Fall Down on the Trail 5K race report

This morning was the first annual Fall Down on the Trail 5K on the Cumberland Valley Rails to Trails.

Earlier in the week I had read that Bill was going to run this race, and since the actual trail head is 15 minutes from my house, I figured I should run it too. Couple that with all the miles I have been putting in, and the fact that my last 5K was in July AND this was a rail trail (so flat and fast) and I had a recipe for a PR.

I met up with Bill and Mark this morning about 20 minutes before the race started. We took a little warm up jog down the paved part of the trail and talked running. I wasn’t really nervous, because I knew I would PR today, it was just a matter of how much.

My goal pace was 7:45, I took off a little too fast, and tried to reign it in as the first mile was coming to a close. I crossed the mile marker at 7:26. That wasn’t that bad, and I figured I would be fine. I tried to maintain the pace for second mile. The turn around was tight as there was a pickup parked on the trail about 2 feet past the turnaround cone. There was also a water station but at 1.55 miles, and no heat, I wasn’t thirsty. I finished the second mile in 7:34. The end of the second and most of the third got lonely. By this time pace and distance had put most of us where we were going to finish and there wasn’t anyone that was right behind me or right in front of me. I was breathing hard, my heart rate was high and I was ready to be done. With about .30 miles left, you run under a bridge, and that is when the home stretch begins. It’s over a quarter mile so you can’t full out kick from here, but I did start to pick up the pace. Then with about a quarter mile left, you get back on the paved part of the trail and can begin to kick in earnest. I crossed the finish line in 23:24, a new personal record (my previous was 28:48, so 5 minutes and 24 seconds faster) and a 7:32 pace.

Also exciting was Bill’s winning of his age group! Congrats to him!

1 mile splits: 7:26, 7:34, 7:36, and :44 for the last .12

Motionbased Link

Some Stats (Garmin, not official):
Distance: 3.12 Miles
Time: 23:23 (pace: 7:27)
Average Heart Rate: 177 bpm
Calories Burned: 457