Race Report: 2011 Bob Potts 5K

I ran the 2nd leg of my back-to-back 5Ks, the Bob Potts 5K, today. In short, I've probably never run a race this well that I prepared for this badly:

• Ate a big dinner of "Irish Nachos", ravioli, two beers and two scoops of Bruster's Birthday Cake ice cream for dessert.
• Wasn't sure of the starting time of the race as late as 11:00pm last night.
• Awful night of sleep.
• Feeling a bit queasy right up until the gun went off.
• Raced another 5K the day before. (I frequently run the day before a 5K, but had never raced on back-to-back days)
  

Still, I ran a 24:27, which I believe is my third-best 5K time ever. I guess I decided somewhere between dropping my wallet and phone back at my car after packet pickup that I was going to try for a fast time rather than take it easy.

(Registration was inside the gym. When I was first starting running, I did almost all my running on the indoor track pictured here.)

The race started and ended at the track outside York College's Grumbacher Center, and most of the course was down and back a section of the rail trail. Unfortunately, it was mostly downhill on the way out and thus mostly uphill on the way back. At the time, I thought I was on pace for a sub-23 at the halfway point, but in hindsight I think I did the math wrong. A PR was probably within reach up until the last half mile, but I just wasn't quite fast enough today. I'd stopped to tie my shoe early in the race, and that cost me precious seconds, and started a bit too far back at the crowd. There wasn't chip timing and I forgot to stop Garmin right as I crossed the finish line, so I was probably really 10-15 seconds under my official time.

Although I tried to sprint the half lap around the track that ended the race, I didn't have a lot of energy left. Although when another runner sprinted for the finish and tried to pass me within the last 50 yards, I found that I did have enough left to hold them off to hang on to 55th place. I saw out of the corner of my eye that he was probably about 12 years old.

(We're number 55!)

Review
This was a fun, well-organized race. It didn't have the novelty of yesterday's Preakness 5K, and so I think it was taken a little more seriously. The course itself is pleasant, a soft gravel surface for most of the race and the hills are not steep...just steep enough to knock me off pace at the end, but I think someone a bit better prepared would have a good shot of scoring a PR at this race. The biggest challenge is that since it's an out and back on a trail, things get a little tight in the middle of the race, when traffic is going in both directions. It was a nice event, too. The volunteers and staff were all really, really nice and the starter had a good sense of humor. There was a band setting up, probably to be ready for the bulk of the marathon finishers, but I didn't stick around. The price was right, too, at $15 with no shirt. (The shirts were nice, though! You just can't get a shirt if you don't pre-register.)

I will admit that I had a bit of marathon envy, but this is a race I'd run again next year if I don't sign up for the Bob Potts Marathon. So...we'll see how well I'm recovered from my revenge on Shamrock by late April next year.