Hansons 5K - 18:53

Hansons 5K
Originally uploaded by Auberon.

Pros: Fast and flat, great weather, excellent field of runners
Cons: 15 90 degree turns

First I'll start off by posting my times from 2005 and 2006: 23:05 and 22:12 respectively. Each of these races were within the first two weeks of starting the running season. Generally speaking I stopped running the second the marathon was done the previous fall.

Today was different. I came into this race having already run 4 other road races this year, and only had two weeks where I considered them "downtime".

From the start of the race, I knew it was going to be fast. I was with Laura Murphy at the first half. That's not usually the case. 20 seconds later Danielle Hobbs cruised past me. Both of these athletes are usually far far ahead of me from the get go. Paul Ballinger and I were pretty much running side by side getting into a comfortable groove. If I'm running with this group of guys/girls, I know I'm going to run a great time (for me).

Mile 1 split: 6:04 (felt like 6:35 effort)

From the first mile there were a lot of breaks in the pack, and you either settle in to your own pace, or you keep pushing and hope to catch the next guy...that's what this day was going to be about. For the next mile, Paul and I worked together to drawn the next guy in, take him down, and keep moving on.

Mile 2 split 6:06

Paul would get tired, I would push the pace. I would slack off, Paul would push. We switched back and forth probably 6 times. I was getting really tired just before the 3 mile mark, where Chris Giannetti and Paul surged past me and started to break away. Was I going to fall apart? I had to dig deep. My arms started to get tight, and my breathing was getting rough. I only had a little more to go, I couldn't give up and coast in....

3 mile split 6:10 (faded, but not too much)

You hit the 3 mile mark, and there's one corner to take and then you're about 90 meters from the finish line. I wasn't going to let Christ and Paul toast me with less than a 1/4...I turned that corner, took a deep breathe, and dropped the hammer, sort of. I turned in a 29 second last .1............ the picture above shows Paul in the yellow shirt just behind me and Chris in the long sleeve black shirt to the right of me.

18:53.... I don't know what has happened, but I'm started to make some great progress this year towards realizing a true return to running. If I can keep up this pace of improvement, I'd say that some time next year running in the 17s would be quite possible.

Chicago sub 3hr???????