The saga of inaccurate 5Ks continues: Girls Just Wanna Run “5K”

Perhaps someday I will run an actual 5K, but 7/21/18 wasn’t the day!

I ran the Girls Just Wanna Run 5K for my final summer short race.  I initially didn't think I'd be able to race on July 21 because we were leaving on vacation that morning, but when my husband told me we couldn't pick up our rental car until 9:00 a.m., I decided starting a local race at 7:30 a.m. was feasible.  It was the last weekend I had a short long run before marathon training amps up, and it was a relatively large women's only race (373 finishers) that I thought would be fun to try to win.  I mapped the course on mapmyrun from the online course map, and it read 3.10 (bingo!!), so I signed up at the expo!

Race shirt, after a different run

I was scheduled to run a 10 miler with 3 miles progressive fast finish, so I decided I'd try to run the race as a progression run, provided that I could go for the win running that way (since past winning times had been over 20:00, I suspected I could).  My goal splits were 6:20, 6:15, 6:10, then sprint the final 0.1.  I knew the course map well enough that I thought I'd be able to easily run it for a warm up, assuming it would be marked, but when I began my warm up I didn't see any markings so I ran the general area but not the exact course.  I was relieved to see a lead cyclist when I lined up!

Lead cyclist shown here!

I went out conservatively, and found myself out front less than a half mile in, so I felt my chance of winning with the progression run pace plan was good.  The lead cyclist was just in front of me, the course volunteers were enthusiastic, and I was right around my pace goal for mile 1.  I looked at my watch when it beeped - 6:19.  The course wasn't marked at all, but I was following the cyclist, which seemed simple enough.

Can you find me?

Not too far after the mile, the lead cyclist and a volunteer disagreed which street a turn was, which did not inspire confidence.  I remembered which street the course map showed us turning on, and the cyclist took me one block too far north.  At that point I thought, "Oh, geez, now it's going to be 2 blocks long", and mentioned that we were supposed to turn on Blaine, not Commercial, as the volunteer had said.  The lead cyclist said that the race organizers had told him the course was the same as last year, which meant a turn on Commercial.  We had this conversation during the race/progression workout, and I wasn't going to not follow him, so I continued on.  The cyclist then started second guessing himself and said he was going to go back to clarify for the volunteer, and I pleaded, "But I don't know where to go!" so he stayed with me.

I didn't know where our next turn was supposed to be, but he thought he did, so I continued on with my workout, thinking that we were going to run 2 blocks long.  Mile 2 was 6:16, so I was right where I wanted to be with my progression run, and just reminded myself to focus on hitting my paces and not getting upset about the distance.  We started nearing the finish line, and I realized it was definitely not going to be long, but in fact quite short (2.68!).  I finished 1st overall in 16:17, with my final split pace being 6:01.

I was disappointed because it was clearly a short course.  I told the finish line workers that I hadn't actually run a 16:17.  The lead cyclist only knew about the 2 blocks he'd added going north/back south, not the 6 that he'd cut off going east/back west, and he kept apologizing to me for making it long and insisting to the race organizers that it was long.  I can only wish I'd run 16:17 for a long 5K (or for an accurate 5K...or even for 3 miles!)!  I didn't know exactly where the second error occurred until I compared my Strava map to the course map, but essentially I ran 4 blocks less than I should have.  In the end, the race added 2:00 to my time for the 4 blocks, for an 18:17, which is still faster than I would have run per my Garmin, but at least closer! 

Official results are here.

I won a nice Thirty One brand over-the-shoulder large lunch tote for my overall award, which I grabbed, along with some great snacks, after my cool down before hurrying home to start our vacation!  One of my co-workers bought a similar lunch bag the week before, and I'd admired the size of it and ease of carrying it (we are always lugging a million things in and out of the building), so it was a timely and functional award!

Winnings