Unity Unity College Spring 5K April 18 2009

Today I raced Unity College’s annual Spring 5K. This is the 27th time they put on this April race. I have done it seven times. It is a fast course! Here is an interesting graph, thanks to my Garmin Forerunner 305:

It shows the elevation of the race. Pretty steep drop in the first .5+ miles, eh? That explains the first mile – 6:22. There is quite a climb right before the first mile ends, but I think my feet were moving so fast from the down hill, the hill didn’t seem too bad. It is very early in the race too, that helps.

Mile two, my Garmin kept saying the mile pace was in the 6:30’s. I was disappointed that I was slowing down. I was running by myself at this time. The start was pretty crowded. Quite a few actually passed me and went out fast. By the end of mile one (actually by the end of the first half mile), all the initial changes were done. I thought I was pretty far ahead of folks behind me, and quite a distance away from the people in front.

At the turn around point I counted the people in front of me. There were 75 to 80 total racers, and I was in seventh place! I was in front of the #1 female runner too. Looking at the elevation graph, mile two was quite rolling. Check out this chart:

It shows the elevation, but also has the pace. I finished mile two in 6:46. Around 1.75 miles it seems I slowed quite a bit and was running around 8:00 pace! What a loser! I must have lost concentration there. It was during an uphill stretch, so I’ll give myself a small break.

Ok Mile one was 6:22. Mile two was 6:46, for a total of 13:08. My goal was sub 20 minutes, so I was 10 or so seconds too slow!

Last chart!

This was the heart rate my Garmin recorded.  I am happy with the heart rate numbers. I think I did a good, solid, 5K effort. Unfortunately, the time that result from my effort is not quite what I want. The last mile went by in 6:39 – for a 19:47 total time. It took me :39 seconds to finish the race, for a total of 20:26.

Here is an interesting map:

The Garmin records lat/lon as I run. The data can be downloaded and mapped! The green bubble was the start. It is the top of a hill. The red bubble is the end. Close to the bottom of that hill, though you may notice there is a nasty rise at the very end of the race (if you look at the elevation graph again.) I think all this stuff is great! I should run more though, and not look at the graphs. That is probably the best way to get a sub 20 minute 5K...

One thing happened in the race that I thought was interesting: If you look at the map, you will notice that there is a sharp turn before the three mile mark, and then the finish. At that point I was surprised by three people – they all passed me! I dropped from seventh to tenth place. Two of the people were females, so I was watching the battle for the women’s race! One of the ladies took off, but the other fell back. I passed her, but couldn’t catch the other two. I ended up in ninth place.
 
I use www.runningahead.com to log my runs, and the graphs and map come from there. Best thing – it is free! The log anyway, the Garmin was kind of expensive.

My next race will be in May. Thanks for reading! I think I may find photos that I will post. Also when the results are published I will update with that information.