First race of 2008

Today was my first race since I ran a half marathon PR on June 24, 2007 and then completely quit running - or I guess take a break, since I'm back at it now. Since that half marathon PR, I didn't run again until January 4 of this year.

Okay, enough boring background information. The event was a flat and scenic 8K. I ran the inaugural event last year in a painful 42:27. I mean it was really painful, I think I remember my legs wanted to give out at around the 5 or 6k mark. It didn't actually feel too confident about 2 weeks ago, and I was contemplating whether I should race today, or just treat it as another training run (like I'd have the discipline to hold myself back). Then things just kinda came together, and my runs were getting quicker and started feeling better. So, I went out this morning with a goal to crack 40 minutes. My plan was to run the first half in 20 minutes, then to evaluate how I felt and adjust my pace accordingly. Well, I started out pretty quick, and I just couldn't seem to get myself to run any slower than 4:30/km according to my Polar so I just decided to keep going with that pace and hope not to crash from starting out too fast. I just kept motoring along at around a 4:30 pace, and I was still feeling great after 4k, 5k, 6k, I couldn't believe it - I was on my way to finishing well under 40 minutes! Or would my lungs or legs give out with 1k left to go? I wasn't sure, but I felt fine so I kept going, feeling very strong - I even ran right past the water station! I always say that I won't stop for water in the shorter races, but it's always so tempting when it's right there. Well, 6k down, 2 to go. I started to pick up the pace a little bit, and then quite a bit more for the final 800m or so. I think I was even racing the guy beside me to the finish (that's us in the picture!). I was going to ask him to race to the finish line, but I think the race was already on. I'm not too sure who won between the two of us, but that's not important, it was just a nice push for both of us to cross the line faster. Official time ... 35:53! I didn't even shave that much time off my half marathon PR after 6 months of training!! I am very surprised and happy with my time, especially since I've only been back at for 9 or 10 weeks now, and 3k was such a challenge when I first started back up. I'm also very curious to know how fast I could run this distance if I was in peak form. Here are my splits for this race:

1 - 4:50

2 - 4:33

3 - 4:27

4 - 4:29

5 - 4:27

6 - 4:25

7 - 4:27

8 - 4:15

This is probably the most evenly paced race I've ran.

Oh ya, it was also nice not to have a bunch of walkers in front of me with huge golf umbrellas this year (that happened last time). I have no problem with walkers, and I'm actually glad to see them there, but not at the front!

Okay, that was way longer than I expected, thanks for reading. Can't wait until my 10k next month, unless I do a 10k trail race 2 weeks from now, in which case, I can't wait for that!