Race For Hope 2008

487 62/105 7396 31:18 29:49 9:36

The numbers above are how I did on the race this morning. This race was called the Race for Hope and is raising money for the cure to brain tumors. Frank suggested I try out for this race since 5K is something I'm willing to run (he prefers the longer races).

Let me briefly explain the numbers. I was 487 among all men that participated. There were 854 men that participated and completed, so I was about in the middle. The second number means I was 62 out of 105 for my age group. 7396 was my bib number. 31:18 was the time from the gun shot starting the race til I finished. 29:49 was the actual time I ran, which meant the time between when I crossed the start time (thus, I took about 90 seconds working my way to the front). Finally, 9:36 was the average time per mile (despite being a 5K, they prefer giving the average time using miles).

Unlike the previous race where I had maybe 3 practice runs, I managed to work in about 15 practice runs, including 7 in the two weeks leading up to the race.

Unlike the day of the Cherry Blossom 5K, which was cold and blustery, this 5K was moderately warm and very sunny. Being warm is problematic, because you have to deal with the heat. My goal was to run a moderate pace and keep it up the entire run, not trying to run too fast, nor too slow. The entire last mile was rather painful because I felt some sharp pain in my spleen.

OK, maybe it wasn't in my spleen, but it was some internal spot. Fortunately, after I stopped running, that pain disappeared. Hopefully, this doesn't mean anything serious.

My goal for the run was to average under a 10 minute mile. When I crossed at 31:18, I had thought my previous run (back at the Cherry Blossom) was 31:30, so I was suddenly depressed that after all that training, I had only improved by 10 seconds. But then I realized the time wasn't when I crossed the line, but when the race officially started. Given the large crowd, I was hoping that at least a minute had elapsed before I had started, and so my time was really 30:18.

As it turns out, my Cherry Blossom race was 32:30, so I was at least a minute faster than that, and as it turns out, almost two minutes faster. I cut my time from 10:28 a mile in the first run to 9:36 in this run.

I think it's somewhat reasonable to push that down to a 9 minute mile. I expected somewhat big jump between the last race and this one, mostly because I didn't have the time to train in the previous one.

I find that I still lack the stamina to run 3 miles. The last mile, in particular, simply felt very long. The heat was also an issue. At the end, I felt I was overheating. To save time, I skipped getting water at the halfway point. Rather than getting water for free at the finish line, I bought cold ones at the CVS and drank them.

I checked my time, and would have finished about 300 among women, of which there were about 1000 women running.

One thing that was different about this race is the number of really young kids, some who did spectacularly better than me. I console myself that they were much lighter than me. Fortunately, in such a race, I tend to just care about my own time, and so do most other folks. Unless you are blazingly fast, such egotistical ideas of being faster than the women or some kid or some octogenerian isn't likely.

Oh, I have to really bitch about the main website not featuring a link to the results. It seems the results are hosted at: Run Washington's searchable site, which probably means the results have been up a while. Although the main purpose is to raise money, these people should be aware it is a frickin race and that some people are running it as such, and want to know their times. Indeed, all the information is everything but the final results of the race. Quite disturbing, I'd say.

These races tend to take a lot out of me for the day, so I think I'd prefer to run no more than once a month. I might try an 8K, but I do need to train up to that length. 8K is about 5 miles, and right now, I struggle at 5K (which is 3 miles).