5km Run Results

Last night I ran a 5km.  With a PB set in the early spring of this year of 19:13, I was hopeful to drop that time by at least 14 seconds to go sub 19min.  As the time drew near to leave my home and start heading over to the UBC Triathlon Club office to meet my fellow racers (26 in all) I started pulling out the Vincent Lavallee excuses. I was thinking about all the Doritos and Reese Peanut Butter Cups I had eaten the day before (dang you Safeway and your sales!).  My nutrition for the past couple of days was worse than poor and I have been sleep deprived lately because of the demands of school.  With all that on my mind, I was still hopeful of reaching my goal.  Lacing up my new Mizuno Wave Revolver racing flats, I was determined to reach my goal.

The route was a 900m block near UBC campus in the Endowment Lands.  It's nice because there is very little traffic and the terrain is relatively flat.  The biggest challenge was tracking my pace time.  Normally I like to time each km but with the loop being a hundred meters short of that I had to time myself per every 900m.  I figured I needed to run each lap in 3 minutes and 25 seconds which would bring me in just under 19 minutes.

The race started, light rain, dark, and a little cold - but not bad.  My first lap was 3:11, well above my goal pace.  I felt good but decided to slow it down to prevent a burn out.  My pace reduced to be on track and more or less stayed that way for the duration of the race.  I slowed a little at the end but my fast first lap more than accounted for that and I was well below my goal time.  After rounding lap 5, with half a lap to go to reach 5km I was feeling confident that I would reach my goal.  I had some gas left in the tank, picked up my feet and ran a good finish.

When I crossed the finish line I heard someone yell out my time: 19:04.  I was crushed.  I had executed my run well and it went according to my plan.  I assumed that I had miscalculated the time I needed to run each lap in and went home.

I later retrieved my lap times from my watch and imported the numbers into an excel spreadsheet I keep for all my time trials.  I began to scratch my head because my pace was good and I should have finished in under 19 minutes.  Did I run the last 500m slower than my goal pace?  That didn't seem right, that last 500m felt good.  I was confused until a saw a facebook status update from Scotty-Doo stating his time for a 5.1km.  Suddenly it all began to make sense.  Apparently the course was slightly mis-measured.  According to three people running the race with gps watches, the route (after averaging the three numbers) was 5.13km.

By using my average pace and scaling my time down to what would have been 5km, my time should have been 18:35.  This would have been great.  I feel like I earned that time yet I don't quite feel right claiming it.  I have been debating over stating my 5km best time as 19:04 - even though the course was long, or 18:35 - even though it's not official.  I've decided for now that my 5km PB is 19:04.  I feel somewhat ripped-off but I just don't feel right guessing what my time would have been.

This experience has inspired my to run another 5km.  I want that sub 19 minute time and I wont stop until I get it.  In three weeks there is a race called the Fall Classic.  They have 5/10/21.1 km options.  I was originally planning on running the half marathon but seeing how I haven't been doing any distance training as of late, this seems like the perfect opportunity for me to reach my goal, and have an official time to go along with it.  I'm no longer upset.  I'm looking forward to this next race.