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Saturday, February 02, 2008

28:17

That's right folks, I have a new 5K PR! I beat my old PR, 28:28, by 11 seconds this morning on a 5K course that is not easy.

See, here in South Florida, most running surfaces are flat. Flat. Flat. Flat. Except for...bridges. Those are our hills, and this race has not one, but two bridges on the course, and one of them (the steeper of the two) is right at the 3 mile marker. It's just cruel.

Anyway...I don't want to skip to the end and ruin it for you.

The weather was cool and cloudy this morning -- exactly how I like a race day to dawn -- and the race registration, start, etc were very smooth, and there were only about 500 runners so the crowd was small. A quarter mile into the race, we came upon the first bridge, and I knew it was there, so I just paced myself one step at a time up and over and it wasn't too bad. After that, the majority of the course wraps through residential neighorhoods in downtown Ft. Lauderdale and these houses are beautiful to look at, so I enjoyed the scenery and just kept pluggin along.

I was pushing myself, certainly, but there's a difference in feeling -- some days, you're pushing yourself and that push really feels exhausting; but other days, you push yourself and it just feels good. Today was the latter feeling, which is really encouraging because I've worked hard in the past few months to make my short race-pace 9-9:20/mile, and to be running that and feeling so good is a huge difference for me. So, as I approached that wicked bridge at the end, I felt pretty strong; I glanced down at the Garmin and knew that my time was petty solid but because I don't do hills regularly, I also knew that it could throw my whole race off.

As I started up the incline, I just gave it all I had, and I managed to maintain my pace (but I was really working hard to do so); once I reached the top of the bridge, I just had the decline, which leads straight into the finish, so I let the decline do most of the work as I breezed through the finish and the clocked ticked off 28:17.

I think that had the course been flat, today might have been a day for a 28:00, or maybe even sub-28:00 5K, but that's wondering for a different day. Right now, I'm just pleased that I beat my previous PR. Now, I guess 28:17 will become the new time to beat.

Splits:
1: 8:59
2: 9:09
3: 9:07
.1: 1:01

Total Time: 28:17!

25 comments:

diana said...

Congrats on the new 5k PR! That's awesome!

Erin said...

Yeah! I knew you would beat your old PR today! Congrats. That's a great way to start the year. HM=check, New PR=check...what's next months goal?

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! Great time.

Tri+Umph said...

Sweet, you rocked it!

ws said...

Congrats Jess. It's great to read that you went out fast and finished strong.

Anonymous said...

Great job! Your times were nice and consistant. Congratulations on a new PR.

Unknown said...

Congratulations! Pretty even splits even with the bridge/hill at the end. Way to go!

My Life said...

Yahoo! Congrats!

Wes said...

Nicely done, Jess! Way to nail that PR!! Woo hoo!!! :-)

miss petite america said...

woot! awesome job speed racer!

Marcy said...

Whooooooo Hooooooo! I knew you'd kick ass!! Awesome job Jess! ;D ;D

Viv said...

Swexcellent, Jess!!
Congrats on a job awesomely done!

J~Mom said...

That is just SAWESOME!!!!!!!!! I am so happy for you!!!

Margo said...

Excellent job!!

Stuart said...

Congratulations, that's a great result!

Anonymous said...

Way too kick butt on the 5K!

MNFirefly said...

Awesome new PR, Jess!!

Razz said...

PRs are the best, aren't they? Nice job!

RunnerGirl said...

Way to go on that PR!

teacherwoman said...

Congrats on your new PR!! ROCK ON!

brunettechicagogal said...

Fantastic! Very proud of you!

Junie B said...

girl you FREAKIN' rock i tell ya!!

way to go!!!

L*I*S*A said...

GREAT JOB!!! Way to smoke it, sistah!

Paul said...

Congrats on the new PR!

Mendy said...

I know this is quite late. But, I just had to tell ya... That's a great PR!!!! I'm so impressed with how much faster you have become recently, and you deserve it. You've put in the hard work and the miles.!!!

Way to go, Jess!!