Continuing my April lucky streak I pulled off another overall
win on Saturday at “Steve’s Old Time Spring Chaser 5K” In the Quad Cities. Although once again keeping things in
perspective as my time was not blazing fast, I’m still very excited to have run
a personal best time of 18:03 in the 5K race!
I went in with a goal to PR and 2nd goal to get under 18
minutes so I’ll say I was darn close…
I wasn’t sure what to think as the field was pretty large
for this race (about 600 or so runners) so I decided to focus on my splits and hopefully
pick a guy out ahead that I could draft with or use to push me though the
race. “Unfortunately”, if you can really
call it unfortunate I pulled into the lead right after mile one when we hit the
one and only hill of the course. Hills,
which I used to dread more than anything while running have now become my secret
weapon. Running the bluffs of Dubuque
really give our community of runners a distinct advantage and that is seen very
clear in these out of town races. From the
crest of that that hill until the finish was radio silence… I had got a 15-20
second lead and managed to maintain it through the end of the race. I was a little bummed that the clock was
hidden until the last few feet so I didn’t know I was so close to breaking 18…
I really have no one to blame but myself as I should have kicked it in harder
instead of comfortably finishing knowing I had the lead position. I won’t be making that mistake again, that
is for sure!!
After the race I was excited to find out I won $150 worth of
prize money and a couple free beers which did a great job of quenching my
post-run thirst. Bill and Hunter also nailed
age division prizes which was awesome and we got several people inquiring about
the Dubuque Running Club which was very exciting! Bill was even approached by the director for
the Quad Cities Marathon wanting to get the DRC more involved this fall, he
even wants to wear one of our shirts to promote the club!! All in
all it was a very fun and successful morning for the group, really nothing
beats our weekend race trips!
So moving on I’ve got a tough couple weeks ahead, doing a
20+ mile run Sunday morning followed by a hard week of training. The next race is the Trail run May 10th
and I need to make the decision still on whether I will run to PR the 10K or
try and hit under 18 for the 5K… either way
I look forward to this race as I guarantee there will be much faster runners
than I and I’m really looking forward to both watching and learning from them
and also pushing myself further.
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