Long Run for Short Race

Sunday, I ran the Raynham Knights of Columbus 5-Miler. I had run this race in 2007 and kept getting the reminder emails each year since. Currently, I'm training for a long run in May, so I'm following the traditional marathon training regimen - short to middle distance a few times a week with long runs on weekends.

Given this 5-miler was going to be my weekend long run, I had to increase the mileage somehow. I decided to run to the race, run the race and then run home. A straight shot to the starting line was just over 7 miles from my house - easy. I left just over an hour before start time and made it with 10 minutes to register and complete my "warm-up" to an even 8 miles. I toed the starting line with about 2 minutes to race start and took off with the 200+ runners on a cool overcast Sunday morning - perfect running weather.

It's a pretty fast course, not too hilly - with a course record of just under 25 minutes (about the time it takes me to jog a 5k - yikes!). My split times according to the race timers at each mile:

Mile	Time	Split
1	7:20	7:20
2	15:02	7:42
3	22:23	7:21
4	29:54	7:31
5	36:56	7:02

I finished quickly - just under 37 minutes, about 7:24 minutes/mile - to place 34/183 and complete my first half-marathon of the day (8+5).

I wasted little time after crossing the finish line. I pulled on my race T-shirt over my long sleeve running top, topped off my water bottle, ate a Clif Bar and was off running home in about 5 minutes.

I had planned a route home that would meander about Raynham and Taunton to give me another 13 miles before hitting home.

My wife and niece met me on a back road with about 4 miles to go on their way home from swimming. I was able to drop the race T-shirt (soaked from the misty rain at the start of my run home) and get a chicken McNugget - a nice change from the Gu I'd been powering down every 45 minutes.

I finished my marathon in a slow 3:50 but feeling fine. So this past weekend, I ran a marathon ... but only got credit for a 5-miler!