On Saturday afternoon I ran the It’s a Wonderful Run 5k in Seneca Falls. I finished the race in 26:22 averaging 8:30 miles which is a pretty good pace for the number of stops that I made.
The weather was colder than the past few years, but the streets were clear and easy to run on. The main area where I lost time was in waiting for three others for the shot-ski.
As the weather gets cold, this will probably be my last race for the year.
On saturday morning I ran the Scare Brain Cancer Away 5k in East Rochester. I finished the race in 23:18 which is a 7:30 per mile pace. I believe that this is the fastest 5k that I have ran in the past nine years.
The morning of the race was freezing cold, but that is actually an ideal temperature to run at. Once I got going I had no idea what my pace was, but did my best to keep pushing and trying to not slow down. Given that this was my fastest run in years I must of have done a fairly good job at not running out of steam.
My next race will be the East Ave Grocery Run 10k in november.
On friday night I ran St. Greg’s Great Race, a little 5k that is much shorter than most of the races that I have run this year. I finished the race in 24:21, finishing two seconds quicker than my last 5k, and 12 seconds faster than my last time at St. Greg’s.
Coming into the race I was unsure of how things would go because all of my training has been focused on marathons. In the first mile I was rather worried about how things were going, until I heard that my first mile split was 7:15 and I was actually running at a pretty good clip.
I slowed down a little in the final two miles, but overall I am still very happy about how the race went. Twenty-four minutes puts me very much in line with how my 5k races have gone the last few years, so it is nice to see that I can hit that pace even on a race that I decided to run last minute.
My next race will be back on the trails next week at the Webster Trail Classic.
For the second year in a row, I ran the It’s a Wonderful Run 5k in Seneca Falls. I finished in 28:20, which is an ok time as this event is more of a party than a race.
The weather was very good for the race (and unseasonable warm for December), which actually left me a little disappointed that I was two minutes behind my time from last year. Perhaps running with a strand of Christmas lights around my neck made me less aerodynamic.
This was probably my last race of the year, hopefully I find something to run in January.
On Saturday morning I ran the Scare Brain Cancer Away 5k in East Rochester. As a short 5k road race it was a pretty dramatic change from the 21 miles of trails I ran last weekend. I finished the 5k in 24:23 which is just 10 second slower than I was on the same course last year.
I have no idea on how to pace myself for these shorter races, so I decided to just take off at my top speed and hold onto that pace for as long as possible. I feel like I held onto that for around 1.8 miles before slowing down to something more comfortable for the final 1.3 to the finish line.
For my next race I will be returning to the trails for the Dirt Cheap Stage Race in November.
On Thursday night I ran a 5k Cross Country race at Cobbs Hill park. I finished with a time of 25:13 which was quick enough to secure 20th place. While this is not a fast overall time for a 5k, it is over three minutes quicker than I did on the same course last year.
When running a race this short it is always tempting to go at an all out 100% pace, but this course is hilly enough for that to be a mistake. Still with the opening mile mostly flat I felt like I got off to a quick start before slowing down on the long steep climb up the hill. After that the course has some fun trails, but given the distance there remains so much pressure to keep going quick. Overall a significant improvement from last year, so hopefully things keep going that way in the fall.
On Saturday I ran the It’s A Wonderful Run 5k in Bedford Falls Seneca Falls. This was my first time doing this Christmas themed run.
I completed the course in 25:42 which considering all the stops that were made to take shots of fireball is actually a pretty quick time. Given the crowds and the weather it probably would have been tricky to challenge my time from October, so this race turning into a drinking event was probably the right call.
This is almost certainly my last race of the year, and perhaps even the last race until St. Patrick’s Day.
On Saturday morning I ran the Scare Brain Cancer Away 5K in East Rochester. I finished the race in 24:12 which is my fastest 5k time in over four years. This quick time placed me 54th out of 433 runners in the race.
The decision to run this race was made at the last minute, but the course is flat and the weather was great. I ran the first mile in 7:30 which felt surprisingly good for how few short races I have run recently. The next two miles were close to the same pace with mile 2 at 7:59 and final 1.1 miles at a 7:55/mile equivelent. It felt really good to put up a solid time at a distance that I don’t really train for.
On Thursday night I ran the Innovative Edge Cross Country 5k at Cobbs Hill park. I finished the race in 28:20 which is not that quick, but is more or less consistent with the pace I have been running most races this year.
I ran the first mile in under eight minutes, but unfortunately lost some pace running up the hill after that. I could blame the heat, but I think the real issue is that I am having trouble breaking out of the pace that serves me well in 10+ mile distances but comes across as a bit slow in the shorter races.
On tuesday night I ran the Run Our River 5k along the Genesee River in Rochester. I finished the race with a time of 25:16 which is the quickest 5k I have ran all year.
Traditionally I don’t run that many 5k races, but this year’s race calendar appears to still be feeling the lingering effects of covid. I was two minutes quicker than earlier in the month, and a minute ahead of my time from April. The improvement isn’t even due to the weather, as I ran this on a hot July night.
The first two miles of the race went fairly well. While I did get passed a good amount on the first mile, that was probably more a result of starting to close to the front than pacing myself wrong. The final mile was a struggle mainly because I miscalculated where the finish line was. Thinking that the race ended just past the Ford Street bridge I started pushing myself way to early when I still had well over a half mile still to go. But I am not going to complain too much about my best time of the year.
My next race will be the Peasantman Triathlon on August 15th. This will be my first triathlon in over four years and my first return to the Peasantman since 2015.
With the 10k that I typically run on the fourth of july not happening again this year, I instead ran the Fairport Firecracker 5k on Saturday morning. I finished the race in 27:09 which is a minute slower than I ran back in April.
I went out at a pretty good pace knowing that this race was significantly shorter than last weeks marathon. However at roughly the half way point, it became clear that I had started too fast so I had to slow down to more of a long distance pace for the second half of the race.
This was my third weekend in a row with a race, so it appears as if the running calendar is starting to get back to normal.
On Saturday morning I ran the 100 Days of Hope 5K in Gates. This race celebrated the 100th day of 2021, and was the first road race I ran in 500 days since the 2019 Turkey Trot.
I finished the 3.1 miles in 26:01 which is a minute and a half slower than my last 5k. However after not racing for so long I really had no clue what to expect my time to be. I felt very dead after the first mile, and probably started out too fast. The final two miles were more steady but never really felt fast.
As vaccination rates continue to climb, hopefully we can return to a more normal looking race calendar for the rest of the year.
On Sunday morning I ran the Heather Frazer Boyum Iron Angel Memorial 5k race in Perinton. I finished in 26:30 which is a bit slower than I was the last time I ran the race in 2014. This race is on trails that I run often, and so close that I walked from my house to the starting line.
Compared to many of the trail runs I do, the hills on this course were not all that large, but it is far more elevation than your typical 5k. Given the measured distance (although probably a bit long), there was a bit more of a feeling of urgency in this race. While I have run one other 5k so far this year, my legs much prefer the more casual pace of a longer trail run like the Webster Classic earlier this month.
My next race will be significantly longer as I will be running the Niagara Falls International Marathon in October.
Saturday Morning I went to Seneca Park to run my first 5k race of the year. I finished in 24:33 which was fast enough for 16th overall, and 3rd in my age group. The time was quicker than I was last June, but a bit behind my time from last fall.
The Javier Ortiz Memorial 5K consists of three increasingly smaller loops in Seneca Park. Things started out pretty well, finishing the first mile in a speedy 7:11 but halfway through the race I realized that I was unable to keep up that pace and had to slow down a bit. I typically have trouble speeding up for these shorter races so having any splits below 7:30 feels pretty good. And my average pace remained below an eight minute mile.
My next race is also a short road race as I will be running the Lancaster 4th of July 10k.
On Saturday morning I ran the reindeer run 5k in a time of 24:24. This was only my third 5k of the year, and a little quicker than I did in June, and a little slower than I was in October.
This was my first time running this race, but the course goes through downtown and is kindof similar to the St. Patrick’s Day race so I was familiar with the course. The weather was really great for December although there was a little bit of ice on the trail just past the half way point.
Overall, I feel like I am still not quite suited for the 5k distance. I can’t really push myself to be all that much faster than my half marathon pace. Or maybe I felt off because I ran the race wearing reindeer antlers. I’ve never done that before.
Sunday morning I returned to my alma mater to run the Brick City 5k at RIT. I finished the run in 23:36 which was a little slower than I had hoped for, but my quickest 5k in a long while. I was a minute and a half quicker than I ran the Airport 5k earlier this year, and about the same time ahead of my finish on this same course last year.
I have really not gotten used to the quicker pace of these shorter races. I started out trying to keep up with the front runners, but that only lasted about half a mile. After that I just tried my best and pushed a bit to pass a few runners at the end.
Yesterday I went to the airport to run a 5k. I finished in 25:07 which was slower than I had hoped for, but a bit quicker than my last 5k.
This was a race that had been on my radar for a few years, but just never quite worked out until now. Unfortunately I only signed up two days ahead of time so I didn’t have any time to do any speed training to take advantage of the flat course.
My next race will be the opposite of flat, as Wednesday will be a return to the trails for a run in Lucien Morin Park.
On Sunday morning I ran the Brick City 5k at RIT. I finished in 25:15 which is a bit slower than I had been hoping to do, and behind my time from the 2015 version of this race. However in my defense it has been over a month since I ran a road race that was shorter than the marathon distance.
The run started well enough, but having gotten used to the more casual speeds of distance and trail running I could feel it in my legs almost immediately. I did a decent job keeping a pace for the first two miles or so, but was unable to maintain that speed and dropped back to something more casual for the final mile.
My next race will be in early November, back on the trails of Mendon Park.
I ran a 5k at St. Greg’s Great Race on Friday. Despite this being my shortest race of the year, my average mile time was actually rather slow. I finished in 24:33 which puts me close to my half-marathon pace, instead of what I was hoping to run.
The race was a bit disorganized at the start which didn’t help my time, but the real problem was that I just couldn’t find a quicker speed. Hopefully I will be able to pick the pace up for the 10k on July 4th.
After racing in the Finger Lakes and the Adirondacks, the bricks of RIT were a bit less scenic in what may be my only 5k in 2015.
Having done no speed work since the spring, I came into the race a bit under-prepared, as I needed the past week to recover from my previous race. Still, my time of 21:11 was quicker than either of my 5k runs last year.
Last Saturday I attempted to run in a 5k race, but instead ran into the most disastrously mismanaged race that I have ever seen. Given how well I have been running lately, I thought that there was a chance for me to finally run a sub 20 min 5k, but unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to find out.
The race called itself the Roc Run for summer learning and was supposed to consist of a single loop around MCC. Things began to go wrong at the starting line. To begin with the starting line was not marked in any fashion. The number of runners was small enough that chip timing was not required at the start, but there was literally no mark as to where we were supposed to start. Even on the trail races where the start is loose, and the distances are approximate there is always some rough indication of where to begin.
So we blindly wander over to near the starting location where we are informed that a stroller group will be starting five minutes before us. They take off, and we roughly fill in where they had been and about two minutes we take off. The race starts off well, they have a car leading the way, and the stroller runners do a good job of moving to the side and letting us by.
Just before the two mile mark we turn into a parking lot a little bit earlier than I thought we are supposed to. I don’t worry to much and assume that I just forgot a detail on the map. About half a mile later we are directed onto a foot path and I know for sure that we are not following the map. At this point I am kind of annoyed that that they didn’t tell us about the changed course, but I am still assuming that it is going to come out to 3.1 miles. They are running us by the finish line (in the opposite direction) so I am looking forwards to getting a peek at the clock to get a rough idea of my time. It probably goes without saying that none of the miles were marked, but I have a rough idea of how far I have gone.
With the knowledge that there should be roughly half a mile to go, I keep looking to my right to see where the race leaders are so that I can get some idea of the new course. However I don’t see anyone. Eventually we instead turn left and start running around the campus buildings a second time. At this point I realize the only possibility of the course actually being five kilometers is if both my distance estimate is off, and they they end the race with us cutting through a building and crossing through the path of the slower runners. Even given how poorly organized the course has started off, I doubt that this is the direction of things.
Around the 3.5 mile mark, I begin lapping runners who are on their first and only loop. Presumably at this point the faster runners had realized how wrong things had gone, and began redirecting the much slower runners onto a path that at least approximated 5 kilometers. I carry on, and eventually cross the finish line after 29 minutes. Afterwards I recreated the course online and found that I ran a bit over 4.2 miles.
Yet afterwards the race volunteers were just carrying on as if nothing had gone wrong. The race organizers (having already collected the money) were no where to be found. Attempts to get my registration fee refunded have been met with no response. This race has been by far the most disorganized and disappointing event that I have ever been to.
© 2024 Running with Eric.
