category (30-34) which is kinda disappointing because the only reason I agreed to get older was to make it easier for me to place in races

UPDATE: And the official results:

Overall: 136 / 527

Sex: 100 / 199

Age (30-34): 17 / 25

I also did the math and determined that even if they had measured the course correctly I still wouldn’t have beat my goal of 25:00, but I would have been close.  I ran the last 0.16 mi at a 6:52 pace and based on that if you take off the extra 0.06 mi I ran 3.1 in 25:05.27.