This morning Cath and I ran the Brian Honan 5k Road Race in Allston. We’ve been looking for a 5k to do for the past few weeks, and this one was in a nearby location at noon today, so we pulled the trigger.
My goal for this race was to run under 23 minutes, which is a 7:24/mi pace. I’ve been doing intervals and tempo runs lately, and I felt that was an achievable goal, but honestly I wasn’t sure I’d be able to run that fast. In recent races I’ve been starting out too fast, so I wanted to run negative splits today. My plan was to run 7:30 for the first mile and 7:20 for the next two miles.
What actually happened was that the entire first mile was uphill. I did a good job moderating my pace even though I wanted to go faster. I finished off the first mile in 7:37, but I think that was OK because of the hill. The second mile involved a somewhat steep downhill to a turnaround, and then back up the hill. This uphill looked pretty nasty, and I sped up on the downhill because I knew I would lose time coming back. I was also slightly worried since I was behind my goal pace. The second mile went by in 7:21, almost perfectly on pace, though coming back up the hill nearly killed me. The third mile was just the reverse of the first mile, so it was a slight downhill. I pushed hard and ran it in 7:08, then sprinted the final 0.1 mile in 37.9 seconds (5:54/mi pace!). Total time: 22:43! I had made it well under 23 minutes!
This was one of the most difficult races I’ve even run. It was kinda hot today, and the hilly course was pretty rough. I’ve also never run anywhere near this fast before — my previous 5k PR was 24:38, almost 2 minutes slower, and the fastest pace I’ve ever run a race is 7:48/mi in the Concord 5-Miler this past July. This race I ran at a 7:18/mi pace. No wonder it felt so difficult.
Given my performance today, I think my goal of a 22-minute 5k is within reach. With another month of speed work, cooler and flatter conditions, and more even splits, I think I can pull it off.
The race itself was well organized. The mile markers were right on, which was very helpful in monitoring my pace. There was lots of water and Gatorade at the finish, and there was even free pizza (though I couldn’t stomach any). The course was kind of ugly and pretty hilly (despite the “fast and flat” description on the website). But I would definitely run this again.
