TIU 5K

Coming into this 5K on Oct. 5, I really wasn’t sure how well I was going to run. I hadn’t run in a 5K since June 15, the Biggest Loser 5K.

Leading up to the Race

However, I have been doing extensive training for a half marathon on my birthday (Oct. 26), so I knew I could do the 3.1 miles without a problem. In my training for the half, I had been doing some tempo runs and speed conditioning, but the vast majority of the training I had done wasn’t dealing with short distances at higher speed.

My PR in the 5K over the summer was 19:01, so I thought I could beat this time because my cardio conditioning has gotten immensely better over the last few months.

I ran the TIU 5K two years prior in a time of 21:02 when I was pretty out of shape.

The day before the race, I finally bought a Garmin Forerunner10 GPS watch to chart my time, distance, etc. This would be the first time I’d be testing it out, so I was looking forward to that.

Race Day

Calling this 5K a “race” may have been a little bit of a stretch; there were only 44 runners in it and nobody was really shooting for first place (besides me).

It was in the 60’s, but the humidity was at 100%, making it overwhelmingly uncomfortable. The course had changed in 2012, essentially being reversed from what I had remembered it to be in 2011.

Ellen, Shoggs and Kelly were also running in the race with me, making it fun for all of us. After the race, Shoggs and I would be playing in the TIU Alumni Baseball Game at 10:00 AM.

The race started, and I tried to take off ahead of the pack. My first mile felt good, and I completed it in 5:43. It was a different mentality running in a 5K, pushing myself to go pretty hard. For the second mile, it was mostly spent on grass out by the baseball, soccer and football fields. This threw me off a little bit because I’m so used to running on pavement.

Right after the race started.

I completed the second mile in 6:08 and third mile, which was mostly around the outskirts of campus and as you entered the main entrance campus, in 6:17. The last part of the race was a small loop around the Waybright Center and a sprint for the finish line. I completed the race in 18:27, a PR by 34 seconds, and it was good enough for first place.

It was really convenient to have the GPS watch to gauge how fast I was going and how far I had gone. After I was done, I waited for Ellen to come in. She has improved greatly over these past few months as well.

Crossing the finish line.

Just as I was telling Mike Gorsline at the finish line that Ellen would probably be done in a little after 25 minutes, the clock just hit 24 minutes and she was nearly finished. Smiling as usual to the finish line, she finished in 24:24, a PR by a wide margin. I’m really proud of how well she did, how much better she’s gotten and that’s she my girlfriend!

Shoggs and Kelly race the 5K together and came in a little bit later.

Thoughts

Even though we had to get over to the baseball game shortly after the race, I’m glad we did it. I got a little trophy for winning and Ellen got a medal for first place for her age division.

I’m truly blessed by God to be running. I was particularly inspired throughout the week by this video. Watch this video and read the story. I hope to do something like this someday.

The four bubs at the TIU 5K.