Logan's Night Run 5K race report w/PICS

Frightened Inmate #2

Cliff's Notes @ bottom.

I officially hate racing at night. It just gives me all day to get worked up about it. blech!

Race director claimed that this course was flat and fast. He was right. It was like running on a track. It was pancake flat. Flattest race I've ever run. The downside? Dark! Like dark, dark and the road wasn't dead smooth in some places. They had a few air & light trucks from the fire department on the of the corners and there was a street light or two, but other than that, it was dark.

Met Sonny again and we chit-chatted for a few minutes before we lined up to race. Lots more people than I would have expected for a small town race at night, just a little over 300 lined up. Tons of teenagers at this race, that's unusual for a local 5K in this part of the country.

ready.set.go and we're off. Too crowded at the start line for me. Took too long to get a good stride going. I assume that '1' I saw painted on the ground was a mile marker. If it was, I hit the first mile in 6:08, a little bit faster than I wanted to go out. Kept plugging away though, not really knowing what I was capable of because I haven't done any speedwork lately and really haven't done that much running. Finished up my first lap of the two loop course and was holding my place in the race pretty well. Kept my eye on this bobbing pony tail about 15 yds. in front of me and let her pace me.

Started lapping some of the walkers and slower runners on my 2nd lap. Got a little disoriented and didn't know how far I had to go to finish. Just kept dodging the walkers and hoping the finish line was coming up soon. I finally got to the corner where those that were on their first lap turned right for another loop and those that were on their 2nd lap turned left for the finish line so I turned it up a notch. Cruised on into the chute with a 19:45 finish time, 2 seconds from matching a PR.

I'm pretty happy with my finish time considering my general lack of running and no speedwork. That and I've gained 10-12 lbs. since I set my PR. I'm 90% sure that I can go sub 19 in November when I run in TN on another flat course.

Misc. stuff ::

1st place finisher won in 15:10 (4:54 pace). Wouldn't he have lapped some people twice?
1st place female finisher was 17:something.
The 2nd place male finisher was 15:thirtysomething. There were some fast people at this race.
I'm definitely doing this race again next year. I'll never find an easier course.
Sonny and I met the lady that handled trophies for last week's race and we got our 1st and 2nd place AG trophies respectively.

Cliff's Notes :: 5K - 19:45 finish time. 26th out of 309 people and 2nd in my age group. Dancing Banana

Sonny ROCKED, but I'll let him post his own report.

Sonny and I post-race.

Me with my 2nd place AG plaque.

The Pinball

you're gonna have to add a room for your hardware!

awesome time PH - i can't imagine running that fast in the dark. Shocked

don't you have PA potholes in GA?

nice pics - congratulations. Dancing Banana

racing fool. Dancing Banana

Member

Awesome!

Adjunct

way to go you to

we are going to have to get Rob and Bam Bam to build us an addition for all the hardware we are garnering lately

Member

congrats PH and sonny! thumbs up

The Movie Geek

Rock on, man! Good job!

Member

Got to the race site in Loganville very, very late. Much later than I wanted. I left Norcross at 6pm (for the 7:45pm start) and didn't get there but 15 minutes prior to the race start due to Gwinnett County traffic & Friday night High School football! When I finally got to Loganville, they were closing down many of the streets for the race. Argh!!! burning mad

Anyway, I hadn't registered early for the road race... so when I got to the gym (where race registration was); I had to fill out the form, get a race number, go to the bathroom, and get warmed up all in about 15 minutes. Not enought time... I'm standing in line to use the inside bathroom and the race director says we are starting in 4 minutes. Got in a couple of strides prior to the race, but that was it for me in the way of warmup. I had no idea of what to expect about the course.

Meet PH (and promptly took a spot behind him at the start line). I had set my watch for 7:40 countdown to see if I could maintain a good pace & shoot for a sub 24 minute 5K. The gun fired and we were off like a bunch of ants. I took off in a pretty good sprint for me and tried to keep PH in my sight for as long as possible. (I knew he was going to maintain a pretty good clip).

I must have missed when pressing the start button on my watch, because about 10 minutes into the race, I looked down and it wasn't even started. Didn't matter anyway, because there was no mile markers or folks announcing your time splits. I had no clue how fast I was running, although I knew I was running pretty fast. The course was very flat and featured two loops before finishing at the start line. Once you had run through the first loop, mentally and physically you knew what to expect the 2nd time around. Which turned out to be a big help.

I ended up passing a very athletic girl keeping a good pace during the first part of the 2nd loop and then she re-passed me during the later part of the 2nd loop. I was deterimined not to let her beat me and ended up passing her for good near the final turn before we headed down to the finish line. When we made that final turn, I was shocked to see 21 and change listed on the clock. I turned it into overdrive and finished with a time of 22:21! Dancing Banana

22:21 is another personal record for the 5K and is 1 minute, 56 seconds faster then the 5K personal record I had established last Saturday with PH! 62nd place in the entire race!!! Mr. Green

I shocked myself that I had ran that fast. I really think if I train right and do some speed work, I could post a sub 20 minute 5K on a flat course in the next few months. The funny part is that I ran almost 2 minutes faster than last Saturday (when I took home a 1st place trophy) and didn't get one this time around. I think I ended up 4th in my age group, because the 3rd place person between PH and me was only 25 seconds ahead of me.

Oh well.. great race, great course, cool evening, good post-race grub. I keep racing this well, I will have to re-adjust my goals! Razz

Congrats to PH for another age group award!

Member

You two represented and then some!!!

PH, excellent job with the hardware...it's GOTTA be the colorful shirts, man!!!

Sonny, what a monster race! That's like more than a PR...Just remember your winning formula now...arrive at races LATE Wink