5 Mile Race Saturday

I ran the Park to Park 5 mile race Saturday morning. I've never run this race before, but it's a good one. It starts at Minute Maid Park (home of the Houston Astros) and finishes in Hermann Park. I haven't been to Hermann Park in years. I used to run there every weekend when I was going to college at Rice, just across the street. But that was over 25 years ago. I was able to run a pretty long cool-down after the race through the Park and over at Rice. The race included a pass for the streetcar back downtown for my first ride on Houston's light rail.

It was a perfect day for this race, 44 with a NNE wind near 10 mpph. The point to point course was mostly to the SSW so the wind didn't hurt at all.

I started out with a 5:49 first mile. That was too aggressive. I passed some people I knew were going to run fast; I really should have known I was running too fast. I ran the second mile in 6:02. I should have been happy with that, but instead I started focusing on the negatives of starting too fast. I ran a 6:18 third mile. I didn't look at my watch for the split, but I knew it was slow. I ran the fourth in 6:11 and the fifth in 6:09. I ended up with a 30:29. That beats my 8K PR and it's pretty close to the equivalents of my 5K and 10K PRs. But I really need to run these short races faster. I was somewhat disappointed I didn't run better on such a PR day.

I have a month off now before the next race. I really want to use that time to gain some more speed for these short races. I'm going to concentrate on the Tuesday tempo runs. I want to get used to running several miles at a time near 6:00 pace. Without the Saturday races I'll also try some longer runs with speed mixed in on Fridays. I've seen some workouts where people mixed some intervals with tempo runs for about a 10 to 12 mile run. It sounds tough but I'd like to try it. My goal is to run the Bayou City 10K under 38 minutes, the Law Week 8K under 30 minutes, and a 5K under 18 minutes.

My 8K PR is 30:44 from 2003. Since the 8K is only about ten seconds shorter than a five-miler, I guess I can count this as an 8K PR. I've only run two five-milers before this one. In the Summer of 2003 I ran a hilly one in Raymond, New Hampshire while I was at an industry meeting sponsored by the Seabrook Nuclear Plant. The 31:19 I ran back then was probably not too far off the Park to Park run considering the hills and the tailwind.

Here's a story on the Surfside Marathon: The Brazosport Facts