Race Report: Westfield Garden State Plaza 5K

Today was the 4th annual Westfield Garden State Plaza 5K to benefit my daughter's school. It's been 2 weeks since MCM and I ran 3 times last week after taking the week off after MCM. Last year the race fell out exactly 1 week after I ran the New York City Marathon. At the time, I set a PR for the 5K completing the race in 23:21.

The weather this morning was absolutely glorious, temperatures right around 50 and sunny skies. The course was pretty boring, 1 1/2 loops of the Westfield Garden State Plaza parking lot. I tried to get close to the front knowing that there were a lot of inexperienced runners who would sprint at the beginning and then bonk out about half way through. The horn went off and I went off at pretty fast clip. I hit the first mile in 6:37. I knew right away that I could not maintain this pace for 2.1 more miles. Once again, I slowed down and hit the second mile in 7:15. I thought I could keep that up for the last 1.1 but my legs started to feel heavy. I hit the 3rd mile in 7:31. I crossed the finish line in 22:51.

Even though it is a new PR, I feel like I didn't run a good race. This is the 2nd time (MCM being the first) where I went out too fast and had to slow down. I should be playing it safe at the beginning and have something left at the end for a fast finish. This is something that I'll have to work on during the rest of fall and through the winter.

Anyway, here are the final stats, courtesy of Bestrace:
22:51 (7:22/mile)
5/20 in 35 - 39 age group
41/134 overall

After the 5K was 1 mile fun run. My daughter is always bothering me to run with me. Usually it's after I've come back from a Sunday long run. This was a great opportunity for me to join her. Beth took full advantage of the run/walk method by running really fast and then walking. I must say I was very proud of her for sticking with it. When she came to the finish line, I told her to finish strong and she took off and crossed the finish line running not walking and of course, with a big smile on her face.