I ran the Saginaw 5K on Saturday, the fifth race of the YRRC Winter Series.
The race was an out-and-back on a relatively small road near the Susquehanna River. I had heard that this race was relatively flat, and that turned out to be fairly accurate. That certainly helped, considering it was a sunny but brisk 27 degrees out.
I’d say there were about 150-200 people there. As usual, the pre-race “fun run” ran a little long, so we started a little after 9 AM.
This race was the first time that I didn’t feel like I came off the starting line too fast. In fact, if anything I felt like the whole pack was moving rather slow compared to most of the races I’ve entered. It could have been due to the extremely short but rather steep incline at the beginning of the race. As soon as people crested the “hill” the pace picked up quite a bit and I settled into a 7:30 - 8:00/mi pace.
According to my Garmin Forerunner, I covered 3.10 miles in 25:51 (8:19/mi pace) with an average speed of 7.2 mph and a max of 9.6 mph. My 1-mile splits were 7:59, 8:31, and 8:36/mi with the last tenth at a 7:09/mi pace. Burned about 460 calories. I’m not sure, but I think my official time was about 25:53.
According to Runner’s World, 52 degrees is the perfect race temperature. As the temperature drops below that, you should expect to add some time. For example, at 25 degrees you can expect to add at 2% to your goal time. Considering I was only about 1:12 slower than my 5K PR (24:41), I’m pretty happy with my results. At the very least it gives me some hope that I can get a new PR this spring.
Not the most notable race I’ve ever run, but definitely one I would do again.
Nice work John. I think you’ll see some PR’s this spring. After the winter doldrums are gone I hope we all see a renewed vigor in our running.
It’s OK. You can come right out and call me a slacker. No need to dance around the issue. :)
Well… for slacking, that’s a pretty good time. PRs, here we come.