Guts & Glory 5k Ocean City, NJ 8/8/09

One of the perks in having a place downashore, is that, as a runner, you can check the race calender down there. There were 2 races on Saturday, close to Wildwood, a 10 miler in Sea Isle City (see Joy's ) that was an early nite race, or an early morning 5k, in Ocean City. Since I couldn't hang around until 5:30, to run the 10 miler, I chose the 5k in Ocean City. That worked best into my schedule, as I usually get down to Wildwood early on Sat. mornings, one, to beat the traffic, and two, to run! I had 4 miles in the schedule, so a 5k fit perfectly.

The Guts & Glory 5k, was the biggest 5k I have ever ran in. It had 1375 runners/walkers registered. It ran along the ocean, on the streets of Ocean City, and finished with a lap on the Ocean City High School's track.

There were so many entrants, that this was a chip timed 5k. One of the local TV stations, NBC10, from Philly was there, broadcasting live during their morning newscast. I snapped a picture of an interview in progress.

When they lined us up on the street, one mistake I made, was a started a bit too far back in the pack. Since I figured this was a chip timed race, I thought starting back a ways, would allow for less congestion when you hung a sharp right into an alley way about 100 yards after the start. Well, as I found out too late, they only used the chips to help organize the finishing order.
It was like the start to the Philly marathon, with a bit of walking involved that 1st couple of 1/10Th's of a mile. You had a quick right, right, left, and then onto a straight road, where you could settle in to your pace.

I had a tough week of running, so I wasn't shooting for any particular time. I had the 6-8-6 on Tues - Thurs., keeping all my training runs in the 8:40-9:00min/mile pace. One crazy thing I did do, was meet up with Hurley and a few of the HATR's, early Wed, and do a cross fit circuit at the local high school track. That was tough, but I have made it a point to attempt to add core training this time around.

So after getting past a lot of foot traffic, I was able to settle into a comfortable pace. I was amazed at when I passed the 2-1/2 mile mark, and there were still people walking/jogging towards mile 1. There were a lot of people!
I also made it a point to not look at the garmin every mile, and just do the run, but when I hit the track, I did look at the finish line timer, and realized that there would be no PR today. It was around 20:50's, and I knew I wasn't going to run the last 440, in a minute. I finished with a respectable 22:12, good for 10Th in my old age group, and 82Nd outta 1196 finishers.

If I would have not got caught up in the first 2/10's congestion.... maybe it would have been a PR?