JackRabbit Anyone Can Win 5K, April 13, 2010

The JackRabbit Anyone Can Win 5K had the best premise for a race that I've seen yet. No watches. No mile markers. No clocks. Nobody wins at the finish line.

Instead, JackRabbit asked us to predict our finishing times for a 5K when we signed up for the race. The people who got closest to their predicted times would win - not the first people to cross the finish line. And they have some great prizes - JackRabbit gift certificates! Visions of keeping myself in Vanilla Gu all summer long danced through my head.

We also were asked to chip in $20 to keep Prospect Park pretty. Easy enough! I do love me some Prospect Park.

Now. My fastest 5K ever was 25:08, run during a test in the midst of my current Team in Training season. Because it was pitch-black and midwinter at the time of the test, we ran the 5K in a loop around the top half of the park and Prospect Park West. So the course was more or less flat. This race was a full loop around the park, which meant hills. Of the South and North variety.

Also important: I really thought I was going to die during the 5K test. I was getting a cold and could barely breathe. Also, I dropped my glove in the middle and lost about 30 seconds going back and picking it up.

So when I registered for the Anyone Can Win 5K, I based my time not on that test - because I had no desire to feel like that again - but rather on my PR half marathon pace of 9:10. I wrote down 27:30.

TNT BK ran this race in lieu of our normal Tuesday night practice, so it was great to be outside on a pretty night with all my teammates and coaches. It's not often that I get the benefit of my coaches cheering me on during a little 5K race, so that was great.

Know thyself. This was the theme of the night. And I don't. Know myself, that is. Because I ran the 5K in 25:15, possibly a bit faster. That's my 5K PR for an official race, in case you are counting. And also just seven seconds slower than that 5K test. Which I should have written down instead of the slower time, because I'd have won big!

I chalk this up to what every coach, every experienced runner, every race veteran will tell you: Don't go out too fast. To which I say: Then don't start your races on a downhill.

In sum, I'm pretty proud of myself for my PR - it was just about 8 months ago, in August of 2009, in Prospect Park, in a race sponsored by JackRabbit, that I ran my first 5K in under 30 minutes. So I've shaved off over four minutes in one training season, in a distance I really don't enjoy that much (I could go on and on about this, but I'll keep it short and just say that a 5K is a warmup for me.).

I just really wanted that gift certificate! Time to get serious about pacing. And get to know myself a bit better - because apparently I really can run a 5K in 25 minutes and change.