Bordentown St. Patty’s Day 5k
After I finished 7am karate class, I headed to Bordentown to meet up with Jeannie and the boys for the 9am race. I got to the Clara Barton gymnasium and found the family in line waiting to get race bibs. Matthew and Peter were running with me, but Jeannie had originally planned to work today, so she wasn’t signed up. The weather was just a tad chilly, but I knew once I started running I would feel great.
My legs and lower back were pretty sore going into this race. I did lots of kicks in karate class this morning, and crossfit workouts this week were intense as usual. I didn’t taper at all yesterday. In fact, I still ran to crossfit and back home, logging 7 miles. I also did my “March Pushup Madness” routine yesterday (and will need to do it later today as well).
The race started on Crosswicks St., then made two loops around Farnsworth, Courtland, Prince, and West Chestnut, finishing back on Crosswicks.
I didn’t have high hopes for this race given my shin splints and sore muscles and joints. However, I pushed hard in the first mile, then felt the issues in miles two and three. I probably went out a bit too fast, at 6:05 for the first mile, but it does include a downhill at the start. In mile two, my legs started feeling pretty heavy but I kept pushing. I managed to squeeze out a smile as I ran past Jeannie during the end of the first loop…
…but in the second loop at about mile 2.8, my form was not ideal and I was not smiling much anymore.
According to my Garmin watch, I crossed the finish line in 19:56. I was surprised to finish in under 20 minutes given my maladies and lack of proper taper. I can probably attribute that to all the short intense training bursts from CrossFit Mercer WODs.
Matthew had been hoping to break 22 minutes today, but he hasn’t been training for this 5k. He was pretty disappointed, but I think he did great considering his lack of training. And to boot, he placed second in his age group with the time of 22:49. Awesome!
After I crossed the finish line, I raced backwards along the course, snapping pictures of Matthew, and other friends, in my attempt to find Peter. I saw all the folks from Crossfit Mercer (Jen Soss, Donna, Jodi, Mark and Jen Costner, Patti, Rob D, etc), and John B, Angela M, and Neil Proshan. I found Peter on Prince St near Neil Proshan. He told me he hadn’t stopped to walk at all yet, and I was very proud of his efforts. I ran with him until about 0.25 miles from the finish, where I sprinted ahead to get some additional pictures of him approaching the finish. Looking at the results now, I can see that Neil finished at #427, while Peter finished at #395. So he essentially passed 32 people in the last mile. Nice job!
Here’s a shot of us that Jeannie took before the race:
The CrossFit Mercer crew did well too. Three of us placed: Jennifer Soss finished with a time of 22:38, slightly behind my friend John Beck (who is chasing a 20 minute 5k this year) and earned second place in her age group. Donna also placed second in her age group, with a time of 29:45. And my official time was 19:57, first place in my age group, 11th place overall.
Here’s the team from CrossFit Mercer (minus Patti who had left):
Here’s the course (click for a larger version):
And here are the results for 2013.