Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Liberty 5K 2.65 miler

When's the last time this happened to you? Line up for a 5K race. 8:00 am and sun's already bearing down hard. Without warning, horn goes off and everyone starts running. No mile markers, but course is familiar from previous year's races. Trudging along a residential neighborhood and 10 mins pass by. Hmm, no water stops. Never mind, don't need any yet. 15 mins go by. Turn a corner and we're back close to where we started. That was fast?! Whoa, those speed workouts really worked! Cross the line in 20:45, a miraculous PR by almost 4 mins! Too good to be true ... and of course, it wasn't.

I knew it before I crossed the finish. Later, I overheard some front-runners talking to a race official, telling him that one of the race workers had blocked off the turn we were supposed to take, and directed everyone down the shortened path. The online results now lists the race as the "Liberty 2.65 Mile Race". Sadly, it showed I was on a PR pace, but I don't think I trust their 2.65 mile measurement! It was hot, and I was sucking wind close to the end.


On the bright side, marathon training week 1 is history. To make up for the Saturday faux pas, I ran 6 on Sunday morning to get in the "long" run the training plan called for. The run was book-ended by one of my 10-yr old's birthday slumber party at the local Embassy Suites. 5:00 pm to 11:00 pm Saturday with a bunch of free-spirited independent-thinking going-on 5th grade girls is quite a blast! I left the good wife to supervise the party overnight ("no boys allowed - i.e. me"), slept at home, ran Sunday morning, and rejoined the party at 9:00 am while they were just getting up! Just so you know we don't play favorites, my other 10-yr old had her birthday party last week. The gym rat had it at, where else, her gym! Can you tell one loves frogs and the other loves monkeys? Fraternal twins, oh yeah.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

The run course was short- what a bummer!
Good luck on the marathon training!

Anne said...

A PR's a PR regardless of the distance, right? I hope everyone was as casual about the course snafu. And what wonderful parties for your girls...they are very lucky (as were you to get out of partial parental duty due to your chromosonal makeup!)

Brooke said...

How cute are those parties?? A hotel is a good idea for a slumber party. I'll have to remember that one.

Bummer about your race. Hopefully the next one you enter will be better planned.

Joe said...

That's hilarious! I think mileage mistakes are usually made in the other direction (i.e. too long).

Ginger Breadman said...

You're race reminds me of the 'legendary' Chicago Lakeshore Marathon - it was apparently a little too long. The comments from this link are hilarious - http://www.marathonguide.com/races/racedetails.cfm?MIDD=1692060529

Rich said...

Ouch Ginger Breadman - 27.2 is far far worse than what I endured!

Thomas said...

Ah well, at least it was only a 5k, and there will be plenty more of those.

On the plus side, that's your PR for 2.65 miles, isn't it?

nyflygirl said...

lol...we have one of those...the Wall Street 5K in downtown NYC is notorious for being mismeasured. This year, I had tons of teammates reporting 5K PR's-before it was revealed the course was actually 2.9 miles! oops!

but congrats on your "PR", all the same :)

Unknown said...

Ah, whoops! Sorry about the race but congrats on the PR. Did they at least have good t-shirts?