Flatastic!

I've had an easy weekend - my sister and brother in law are visiting from Florida and we've been visiting Peak's Island, Portland Headlight, Mount Battie, and, of course, the Wiscasset Bay Gallery. But I got out for a short 5 miler with Sasha and Rodney yesterday. No long run because I needed to get back and eat a relaxing breakfast before rushing downtown to make the Peak's Island Ferry. And no long run because I didn't want to completely tire myself before a PR attempt at the 5K this morning. While I couldn't escape long enough to do the Bruiser (what with all the socializing afterwards), Sam, Tom, Will, and I did got out to our local 5K, the Dan Cardillo.

The Dan course is pretty flatastic, but maybe not as flat & fast as Eliot. When I decided to run the Dan a couple of weeks ago, I thought I'd use it as a tune-up to check my fitness level before a fall 5 & 10K. My Clam Festival race was a big drain on my confidence, but over the past few days I thought I could at least match my 5K PR of 18:45. So that was my goal time. Goal pace: 6:02/mi. My first mile was 6:00 and I felt fine. My second mile was 5:58. Again fine and I knew that I had a small downhill ahead (very shallow but I'd take anything). So I pushed it a bit and ran 5:45 for my third mile. The finish is on the Falmouth track (one half lap). I don't have much of a kick but I gave it what I had and finished in official time of 18:23. Sweet. Even though this is a small race (only 260 runners or so) I only finished 7th in my AG (14th overall). What does it take to get a podium in a small 5K in Portland Maine? (the answer for this race was 17:14 for 3rd place in 40-49 AG). 17:14 is the low end of "National Class" according to my WAVA calculator. Anyway, it's a great race and I'd highly recommend it, especially if we can figure out how to get it and the Bruiser on different weekends.

Not long after I finished, I watched for Sam and Will (Tom decided not to run because of sore feet, so he too photos). I could hardly recognize Will running down the track because he was running faster than I'd ever seen him run. Will finished in 21:24 smashing his 5K PR by 4 minutes or so (the 2008 Dan)! Man he looked good. Sam didn't have such a good race. He plays soccer, so doesn't run much, and typically goes out faster than he can maintain (typical HS kid). So he got in a world of hurt but was a good sport when Will passed him. Sam finished in 21:59. I had meant to register us as a team but didn't. Shoulda because we would have placed 3rd, ahead of the Maine Track Club!