I won! I didn't ever expect to be the overall winner of a 5k with a 19 minute time, but a win is a win and I am very happy to check this off my long term goals list. As you could imagine this was a small race with a light field, about 170 runners (70 men). The course was along a nice bike trail inside of veterans park in Hamilton, NJ. IT was hot this morning and very humid. I ran a slow 1.5 mile warm up and was drenched in sweat. Given the humidity, I knew it was going to be tough to PR today. The gun went off and about 4 or 5 guys went out in front of me including a 12 year old who took the early lead and finished 5th overall in 21:02, kudos to him. About a quarter mile into the race, I was still in 5th and the pace felt very comfortable (about 6:10). At this point, I felt like I had a good shot to win as the three just in front of me were starting to slow down a little bit. I pushed a little bit and easily moved to 2nd. At about .5 miles, the 12 year old had about a 10 meter lead on me and I quickly passed him to take the lead. I didn't look at my watch again until 1 mile (5:57). I looked back at this point and had built a decent gap on 2nd place. As I hit the oval turn around point around 1.75 miles I looked back and no one was there. I figured I had at least a 20 second lead and figured it was going to be very hard for anyone to catch me so I let up a little bit on the pace. I ran mile 2 in 6:10. I was feeling winded during mile three and let up a bit more knowing I was going to win. I didn't check my watch again until the end of the race. Mile 3 was in 6:25. I pushed it for the final .1 as people were cheering near the finish. I ran the final .1 at 5:57 pace. Overall time was 19:03, 4 seconds off my PR. Afterwards, I was very happy to win, but wished I had pushed it a little bit harder during the last mile. I finished about 25 seconds ahead of 2nd and a minute ahead or 3rd. For the victory, I won a tennis racquet (not stringed) and a tennis racquet bag that holds at least 3 racquets along with a nice glass paper weight trophy thing. Too bad I don't play tennis, but I think my wife has a friend who will give us a little cash for the racquet/bag. It was a nicely run event, except for a timing snafu that delayed the awards ceremony. The bib numbers and times were originally correct, but somehow the names attached to the bib numbers were all wrong. It got fixed eventually. I think I will run this again next year. | 