Monday, October 26, 2009

Results

This past weekend, I ran in two different races – a 5k and a 10-mile race.

Here are the results (the photos will come later):

Friday night I ran the True Blue 5k. I finished 18th overall, 5th in my age group; there were more than 130 timed runners. Total, there were more than 240 runners. While I paid the extra money for a timed race, I was not given a 'chip' so my time was not recorded. Luckily, I stuck around afterward to see the preliminary results and noticed that my time was not included. I was in the top 5 runners during the entire first half of the race and I knew that I finished in the top 20 or so, so I was a little disappointed when my time wasn't included in the results that were posted. I found the race director and told him my time – I remember it being under 21:20 – but it got recorded as 21:27 (a difference of about 10 sec but not a difference in the overall standings, so no big deal). My mile split was about 6:56. I went out way too fast and had a first mile time around 6:00. I died off a whole lot in the second mile. I felt pretty tight and it wasn't until nearly the end that I started to feel like I could speed up again. I felt good afterwards – it felt nice to run faster. It makes me miss the shorter races of ½ mile to 1 mile that I used to run back in high school (like in a fairy tale – 'long, long ago in a land far, far away…'). My only real goal going into the race was to run a sub-7:00 pace, which I did.

Sunday morning, less than 36 hours after finishing the 5k, I was running in the second 10-miler of the Road Race Series. I made up my mind before the race that I was not going to go out too fast. And I felt like I was just crawling along. I was really surprised when I was at the 3 mile mark that my time was just less than 25 min; I was expecting 30 min or more from the feel of things. Overall, I maintained about the same pace the whole distance of the race. I was at about 51 min at mile 6 and I finished in just less than 85 min. I finished 112th overall, 19th in my age group, out of 517 runners. It took me four minutes more to finish this last race than it took me to finish the first 10-miler two weeks ago, but this race felt SO MUCH more difficult than the first race did. I was used up afterward. It was definitely the most difficult race I have run in a long, long time. But I didn't quit. My legs probably felt the best at about mile 7.5 to 8.5 but I felt totally used up for the entire last mile or so. I am pleased with my end time. I felt like I was running a lot slower than that. It was a very challenging race for me both mentally and physically. I think that my exhaustion had a lot to do with the race that I ran on Friday.

I came home before class tonight. I am in bed already even as I write this. I feel like I am suffering from exhaustion or fatigue (are those the same thing?). I didn't go to the gym this morning. I don't feel like I am being that productive in much of anything lately. I just feel like I am too tired and all day today I felt tense and nervous – really anxious and stressed out by every little thing.

Good night.

2 comments:

  1. Great job on the races,Mike. I am proud of you!
    About being exhausted or fatigued... get plenty of rest tonight. Sorry that I woke you up when I got home form parent/teacher conference!

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