29 November 2024
Over the last decade my pace of doing sanctioned running races has dwindled. Before yesterday, my last race was in 2019. My wife recently started running and decided to sign us up for a local 5k in the Milwaukee area. Though, I’m running every day and have logged over 13k miles life time I don’t do a lot of speedwork. I built up an abbreviated training program to work some intervals and uptempo workouts and decided I’d give my all with the 5k. I’m happy to report that I set a Personal Record in the distance!
When I was 28, I set my current personal best with a time of 19:56. It was the only time I had ever broken 20 minutes for the distance. I had done a few other attempts but couldn’t get close. This time felt different. My speed work were quick. At 39 years old, I’m 20 pounds lighter than I was when I was 28. Everything felt right. The only concern was the temperature. It was in the low-20s when we did the packet pickup. It was 27 degrees at the start.
There was some traffic at the start and then I settled in nicely. I was thrilled with my pace. I ran a pretty even race with consistent mile times. Some younger folks did end up passing me but they were always going to be able to do that with their negative split plans. The hills weren’t too bad. This was the first time tackling the down hills could be categorized as fun! I’m finally feeling confident in all aspects of my running. I wasn’t 100% sure where I was at in terms of people ahead of me but I knew I was near the front. I crossed the finish line and my watch was around the 19 minute time. When the final results came in, I clocked in at 18:58.27. Pace was 6:07/mile. I finished 11th out of 296 finishers. The overall second place runner was 37, 2 years my junior, but other than that I was the oldest runner in the top 20. I’m very thankful for my wife for signing me up for this. It was a special day.
