Scope It Out 5k Race Report

Despite my concerns yesterday about the rough start, today's race was excellent. We had so many things to consider for this morning: what time to wake up, how to get to the race, whats the weather going to be like, what should we eat for breakfast. The funny thing about this race is that it was only 2 miles away from my apartment and we still had to get up at 5:30 am for a race that started at 8:30! The one problem: the National Marathon was also being run today, so most of the streets in DC were closed. It all seemed to work out though, except for the weather. Great running temps in the low 50s, but the misty rain didn't make for great splashing in the face.

We got to the race site with more than an hour to spare, so we did a small warm up and walked around until they were ready to start lining up. The race was nicely organized and made sure to stagger runners by pace, so that runners in the front were 5:00 min/mile pace, behind them were 6:00 min/mile pace, and so on. I decided to line up in the 6 min/mile pace group, since I'm somewhere between 6:00 - 7:00 mile pace for a 5k.

The gun went off and it was a quick start. Unfortunately, some of the people in the 5 min/mile group should not have been there and I had to weave my way through them. That has always been one of my pet peeves for race etiquette. Maybe its just me, but its a lot more encouraging to start a little back and pick people off one by one. After the first 1/2 mile I was part of larger group of about 15 runners, who were back from the 2 leaders way ahead. We all pretty much stayed close the rest of the race, which was nice to have. I kept my eyes on the people in front of me, knowing that I could easily pick them off at the end if I stayed with them. As a sprinter in my former life, I can kick it into high gear, if necessary. We hit the first mile marker and I read 6:20 on my watch. I was happy with that, knowing that I'd slow down a bit, but within my goal pace.

We hit the turnaround point and my legs felt a little heavy. Since we had to actually turn around, it took me out of my flow in the race and I needed a bunch of strides to get back to pace. Once we hit mile marker 2, I knew the end was near. A brief look down at my watch showed that I was a little off pace, but still on target for my goal time. We hit the long straight road back to the finish and I started to open it up. I picked off about 3-4 people. Within a couple hundred yards, I started my sprint and passed by 2 more people.

My official time was 20:06, but I got 20:00 on my watch. The irony, and I kid you not, was that my goal time was to break 20:00. So close! This wasn't really based on any goal miles per minute, but based on my previous experience running cross country in high school. Back in the day, I'd run in the high 18s to low 19s. I don't consider that a realistic goal, because I am not training for 5k races, just running a few of them for fun. So I set my goal for under 20:00. I will note that in my RECENT life (ie not high school), the fastest 5k I've run was 21:26, so my new time destroyed that. Here are the stats on the race:

Place Div/Tot  Num     Name       Age   Gun T Net T    Pace
36    13/169   1525   Adam Lesser  27   20:07   20:06   6:28

After I finished, I waited around for my TT to finish.  As I watched  the
official clock tick toward her range, I started walking up the last stretch
to give her some cheering. I spotted her with only a little to go and
encouraged her to pick off a few people on the homestretch.  As I ran
with her through her last steps she kicked it up a notch and passed one
more right before the finish line.  It was a great finish and she ended
with a great time of 28:28.