Race Report: Tom Wales Memorial 5K 2007
On Saturday morning I ran the fifth annual Tom Wales Memorial 5K run/walk in Volunteer Park. You may be surprised to hear this because I didn’t actually tell anyone that I was going to run this race. I registered for the race a few weeks ago on a whim because I felt like I hadn’t run a race in a long time (5 months). Then I had second thoughts because I wasn’t sure running a 5K four weeks before the marathon would be a smart idea. I really couldn’t decide whether or not to do the run so I went to bed on Friday night planning to run but giving myself permission to bail out if the weather looked really bad or if I just didn’t feel up to racing.
Pre-race: I woke up at 6am to near perfect racing weather: 9C with light wind and only a 10% chance of rain. I had my usual pre-race breakfast of oatmeal, a banana and a cup of green tea. I left my apartment around 6:45 am, took one bus from Wallingford to downtown and then a second bus from downtown to Volunteer Park in Capitol Hill. I arrived at the race start at around 7:30am. The race was scheduled to start at 8:30 so I spent the next hour sipping water, warming up and stretching. I also took a gel about 20 minutes before the start.
The plan: I decided that this race would be the rehearsal to the dress rehearsal half marathon that I’m running in two weeks. During the half marathon I’ll be trying to run at my marathon pace. I’m still not sure what that will be! For the 5K I decided to run at a pace somewhat faster than my tempo run pace. Without any real knowledge of the race course I figured I could pull off 8 minute miles and finish in just under 25 minutes. My 5K personal best is 23:56 but there was no way I was going to try and beat that on this day. I’m currently trained for endurance not speed.
The race: I would estimate that there were just less than 400 runners and walkers in the race. The route was entirely within Volunteer Park and actually ended up being quite hilly. Because it was such a small race there were really no congestion issues and the crowd was fairly strung out by half way through the first mile. This was the first time I’d run with my Garmin. I periodically checked my pace but since I had no real time goal I mostly just ran by feel. My splits were: 7:54 / 8:27 / 8:09 /0:28 for a finish time of 24:59 by my watch. My chip time was 25:05 but there was no timing mat at the start line so this is total time. I’m taking 24:59 to be my “official” race time for the record books.
Post-race: After I finished I decided to hang around to cheer the rest of the runners in and wait for the awards ceremony. I knew they were giving awards five deep in five year age groups and given the number of women runners I saw at the finish when I arrived I was pretty sure I’d placed in my age group. As it turned out I placed second in my age group! I’ve never placed in a running race before so I was pretty thrilled. I’ve hung my shinny red ribbon in a place of honour on my fridge. As it turns out I was also the eighth female finisher overall. Sweet!
After the award ceremony I ran an easy 5 miles home to bring my total mileage up to the 8 miles that were on my schedule for the day. Below you can see my race bib and ribbon. I’ve also posted the race route as recorded by my Garmin. As you can see it was very twisty turny but it was extremely well marked so there was no confusion en route.
