St. Thomas University 5K RR

I hate 5Ks, I've said it time and time again.  So, no idea why I registered for one for today, but I am bored waiting to run marathons, gah!  It has been a very hot and humid week but fortunately, this weekend looked great with Saturday being cooler than Sunday. I also have a 16 miler tomorrow, so I didn't want to race then and miss the chance to do a LR, especially since I didn't do an MLR this week, due to time.

So, there were two 5Ks nearby today and this one grabbed my attention.  It was at my alma mater (I went to law school there) and put on by the Moot Court Team, which I had been in and won awards and competitions while in law school.  So, it was nice to go back to the school and run the campus.

The weather was awesome.  58F at the start, no wind that we could feel.  I got there at 7am, picked my bib, went to the car, got ready and went out for what I thought would be a 3 mile warmup.  But as soon as I started, I had to go to the bathroom, yay, so it ended up being a 2 miler and some time to relax before the race, something I didn't have a chance during the last 5K race.

Hung out with some of the local fast runners and realized the race was very low key.  They had some water stations, medals at the end, and prizes for the Top 3 Men and Women (missed that by two people, damn it).  They even had bananas, bagels, and other stuff at the end of the race.  It was pretty nice.

We start out a little after 8am, and headed out to the campus.  Only then did I realize, this was mostly run on grass, sand, and leaves.  When they said campus, they meant, the grassy parts of the campus.  But overall, the terrain wasn't bad, and the knee had nothing to say.  Yay.

First mile was 9:48mm and I hit the pavement for a bit (around 0.15 miles) after that, so the start of the second mile was faster (around 9:30mm).  Unfortunately, after another round of trail section, we headed to the chapel section and a guy pointed us to the right way to go and me and the girl I was chasing (who had just passed me, curse her, LOL), took the wrong way.  So, we had to backtrack a bit and headed the right way, which made me run a 9:55mm second mile).  Oh, well.  I also realized that at Mile 1 I picked up a branch, that had gotten stuck to my right shoelace and wouldn't come off for anything.  And I wasn't going to stop for it, even though I still felt it every time I took a step, it hit grass.  Fortunately, just before the finish, it loosened and got off.  Mile 3 was my fastest, and I know I could've run faster, but after having asthma issues at my last 5K a few weeks ago for starting out too fast, I went with try to keep the effort the same and not go out all out.  Of course, 5Ks are supposed to be run all out, but I wasn't in the mood.  I ended up something like 9:30mm for my last mile and headed to the finishing chute and finished in 29:07 (official).  I think that was gun time because I pressed my GPS on at the mat but started 4 seconds after the first few runners. 

I wanted sub-30 last time I ran the 5K in Doral and didn't get it (ran 31:16).  This time I wanted sub-30 and I knew I had it because all of my miles were under 10mm but didn't expect it to be that fast.  I am sure if it had been all road, I probably would have broken 29.  Very nice effort.

Next is the Star Wars Half Marathon.  We'll see what I can run there.


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