Husky Hustle 5k 1st Overall - 9 miles total

I've raced this race twice before. As a matter of fact this was the first 5k that I had ever raced. This happened way back in 2001. Recognize me in the picture below?

This was my first ever 5k. After this race I raced a couple other 5ks in 2001 but then I quit for many years until 2006. I could never seem to run faster than 20 minutes for a 5k.

Fast forward 8 years later and things have changed. I now have many many races under my belt, including many other types of races . I arrived early at the race and quickly realized that today would not be a good day to run a fast time. It was pretty cold, in the 40s, but in the 30s with wind chill. Speaking of wind, there were probably 25-30 mile an hour winds. I started my warm up way early because I thought the race would start at 7:30 am. Then Ryan, a kid I used to train with (Kenyan Way), laughed and told me the race started at 8 am. That kind of threw me off a little but I was ready to run. The race was rather small and there were no other local elite guys at the race. There were a few guys I didn't recognize at the front of the race but I guessed it would probably be just Ryan and me for most of the race.

After a few announcements the gun sounded and we were off. The course had changed from previous years and now would be around the campus for the most part. During the first mile I started slowly as usual. There was a guy at the front that I didn't recognize who led for most of mile 1. I could feel the strong winds hitting us directly. Not a good sign, as far as fast times go. By about 3/4ths of a mile into the race I shot out to the lead. The guy that led for most of the mile tried to keep up but I could hear him breathing too hard so I knew that he would have problems keeping up with the pace. There was a girl at the 1st mile marker who called out my 1st mile at 5:02. I was in disbelief of that because my Garmin had said I was running about 5:12 pace and the mile hadn't even clicked off yet. A little while later my Garmin clicked and said 5:11 pace. I had trouble going any faster than that because of all the wind.

During mile 2 I started breathing hard. This was very abnormal because I usually don't breath hard until the end of mile 3 in a 5k. So by now I was really working to stay consistent. I tried to go faster but my body couldn't respond. So I just maintained pace the best I could. The person at the 2nd mile marker called out my time at 10:10. I was pretty sure this was wrong. A little later the Garmin fired off and said 10:24 for my second split. 5:12 pace.

We turned around on the course and I could see that I had built up a huge lead so there would be no one pushing me today. Boy was it windy and boy was I winded! I ran as fast and as hard as I could, fighting the wind all the way. I eventually ended up finishing mile 3 at 5:10 pace.

I turned the corner and I could see the finish line. I sped up as hard as I could and stepped on the chip mat and looked my Garmin. It read 16:23. To tell you the truth, this was a great shock to me. I didn't think I would run anywhere near this time. I felt the worst case scenario would be a 16:10. After analyzing the data a little closer I realized that this time wasn't bad, not bad at all. The Garmin said I ran the whole race at 5:11 pace. That would mean that the course was a little long because I ran the Rockets 5k race at 5:09 and finished in 16:01. My Garmin said I ran 3.16 miles. I don't really know if the course was long or if I ran a very inefficient race. It was also very windy, so that also played a big factor as well. To make a long story short, this was not going to be a race to PR in for me. I'm still pleased with my results and I am now able to make a better judgment about what I can do next Saturday for the Bellaire Trolley Run next Saturday.

Here is a picture of me and Ed Borges, an old friend of mine at HBU.

Here are my splits:

Husky Hustle 5k

Mile 1	5:11
Mile 2	5:12
Mile 3	5:10
Last .16 Mile	5:04 (48 seconds)
Total Average Pace	5:11

Finishing time: 16:23