David's Blog

Race Report: Shamrocks & Shenanigans 5k 2012

This morning was the Shamrocks & Shenanigans 5k hosted by Running Fit. It was really a fun morning and they did a great job hosting this race. This really was a big event - I heard estimates that about 3000 people participated. (UPDATE: There were 2113 finishers) The final results haven’t been posted yet for me to get an actual count but I’ll update this post when they are (This also means I don’t have my official time yet but I’ve got my watch time).

Before the race I met up with some friends from the Running Fit Monday run group. We hung around the race area a bit afterwards as there was a lot going on and it got really nice outside after the race. The weather today is beautiful and I almost want to go for another run\!

I have mixed feeling about the actual race but this is more an indication that my training is lacking than anything else. My goal was to go under 20 mins today and I think that was within reach. It didn’t quite happen but I am showing progress in terms of average pace from the last 2 races.  You gotta focus on the positives, right?

I mostly succeeded in going out at the right pace. The first mile was a loop around downtown and then sent us down Main St. My first mile was 6:17 which I was pleased with at the time. The second mile really hit me hard it seems. We continued out on Main and turned around right at Stadium and came back down Main. There are a few rolling hills on this portion and I started slowing way down. My second mile was right at 7 flat and now I wish I would have done more to push harder but I know that during the race I was doing all I could to stick with the pack I was in. The last mile I was able to pull it together again get back into the race. This part brought us the rest of the way back down Main and for a set of loops around downtown to the finish. There was a hill immediately before the finish that I got destroyed by - but otherwise this last stretch was good. For the third mile I had a time of 6:19 and the last tenth I ran 0:43 (like I said, hill destroyed me). This got me a finishing time of 20:20. It wasn’t exactly what I was looking for but it IS an improvement from the past few months...

I really need to figure out what happened during that middle mile. If I could have held on a little better in the middle of this race then my goal time could have actually been met since I was able to actually have pretty consistent 1st and 3rd mile splits. I didn’t do any speedwork this week since I was already upping my mileage (I hit 40 miles this week) and I’ve already been worried about injury so I didn’t push it.

As I said after last race, I think mile repeats are going to be essential for me to smooth out the difference between these splits. I just need to find a good day to do them. I’m thinking that Tuesdays are going to be the day. This would be right between a probable long mileage day on Monday with the Running Fit group and the Wednesday A2Runners group that is generally an easy short run that could be good for recovery.

Overall, this was a great day and I will definitely be racing this again\! There was lots of fun to be had and the course was pretty nice - except for the hill/turn right at the finish.

Update:[Results are posted.](http://www.rftiming.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=36&Itemid=47)