Oy Chena River 5K

Going in I knew I didn't quite have the fitness for a top 10 or mid 17s, but in my head I thought a 17:40s was doable. Blew that in the first half mile. As usual, the field went out way fast and I ended up running faster than planned at the start, even though I was in 30th or 40th place.

How much too fast? Not sure, but my plan of 5:44, 11:28, and something like another one of those went down with the melt water. The opening mile was 5:39, and I was in about 20th place. From then on, no one passed me and I picked of seven or eight more runners. Not running fast, I just slowed down less than the others. But even though my 2 mile split was right on at 11:28, I knew I didn't have much extra oxygen uptake reserve to pick up the pace. So I just hung on, and tried to catch UAF skier Stefan, which I accomplished after the bridge. I tried to pull away with about 400 or 500 to go but couldn't hold the effort so dropped back. Ugghhh. Not enough running base, not enough speed. 17:55 (56 by rounding in the official results).

I guess it's okay. 12th overall, and an age group win. About where I've been the past few years, place wise but not pleased with the time.

I checked the age grade calculator, and it has an 86.5 percent. So that's well and good. Skeptical on the time equivalent of 14:55 (which was faster than I ever ran). Back in my 20s and 30s, I often opened an early season 5K in the high 15s to mid 16s. For example, in 1990 or so I remember doing the Billy Mills Fun run (and got to meet Mills, the 1964 Olympic Gold Medalist) in New York, and ran 16:30s or 40s. That was in mid or late April. Comparatively speaking, I feel about the same, just older an slower! The good news is, I've always been able to knock of 30 seconds or more once the season gets rolling.

More age grade results in a few days, when I get the chance. But there were some good ones.