With such a rough end to my marathon I knew there had to be better running days ahead, just not sure when. After my previous 2 marathons I took a nice long hiatus from running, and in return ended right back at my starting point when I finally decided to hit the road again. I was determined for this time to be different.
I have always wanted to run a 5k and a Turkey Trot in my hometown just 2.5 weeks after my marathon worked out perfectly. I still had some down time after my marathon for my legs to recover but still enough time to get out there and really go fast for a couple workouts.
Despite eating WAY too much Mexican food from El Rosal the night before I felt really good the morning of the race. I was really hoping to go sub 20 minutes which works itself out to a 6:26/mile but I've never really run 3.1 miles balls out so I wasn't sure how I would do.
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| My college roomate Chad who I haven't seen for years until the Turkey Trot |
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The first mile started across grass in a park it was way crowded. Runners were in the same proximity to me there as the NYC marathon and I did not like it. For it being Modesto, there were a lot of runners. I would say close to a 1000. After dodging in and out of people I finally made it to the concrete path and found my groove. Miles one and two both clocked in at 6:22/mile. Things got a lot harder the 3rd mile (duh) but before I knew it the race was already near the end. Around mile 2.8 I was back on the grass running past a playground where kids were playing and I did hear a girl say, "Mommy, look how red his face is." I inwardly smiled but I was huffing and puffing too much for anything to show on my face. As I neared the finish line I was going as fast as I could so never bothered to look at my watch. Once I finally got a full view of the timer it said 19:33 and at that point I was just near the finish line. I could not believe how fast I had run that last 1.1 miles and that I was easily going to go under 20 minutes.
Right after the race my wife came up to me and asked why I had spit going across my face. I asked her what she was talking about and apparently I had a spit/drool thingy coming from the corner of my mouth making its way towards my ear. I just laughed because I had no idea. It was really nice to have her there at the end of the race, even if she was pointing out something like that.
Officially my time was a 19:36:9 seconds which works out to a 6:18/mile. I was 5th place in my age group of 30-39 year old males and I was only 13 seconds away from placing 3rd.
Nice work! That's super quick.
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