Fremont 5 Mile Turkey Trot Results, Photos, Video...

Today I ran my second 5 Mile race ever—first one was May 28, 2007, therefore an obvious PR at 33:43. The other day I looked at the McMillan calculator to kind of give me an idea on what my goal should be for this race. According to my last 5k time, 18:52, I should have been able to run a 31:06 today. So I just set my goal as something near or around that.

Well, I'll spare you all the details, mainly because it's not very interesting, but when Phillip and I lined up at the race start, I noticed that there were a handful of the Team Nebraska people there. There were a few guys from the Team, and one girl. I had seen her at a few other races, but I have always beaten her. I thought I might have a chance, just maybe.

Inside the YMCA, where the race started from, I had also noticed some other girls from some of the races I've raced in lately. All these girls were pretty fast so I knew that, if anything, the cold weather would be the one factor to keep me behind the game. Being from Nebraska, all those girls would be accustomed to this type of weather.

The weather was, in fact, COLD. The temperature when we started was 22 with light flurries, slight wind. I stayed inside until we started lining up, mainly to keep my legs warm. The race would be an out and back, sort of a "C" shape, from the map on the Garmin.

When the gun sounded, I started off with the goal in mind to run past every girl I encountered, as is always my goal first and foremost. I looked down at the Garmin .25 mile out and realized I was running way too fast, faster than I wanted to, that's for sure—5:48 minute mile—and I knew it. I was freezing! Whoa! Slow down. Slowed down to about a 6:07 pace or so, and tried to keep that pace for the remainder of the race, as much as it hurt to run in the cold.

After the turnaround, 2.5 miles, I quickly realized I was the second girl overall. I had seen the Team Nebraska girl pass me by—she had at least a minute on me, meaning I could either step it up—not likely with the way I was feeling in the cold—or keep going at current pace, which was varying between 6:15 and 6:30. I decided if I caught her, good for me, and if not, at least I would PR.

Oh, to hell with it. I'll just give you my time and my splits and be done with it.

1 – 6:08
2 – 6:27
3 – 6:23
4 – 6:15
5 – 6:31 (that's with 10 seconds extra, since I forgot to turn off my Garmin until 10 seconds after I stopped).

Unofficial time – 31:01 (When I saw 30:55 on the clock, I gave it my all to step it up and meet 31:00. But I just didn't make it).
So, there it is. 4 seconds off my predicted goal time, I guess.