Today was the Spirit of Gettysburg 5K. John and I met up in Gettysburg to tackle, what turned out to be, one of most fun races I have ever participated in.
There were 1400 participants (including the fun run, kid sprints etc), 800ish of which ran the 5K. What a great time. There was music blaring, they started the race with a musket shot, and most of the race took place on the road through the battlefield. It was pretty incredible. There were a lot of hills, but that just added to the excitement.
The race conditions were about as close to perfect as you can get. It was very cool, there were long stretches of road that were in the shade and people were courteous. They had pace markers at the start, so you could line up in accordance with your rough pace. Of course the pace markers only went up to 8 minute miles, so John and I filed in a little bit behind that.
My goals today were: Bottom goal, complete the race in 32 minutes. Top goal, (if all was going well) break 30 minutes. I did both. My official time was 28:48 taking, 5 minutes 10 seconds off my previous 5K. Now, the weather played a big part in that, as did my training…however I gotta think not smoking for the last 12 days has to have helped that a lot. This was the first race (this time around in my racing “career”) that I didn’t get up and smoke a bunch of cigarettes before a race.
So I am sore, and tired…but I have 40 minutes cross training to do today, so I better get off my duff.
Happy running to you!
AWESOME!!! That’s fantastic!! I told you you were going to take a big leap. Very cool. Sounds like a cool race too. We’ll have to run that one with you next year.
Melissa ran the five miler in 36:59 and got 3rd in her age group (20-29). She got beat by two much younger girls, so she was ecstatic! I didn’t do as good as I thought I might, but still did really well. I ran a 40:16. I wanted to run under 40. Funny how a couple seconds can make a big difference in how you think about your result. I’m happy though. I’ll break 40 next time.
VIVA LA RUN! Dude, that was awesome!
Fun run today. Put it on the calendar for next year. :)
Edog, I am pretty happy with those results. Sounds like you guys had a good day at Fresh Burst as well. We’ll have to trade stories on Monday.
John, that was freakin great. I am looking forward to it next year.
Ok off to bed, 3.5 miles in the morning to run.
Congrats on a great race. Did you just suddenly become interested in running a couple of months back? You seem very into it and have a genuine passion for it. I ran track for 4 years in HS but never really loved going for a run. Is it an acquired taste or do you think people just naturally get really into running?
Thanks Don! I ran years ago as well. I really liked it then too…but I let myself get out of the habit.
It’s like you say, an acquired taste. There are days when I don’t feel like running, but I do it anyway. There are days, like today, when I am running and not having a very good time. After you are doing it for a while though, (at least it seems this way to me) you start taking it as a whole, and not one particular run. So on average I love it :)
I have noticed there are a lot of ex HS track people that now hate running. I think that could be related to how kids are expected to run in track (all out with no regard to enjoying it). As well as the hubris of youth. It never fails, every race, a bunch of teenagers line up and take off as fast as they can go. Around the 1 – 1.5 mile mark I pass them because they are walking. I have no doubt running as fast as you possibly can until it breaks your will to continue, makes running torture.
Which goes right into my last point (which I should blog about) is that training too fast makes running hell. If every time you are out for a run you are thinking that it’s torture, you are likely going to fast. Speed takes a long time to acquire for distance running, and you have to be patient. I use the talking test. If you can’t carry on a conversation because you are pulling ragged breathes, you are going to fast. Now on race day, screw that, I need to pull air :)
Having said all that, yeah, I think there are some people that will never like running. That’s cool, there are plenty of other ways to get a good workout. But for my money, I pick running.
HTH.
Oh and I should say, if you ever want someone to run with, ping me and we can meet up for a run.