Today was the AbingTHON 5k and Fun Run. I haven't done a 5K in a few years, although I've done a 5+ miler! I was wondering what I could do today, especially on an unfamiliar course. And unfamiliar it was indeed! I arrived at the site a bit after 9:00 and decided to drive around the neighborhood in order to get a sense of the route. Admittedly, the route didn't seem especially intuitive, although I did see arrow markers here and there. I eventually returned to the assigned parking lot and checked in. I then began my warm up. I lightly jogged a mile and stretched for about 10 minutes before bumping into Chuck Shields en route to the bathroom. He cautioned me that the course seemed haphazard. At any rate, I handled my restroom business and then stretched a bit more.
With 10 minutes to go before race time, Keith Davis (spectating only) came upon me, and we headed over to the start line together. The race went off promptly, if not a couple of minutes early. Over the first half mile I found myself in the top 10, behind a heard of teenagers. I reached the first mile in about 6:00. I encountered a meaningful hill, where I made up ground on a couple of the boys. They sprinted down the hill once we got to the top, building their distance over me. I managed to pass one at about the 1.5M mark. The other I got less than a mile later. My second mile was probably a bit slower than my first. Argh. I looked at my watch and realized that I still had about .5M to go. I told myself I would push myself more with about .25M to go. What I thought was .4M to go I found out was just .2M; I saw a runner well ahead of me reach the baseball field, loop it and head towards what turned out to be the finish line. I thought he would run through it and double-back since I looked at my watch and estimated that the finish line would put us at 2.97M or so, not 3.1.
I was a bit tired and flummoxed. My finish was anti-climatic, as I strode to 18:08 (5th), knowing the course was a bit short. Chuck came in (9th) about 2 minutes later in 20:06. He said his watch clocked 4.77km. We later learned that there was a small loop that surrounded a bus drop-off area/parking lot that we skipped. We accounted for the missing .23km, noting it during our 1.35M cool down. I would wager that an additional 230m would still get me just under 19:00 for the course. I'll take that!
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