Ambler YMCA Summer Solstice 5K

This race report is subtitled by Jen: "I can't handle you and this 5K
thing anymore." <grin>

It was kinda stormy here last night but I figured as long as they were
going to have the race I would run it. When I got there I tried to
avoid the crowds by stretching out under the football stadium
bleachers. It was pretty muddy and drippy, but I thought that beat
just getting soaked in the parking lot.

I saw a few faces I recognized warming up, but not a ton.

The race was about 20 minutes late getting started. I don't know if
this was because they were really waiting for the storms to pass, or
if they were just a bit disorganized.

I was picking out all the fast looking people out front, and (as I
usually do) tried to pick out who I thought was the fastest. And as
usual, I was wrong.

My hamstring has been bugging me on and off since last week's race and
it was still tight in warmups. I don't think the 20 minutes of
standing at the line and occasionally doing a strider really helped.

The race had a funny start. They had been going through
announcements, letting sponsors talk, singing the national anthem,
etc. Then a woman got up and said "Runners I have one more
annoucement... take your marks HONK!". I was like, whoa crap, she
just started the race!

I got a spasm in my hamstring about 400m in, and that made me pretty
nervous, but it faded.

It was a big field, but we all got off cleanly. There were a lot of
high school kids there and one crazy dude with an iPod on who went
through the half mile in probably 2:20. I was thinking I did not want
to be that dude at mile 2. I was in maybe 10th place at the half
mile. I saw a local guy I know starting to settle into a groove and
some of the HS kids started coming back, so I got in behind him.

At mile 1 I was next to another guy and a few steps behind first.
Mile one was 5:04. Uh-oh! It sure didn't feel that fast.

Mile 2 went onto a short nature path that was a nice change up. I
felt pretty strong and was able to keep the leader less than 10-15m in
front of me. There was no 2 mile split, but I'm pretty sure I was
around 10:20 or so.

We went around a sharp turn on the course here and I could see that I
had a good gap on #3.

At this point I thought I was sitting pretty. I thought I could feel
#1 starting to fade and I thought that I might have enough to get him
and the PR.

Then right around minute 11 I got a sharp cramp in the hamstring.
Owie. I thought about stoppping, but this season has been too long to
give up on a race.

The last mile was just painful and my stride was falling apart.
Number 3 caught me just as we headed onto the track for the finish and
I really just couldn't extend to keep up with him.

So I was 3rd overall in 16:53, about 5 seconds behind #2 and 15
seconds behind #1 - both guys that I know.

I won a nice dinner gift certificate for placing. Now all I need is a
race that gives out babysitters!

Those ugly splits look something like 5:04, 5:15, 5:55 pace. Ouch!

The hamstring is still pretty sore today, but I'm going to see what I
can do about pulling one or two more races out of it before I call it
a season.

So I am a little disappointed, I thought I was in a good position for
a PR, but I knew it was a little risky going in. The hamstring was a
big factor, the first mile was too fast. Kind of a dumb mistake on my
part. It didn't feel that fast going out.

Fun race overall though, nice course.