Riverfront 5K

Smallish 5K in Albany, Georgia this morning (http://riverfrontrun.com/). Finished 2nd overall (to a 15 yr old kid!) and set a PR of 19:10. The middle section was on a nature trail, the rest was on a paved walking path - great course and great weather (mid 40s). They changed the course from last year, and I think the distance was correct this time - last year it was a good deal less than 3.1 miles, which artificially lowered everyone's times. I think this is probably the 2nd true 5K distance that I've raced (so it is not that hard to set a PR!).

I have been sick and was coughing a lot last night and this morning. Got through the run just fine, but found it hard to breathe at times during the race. Splits were 5:51, 6:18, and 6:12 for miles 1-3. After the race, lots of coughing and hacking. Was quietly hoping to break 19:00, but 19:10 is good for me too. I don't know if being sick hurt my time, but I'm sure it didn't help either. Anyway, it was fun. I noticed that last year after running a fall 5K, my legs were really sore afterwards. It is nice this year to feel basically none the worse for wear.

Stupid cold/chest congestion/coughing is keeping me from running like I want to, but I'll be back to normal soon....

Have a nice day!

Congrats on a great race, John! And 5Ks promote lots of coughing and breathing hard because they hurt and they are supposed to! Nice splits.

Congrats on the 2nd place! Great splits and I hope you feel better soon!

Michele "1L" Keane wrote:5Ks promote lots of coughing and breathing hard because they hurt and they are supposed to! Nice splits.

Ha - I guess that did come out sort of stupid . What I meant was I felt like my lungs were full of crap and it was harder to breathe than it should of been! I didn't even go to this race planning on running hard - those 5Ks do hurt - after about the first mile I was thinking how easy it would be to just slow down and cruise it in (but then what would the point of that be?).

Julie wrote:Congrats on the 2nd place! Great splits and I hope you feel better soon!

Thanks Julie - I'll be fine, just the average run of the mill cold...

Nice work on the new PR, John. A 19:10 in a 5K is nothing to sneeze at.

Cough, hack, gag, maybe... but definitely NOT sneeze.

Here's hoping your efforts aided in the expectoration, and will speed recovery.

Pretty respectable performance given you were not 100%, sounds like another 5K PR is possible.

Nice PR,John! sub 19 is around the corner.

Great race -- would have been faster if you weren't under the weather.

Congrats!

Mark B wrote:Nice work on the new PR, John. A 19:10 in a 5K is nothing to sneeze at.

Cough, hack, gag, maybe... but definitely NOT sneeze.

Here's hoping your efforts aided in the expectoration, and will speed recovery.

Thanks!

Jeff F wrote:Pretty respectable performance given you were not 100%, sounds like another 5K PR is possible.

I really don't know if having a cold even made me any slower, just maybe a little more miserable! It would be pretty cool to one day break 19. Not that long ago it seemed almost impossible to break 20!

Jerry wrote:Nice PR,John! sub 19 is around the corner.

Thanks Jerry - that would be cool!

Dave Wolfe wrote:Great race -- would have been faster if you weren't under the weather.

Maybe, maybe not, but I was grateful for the time nonetheless...

Natalie wrote:Congrats!

Thanks!

Nice time, good for you!

Nice job John. 2nd place when you're feeling like crap is pretty damn good. Congrats.

Very nice job on the 5K!

Pretty good pacing. Were you able to get back below 6:00 for the final 0.1. If so, you have more in the tank and can easily get down in the 18s with more steady pacing in the middle. But you are right there now and should be able to knock it down next time.

nice race. 18:xx in the cards soon. BTW - my daughter is taking your advice and running the Albany Marathon in March.