Grooved to Run

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.

MB | Photos

Yesterday afternoon I ran the Dallastown Wildcat 10K, the second YRRC Winter Series race that I’ve entered this year. Although the race was my 12th race overall, but my first ever 10K race… so I definitely had some nerves/anxiety going into it.

Here’s how M.C. Helsabeck described the race in the York Daily Record:

It is time for the third race in the York Road Runners’ Club Winter Series, and I won’t lie to you, this one is not easy. In fact, some local runners make sure to do the course once in a while because it, “builds character,” said Jan Workinger of the YRRC.

The Dallastown Wildcat 10K takes place Saturday, and it will start at Dallastown Area High School. In between there are two tough hills to climb: Park Street (a half-mile climb in the fourth mile) and Blymire Road (a one-mile climb to the finish). That final hill is a beast when you are tired.

Mix in some cloudy skies, slight breeze, and freezing 28 degree temperatures and you’ve got yourself a challenging race.

I’d say there were about a hundred people there or so, a slightly smaller crowd than was at Spring Valley a couple of weeks ago.

We lined up at the starting line in 28 degree weather under mostly cloudy skies at about 12:15 PM… and were off.

I felt everyone accelerating around me, so much so that I found myself doing a 6-7 minute/mile pace into the quarter mile mark. That’s way too fast for me, so I slowed it down and tried to settle into a reasonable 10K pace. Luckily the first 1.3+ miles were almost all downhill.

The first major hill started at the end of mile 3 and went well into mile 4. That was tough and took a lot out of me. There was a water station at the 4 mile mark that I took advantage of and was able to get a quick burst of speed going downhill to make up some lost time. Unfortunately, the hill that I enjoyed running down at the beginning was also the final leg of the race. By that time I was just about spent and struggled to make it to the top. From there it was a short sprint to the finish.

According to my Garmin, I covered 6.19 miles in 58:29.49 (9:27/mi pace) with an average speed of 6.3 MPH and a max speed of 11.7 MPH. My 1-mile splits were 7:12, 8:47, 9:40, 10:04, 9:53, and 11:07, with the last 0.19 at a 9:01/mi pace. Looking at the finish line photos, it looks like the clock said 58:31 when I crossed. Either way, that’s a PR for me, beating my previous (unofficial) PR of 1:00:26.

Just like at one time running a 5K in under 30 minutes was a major goal of mine, breaking the 1 hour mark for a 10K is a big accomplishment for me. The fact that it was on a non-trivial course makes it have that much more legitimacy for me.

I feel like this one’s a PR to be proud of.

MB | Photos