Race Day

by Thomm

A short one today. A bit exhausted this week. I caught a cold from my son and had a sore throat on Wednesday, which cleared out by Thursday, but I still have a lovely cough and chest congestion. I didn't take any medication for the cough because I didn't want to mess with my equilibrium when I had a race to run October 11.

That's right, it's the Baltimore Running Festival once again. I haven't missed it but one time since it started. That was the ill fated attempt to run the marathon. I ended up straining a ligament in my left knee and not running at all that year. I also decided that the marathon was not for me. Once I get to about 9 miles, running is too much like work. I'm not out there to work. I'm out there having fun.

So I went back to my prefferd distance, the 5k. I'm no speed demon, but I do alright. I'd really rather run sprints, like the 200 or 400, but there's not much of that around for the post collegiate set, unless you're world class. There was a time I could run about 52 seconds for the 400, but that's been awhile. A long while. And it wasn't world class then, either.

Bib LName State Age Sex ChipTime ClockTime Overall SexPl DivPl Pace
7063 REMALEY MD 41 M 21:56 22:04 181 150 17 7:04

Even with the chest cold, though, it went pretty well today. My self timed time was 21:58.85, while my official time was 21:56. That's about a 7:04 pace. I think the first mile marker on the course was wrong, though. I timed myself going through there at 7:44. While I started out at a relaxed pace on purpose, I don't think I was going that slow. More tellingly, the second mile came in at 6:23. While I likely picked up the pace some in that mile, I haven't run anything close to a 6:23 in years. The 7:18 I timed myself for the third mile seemed a little off, too, but I hauled ass in the last tenth and hit that at :32.57. Told you sprints were really my thing.

Altogether, I'm happy with it. Finishing 181st out of 2397 runners, and 150th of 958 males, isn't too bad for these old legs. It's not the Flash, but who is?