This morning, in beautiful Flower Mound, Texas (31.1 miles from my house), I did my third footrace of the fall. The temperature (low 60s) was fine for a 5K race, but it would have been too warm for anything more than a 10K. Luckily for me, I was doing only a 5K (3.107 miles). A year ago, on the same course but in colder weather, I had a mile pace of 6:49.42 and won the first-place trophy in my age group (of 11 finishers). Today, I had a mile pace of 6:45.18 and won nothing. I finished fourth of 15 in my age group (men 50-54). That just goes to show what a crapshoot racing is. You never know who will show up on any given day.
Overall, I was 19th of 421 finishers (top 4.5%). That may seem impressive, but there were many kids. Then again, the overall winner was a 10-year-old kid! He finished in 16:28, which is a mile pace of 5:17.99. If he gets good coaching and stays healthy, he can go far in the world of running. The world record in the 5K is 12:37.35 (held by Kenenisa Bekele).
Since I'm only now shifting from cycling to running (I have one bike rally yet to do), I wasn't sure how I'd feel or how fast I'd go. I went out conservatively so as not to blow up halfway through. There was no marker at one mile (or if there was, I didn't see it), so my first bearing was at the two-mile mark, where I had a mile pace of 6:59. I never dreamed I'd beat my 2008 pace, but the final mile was a flat, straight stretch of road, and we had a tailwind. I focused on the runner in front of me and caught him with a couple of hundred yards to go. I should have blasted past him, which would have broken his spirit, but I went ahead gradually. This emboldened him, because he caught me in the final 30 yards and nipped me at the line. I got the last laugh, however, because my chip time (20:58.9) was lower than his. He must have been ahead of me when we crossed the line on the way out. At any rate, he wasn't in my age group, so it didn't cost me an award.
I mentioned that I had a mile pace of 6:59 at two miles. I did the final 1.1 miles at a 6:20.84 pace. Look out, 10-year-old kid! I'm coming after you!
Addendum: This was my 150th footrace, ranging from two miles to the marathon. I've won 65 awards (trophies and medals), not counting finisher's awards.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 