Real David H.

Perfect August weather (about 70 with low humidity) + a flat course = a recipe for a great 5k.

Yesterday morning, I saw a post on the Mountain Junkies Facebook page with a map of the Fab 5k race course — very flat with only about 40 feet of elevation gain.

While I knew much of this course was off-road — some gravel, dirt and grass — I had the brief thought that I should be able to set a PR.

In the time since my 5k PR in Ohio in July, I’ve continued to push myself and my forced hill training has proven to work in my other flat race — the Percival’s Island 5 Miler. While I wanted to run hard, I tried to push off PR thoughts until I started running.

With more than 400 people running, and a narrow bridge about a half mile into the race, I took off. I glanced at my watch about two-tenths of a mile in to check my pace and a co-worker pushed my wrist down and told me to stop looking at it. I managed to pass quite a few people before the potential bridge jam and then just pushed the pedal harder — 6:45 in the first mile. I didn’t feel like it was too fast, but I knew it would be tough to maintain.

Much of the second mile was on the road — I was feeling good and was able to hit 7:01. In my head I knew that as long as I didn’t fall in a hole I could set a PR, but could I break 22 minutes?

With most of the third mile on grass, and very mentally challenging as I could continuously see the finish line, I kept telling myself to hold it together. Don’t look at the watch. Keep my head up. Go. Just go.

As I hit mile 3, a younger woman passed me and said something — I think “good job” or “almost there” or something like that.

It was what I needed for a final surge and pass her just before the finish mat and get under 22 minutes for a 5k for the first time ever.

I looked at my Garmin — 21:54. I almost threw up. My official time was 21:52, nearly 20 seconds faster than my PR from July 4. I’ve shaved off nearly 50 seconds off my 5k race time this summer.

I was 83rd out of 402 finishers; 8th in my age group out of 23.

My co-workers also did a great job with one of them running under an 8-minute mile pace for the first time ever.

It was a great day all around that course as more than 30 people had less than a 6-minute mile pace. It’s the type of day that gives me thoughts of getting my 5k time even lower and one day breaking a 7-minute mile pace.

As I look ahead to the next couple of months, this will very likely be the last race until the Baltimore Marathon. As great as I feel about yesterday’s race, today’s long run is a different story. But that’s for another post some other time. This 5k PR is worth celebrating.

Thanks to Sam Rice for all the photos!