Wampanoag 5K

Last night's banquet kept us out a bit past my bedtime. Thanks to the Mai-Tais and teryaki, your hero was not feeling too well this morning. I stayed at my teammate's house, but didn't have my bike with me. He and our captain braved the elements and took to the road at 9 am. Good luck dudes.

There was a 10 mile and 5k running event in Foxboro. I had some thoughts of doing the 10 mile, but due to my condition, the cold, and the fact that I have never run more than 7 miles at a time before, I wisely opted for the 5K. Registration seemed a bit chaotic, as the start lines were in different places, and the timing crew was streched a bit. They had something like 360 runners for the 10 mile, but only 90 for the 5K. This surprised me, but I guess the people that are serious enough to run in these temps are more the 10 mile crowd.

Drinking water all the way to the race did not do much for me. The dryness of the air combined with my hangover left my mouth totally parched before the race even started. The field was tiny, but Dick Hoyt was there pushing his son in the wheelchair. I ran the first mile in 6:20, but then the second mile started with a few corners and an uphill before going onto a wide, straight road right into the wind. I thought my intensity and focus were OK, but my split was 7:00. Yikes. I kept drilling it, and the last mile was sort of downhill, so that helped. My third split was 6:30 and the clock showed 20:19 when I went into the chute. The legs felt OK, but the lungs were seared from the cold, dry air. Still, I felt a lot better than I did before the race.

I have to be pretty happy with this, as the pace was a bit quicker than my 5 mile and 10K prs run this past fall. The bike training is going to have to take precedence in the coming weeks, but maybe I can hold the running together for a few more races and put in a decent time if I can avoid things like last night's acts of stupidity.