Max O’Hartford Race Report

On March 18th I ran in the Max O’Hartford 5k.  As always, the best part of this race is that the start line is literally at my front door.  And even better the weather was perfect – nice sunny skies and warm temperatures for March.

 

I am taking a more measured approach with running this year and had not done too many runs at this point in the year and only 3 over 3 miles.  My A goal was a 7:59 pace or better, B goal was sub 25 and C goal was 27.  Quite a range – I wasn’t really sure what to expect.

 

Out front of my building:

 

This year they started on both sides of the median on Trumbull Street, so I lined up about 3 rows back on the inside lane.  Of course, starting up front I took off way too fast, running sub 6:00/mile pace for the first 1/3 mile.

 

Flying by the support crew a 1/4 mile in:

 

 

Once I took the right onto Main Street,  I slowly settled into a more sustainable 8:15/mile pace.

 

Mile 1 – 6:48

 

My lack of conditioning was evident on every minor roller on the course.  There are two of them on Park Street and both of them were painful – I had to throttle back.  My breathing was fine but I felt like I had no leg strength.

 

I struggled up the hill at the 1.75 mark, but down the other side I tried to lean forward and make up some time on the downhill.

 

Mile 2 – 7:43

 

At this point I was way ahead of schedule but the hardest part of the course was still ahead.  From 2.5 miles to 2.8 miles there is a sustained uphill that potentially could slow me down a lot.  Luckily I found some feet to follow.  By the top of the hill my pace was down to 8:20/mile, but I knew with only downhill and flat to go I was on track for a pretty surprising time.  I picked up the pace and accelerated all the way down the hill getting back down to 6:20/mile pace by the bottom at the 3 mile mark.

 

Mile 3 – 7:38

 

I had instructed the support crew to watch at the 3 mile mark and expect me around 23-25 minutes.  But I was ahead of schedule and the crew was just setting up shop as I ran by.  Some quick camera work captured me rounding the corner into the finish straight. 

 

I gave it what I had in the tank over the last tenth of a mile, but it wasn’t much.  In fact. as you can see below with my performances for the past 3 years. it was my slowest sprint.  I guess that is an indication of running faster throughout the race.

 

I finished in 23:22 which is actually my 3rd best 5k ever.  I was thrilled with my time, especially with no speed work in training – just all slow running to try to ward off injuries.  This put me 30/131 in my age group (top 23%) and 269/2567 overall (top 11%).

 

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