Spring Gallop 5K

Pete B Sun Apr 01, 2012 11:37 pm

After more than five months off without any training (doctor's orders were 30 days of no activity) I've finally felt well enough to try to get back on the horse. My last race (and run) was the Chicago Marathon in 2011.

I had signed up for this 5K after some procrastination, but I knew it would be a catalyst to get me out on the road again. With eight 3.0 to 3.2 mile runs under my belt I knew this 5K was going to be nothing more than a serious short training run.

This event is one of two 5Ks that I know of at Blackberry Farms south of Aurora, IL, I've run both over the years and each has grown in popularity. What used to be 80 runners, a race director with a bull horn, and timing by bib tab and a stop-watch was now nearly 700 runners, first year of chip timing, and the direction of the course had been reversed to go around the lake first before heading out on the nature trail for the out and back. I guess this was to allow the front runners to get away and allow the rest of us to thin out before there is two way traffic on the asphalt nature trail.

From my slow, but getting better, training runs, I was pretty sure I could break 32:00, which is my slowest (and first) 5K ever. The goal was to see if I could break 30:00 (my PR is 25:18).

A very nice, but crowded, run. I wore my usual Terrapin 5K running shirt. I pushed as hard as I felt I could and I knew it between mile 2 and 2.5 when I was wondering if I would hurl somewhere along the course, but I finished comfortably at 29:14 (9:25 avg pace). My best run since getting back on the horse, the third mile was 9:09 with an 8:22 pace kick to the finish.

A long way to get back to the sub-8 minute miles I used to be able to put out before everything went south.