College Park Cares 5k

Results: Check Your time here
I wanted to set a new PR for this race, my stretch goal was 20 minutes or under. Although I set a new PR, I didn’t meet my stretch goal. I overexerted myself in the last half marathon and was recovering from shin splints. I couldn’t put in the extra mileage to build up my endurance. No excuses though, I gotta train harder for the next one.

The course started at the Ellen Linson swimming pool at 9:00AM. 

College Park Cares 5k map

 

Artemesia Lake

What drew me to this 5k was the fact that it loop  through Lake Artemesia. When I was living in Greenbelt I used to love going here for a jog and fishing. The lake is just as how I remember it, however it was a different experience having to run as fast as I could away from it to get to the finish line. The weather was more humid than usual, but that didn’t really bother the 102 runners that were ready to take it on. 

I finished in 24:25 at a pace of 7:52 per mile.  This put me at 36/102 place. I am happy with the results but a bit dissappointed because I know that I could do better had I pushed harder. I was 4 minutes and 26 seconds too slow. Getting up at 7am to drive 30 minutes to put in 10+ miles was taking a toll on my tolerance. Laziness got the better of me and the results speak for itself

I was humbled by my performance and will train harder to reach my sub 20 minutes goal. Ultimately I hope to qualify for Boston working up from qualifying time for 5k, 10k, 10 miles, half marathon, 20 miles and 26.2  

Filed under: Running , 5k, Boston, college park cares result, college parks cares, lake artemesia, MCRRc, qualifying

So I run

I made a bet with myself that I could run 5k within 20 minutes. I even signed up for a local 5k race to make it official. Currently I run 3 days a week at Centennial Park in Columbia Maryland. 

My training ground. Centennial Park, Columbia Maryland

Each lap around the lake is roughly 2.4 miles. This was the very lake that put me to shame when I first picked up running. Half way out and I was done for. After a while I started to be able to do a whole lap and now as part of my marathon training I put in 4 laps per run, 3 days a week. 

My fastest lap around the lake is currently 20:15 I have some work to do before I can do 3.2 miles (5K) in 20 minutes.  The race isn’t until September 27, 2008 so I have a little under 3 weeks to put in my best training efforts. I need to be able to run a 6:26 pace and finish a lap within 15:26 if I am to make my goal. This is  no easy task but I will give it my all.

Filed under: Running , 5k, centennial park, columbia, maryland, time trials