Did the “Run for the Shamrock” in Alton Baker park today. I couldn’t decide whether to do the 5K or 10K, but on the bike ride over it was freezing and starting to rain so I opted for the 5K. I’m doing the Mercer Island 10K next week anyway, so I don’t feel so bad for slacking. It was a neat course, pretty much mirroring a lot of my training runs in the area, so no surprises.
Both the 5K and 10K started and ended in the same place. I accidentally lodged myself near the middle of the pack at the start and couldn’t move forward since we were so tightly jumbled together. I knew I was in the wrong place when I heard other people talking about how they’re going to shoot for holding an 8:00 mile pace. The gun went off and I spent the next few minutes trying to get around people that were moving very slowly. The trail was fairly narrow making it difficult to pass people, but the crowd eventually thinned out and I was able to start running a bit faster, but still not up to speed. 1st mile split was 6:41. This was OK, considering how long it took to get going. I really just wanted to see if I could hold my goal 10K pace of ~6:30 for the race, because if I can’t do it in a 5K I sure can’t do it in a 10K. I kept passing people well into the second mile and was able to speed it up a bit. Second mile split was 6:20, a little better. Going into the third mile I started passing people less frequently, but still had a lot of gas left. I passed my last runner with about 3/4 mile left, leaving a huge gap between me and the next guy. I picked up the pace a bit and the 3rd mile split was 6:01. I was closing fast on the guy in front of me, but wasn’t willing to push that hard. I know I could’ve sprinted to beat him, but that probably would’ve meant puking in the grass afterwards. No thanks. Finish time was 19:30, with an average mile split of 6:21. I won my age group and placed 5th overall. Looking at the results I could’ve come in 2nd if I hadn’t had such a crappy start (the winner held 5:22 splits). All in all it was a good race and gave me confidence in my ability to run a sub 40 min 10K in the upcoming season.
Run for the Shamrock race report
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