Finally...some kind of record this year

Finally...some kind of record this year

Well this hasn't been the greatest year for me running. I've been beset by nagging injuries and maladies, and I just can't seem to return to the great progress I had last year.

I've been lagging in my race reports, so consider this a kind of catch-up post.

Kirkland 5K, May 11, 2008
This is the 3rd time I've run this race, and it's along streets near my office that I run almost every week so I'm familiar with the course. The course starts out flat then climbs pretty steep for half a mile or so before dropping down for a mile, then it's flat again to the end.
I ran it in 30:27 which is off my course record of 30:18 and far off my 5K PR of 28:42.

Beat the Bridge, May 18, 2008
In this race you have 20 minutes to run 2+ miles before a bridge opens and you get caught. For me that means a 2 mile dead sprint at maximum heart rate. The first time I wasn't close, the second time I beat it handily, and this year...well the bridge was right in front of me, I saw that 19:50 had elapsed so I had 10 seconds to go. I sprinted but a bunch of people jumped up to block the way. I could have bullied my way through since the bridge wasn't opening yet...but I knew I had been beat...probably by no more than 10 seconds. According to my chart I stopped at 19:58 on my watch (which was a couple secs behind the "real" time and at mile 2.10. So I ran a 9:32 pace but it wasn't good enough :(
The whole race is 8K so not including the stop I finished in 52:03 which is off my course record of 51:20 (when I beat the bridge and kept running for time)

Issaquah Tri 5K, May 31, 2008
So now we come to the sole bright spot of the year so far. This is the fourth time I've run the 5K associated with the Issaquah Triathlon. It's one of my favorite runs of the year but it's also historically the slowest. It's one of the only runs that's most trail...in this case actually fields. So basically you run through grass fields with a lot of windy twists and turns.
I think the soft surface must slow me down or something. However, I can tell I'm still not in great shape, because my splits ran:

1. 9:25
2. 10:08
3. 10:12

.1 1:02
Which is opposite what I want. I really tried to take it easy for the first mile so this wouldn't happen, but my heart rate shot up and this is all I could do. For the 2nd half of the race I kept trading leads with a triathlete, and she seemed to get frustrated every time I passed her, but she really put it on at the end and cooked me (with some encouragement from me since I didn't have much left for a final sprint.
So I finished in 30:48...not even my best time of the year but at least I set a course record on this hard course...my previous best was 31:30.
Hopefully this means I'm back on track and I'm about to rev things up. With a half marathon in a couple weeks...I really need to start pushing things.