Race Report: America's Hometown Thanksgiving 5k 2010

When I started this blog, I must have thought making major changes to my body and my life were going to be easy as a walk in the park 5k by the ocean. My first race report was for the America's Hometown Thanksgiving 5k 2009, which is race put on in Plymouth to benefit the Plymouth Fragment Society, which is the oldest continuously operational charity in the United States. In that report, I offhandedly mention:

My official time was 39:06. That was a PR by 2:15, with my previous best being 41:21. I was expecting this to be better because of the running I've been doing.

What's funny is that this PR has held up for now a full year, and only on occasion have I gotten even close to that time in either standalone races or as part of triathlons. Yesterday was one of those times where I got close, but didn't match or break it. The fact that it's held up for a year is a combination of a few factors:

• I spent the better part of my year training for distance on the swim and the bike, and I basically ignored my running most of the year, assuming I'd have to walk the half-marathon at the end of Timberman anyways.
• Not enough road races on the schedule. prior to this year, I ran a minimum of 7 road races a year from 2007-2009. This year, I'll likely have 4. This is mostly a result of my race entry fees going towards expensive long distance triathlons and having to find somewhere to take it from in our budget.
• I've been lazy about working on my running until last month.

I figure I do well in the fall races because the cold helps keep my body temperature down so it takes me longer to overheat. I was able to run 1 1/2 miles yesterday at a good pace before I had to walk for a bit. When I took my first walk break, I was at 19:40 almost exactly at the halfway point.

Unlike previous 5K's instead of slowing down a lot in the second half, I only slowed a little, and ran in with an official time of 40:33. (Edit: Full results are here) A bit more than a minute slower than my PR, but still my second fastest ever 5k. I wound up taking 2 more walking breaks, without which I would likely have PR'ed.

My time and effort wasn't the big news yesterday as Rachelle, who won the Women's Collegiate division last year, repeated as champion for the division this year. It's the only race she's ever won her division, and she was super excited. Unfortunately, they didn't give the winners baked goods in home made 1st place pans this year, but they did give away super nice custom wine glasses that say "I was on the Podium" America's Hometown Thanksgiving 5k. 

Rach modeling her race t-shirt and winners glassware

To keep her from getting a big head about winning, I also took the following picture of Rach prior to the event:

You can't take yourself too seriously on a day you posed as a lobster

Notes:

• 18 pounds, 39 days to go. I had a bad weekend for food, but made up for it with a magic recovery day on Saturday and a hard run on Sunday.
• When I say yesterdays race was well run, I mean in a small race sort of way. The timing is done by digital stopwatch and number recording at the finish line, to eliminate the cost of timing chips. Plus, it's run by an experienced group of racers, Team Pegasus, which bolsters two world class elite triathletes in Tim and Cait Snow. In fact, Cait actually did the work to compile the results, and I got a picture of her working through the results with some folks who think theirs need adjustment.

Professional Triathlete and part time race-timer Cait Snow