Running with Eric

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.