I am running the THON 5Km race today with my friend Mere (Yayyy), Steve . thousands other people on the Penn State campus in a battle against childhood cancer. You can also show your support at http://www.thon.org.
UPDATE: I ran a personal best at ~ 26 mins and 35 sec for 3.1 miles. Approx pace is 8:34. These are unofficial timings. (click the image for larger size)
FULL RACE REPORT: for pictures of participants check out PSU Newswire.
[The race started at 1130 am near IM bldg on Curtin Rd., on a fine sunny Sunday morning during the Halloween weekend at Penn State. Several runners and cheerful audience showed up various costumes ranging from superheroes to cookie monsters to cute dolls etc]. Now to the race report.
Since hundreds of people started at the start line, the initial 0.5 mile was quite complicated to run from the middle. Just avoiding hazards like tripping and bumping from people crossing into your path or stopping in front of you was a challenge. However, I did that stretch at a moderate 8:30 pace, which eventually was close to my course average pace. I was happy that I stuck to that speed from the beginning. The course has a decent uphill just before the first mile mark, which made it quite challenging to keep pace and breath.
Once I conquered that hill (mile 1 at 8:13/mile -<<- I do not trust this value), soon after a second and bigger hill came up near the PSU nuclear reactor, but the morale boost from the cheerful spectators kept me going. After several high fives and one water cup, I continued on Pollock road (gentle uphill) all the way to the flat stretch past the HUB (mile 2 at 9:52/mile). Soon after crossing the library/Pattee Mall region came the next and final uphill of the race at Fraser Street. Somehow, my rhythm was good so I managed to cross this hill at a decent pace and turned on to Curtin. From here on, I was into the last mile so I stepped up the pace a notch (pace 7:03/mile) and finished strong with a nice sprint at the last 100 meters. However that last sprint definitely gave me some diaphragm pain during the cool down after the finish.
To summarize (and toot my own horn): I did a personal best at 5K in 27 min 04 sec (unofficial time). Actually it was 3.15 miles - which is 80 meters more than 5 km. The pace of 8:34 in this race was a big improvement over my summer 09 artsfest 5K pace of 9:20 and overall time of 28 min 57 sec. My friend Mere (blog) who is running a race for the first time since her ankle surgery in Feb finished in 28 min. (her report) I am sure she will vastly improve by the time we run a next race. Also, Steve K. ran in 25 min something with a baby stroller. I am super impressed by that.
Since hundreds of people started at the start line, the initial 0.5 mile was quite complicated to run from the middle. Just avoiding hazards like tripping and bumping from people crossing into your path or stopping in front of you was a challenge. However, I did that stretch at a moderate 8:30 pace, which eventually was close to my course average pace. I was happy that I stuck to that speed from the beginning. The course has a decent uphill just before the first mile mark, which made it quite challenging to keep pace and breath.
Once I conquered that hill (mile 1 at 8:13/mile -<<- I do not trust this value), soon after a second and bigger hill came up near the PSU nuclear reactor, but the morale boost from the cheerful spectators kept me going. After several high fives and one water cup, I continued on Pollock road (gentle uphill) all the way to the flat stretch past the HUB (mile 2 at 9:52/mile). Soon after crossing the library/Pattee Mall region came the next and final uphill of the race at Fraser Street. Somehow, my rhythm was good so I managed to cross this hill at a decent pace and turned on to Curtin. From here on, I was into the last mile so I stepped up the pace a notch (pace 7:03/mile) and finished strong with a nice sprint at the last 100 meters. However that last sprint definitely gave me some diaphragm pain during the cool down after the finish.
To summarize (and toot my own horn): I did a personal best at 5K in 27 min 04 sec (unofficial time). Actually it was 3.15 miles - which is 80 meters more than 5 km. The pace of 8:34 in this race was a big improvement over my summer 09 artsfest 5K pace of 9:20 and overall time of 28 min 57 sec. My friend Mere (blog) who is running a race for the first time since her ankle surgery in Feb finished in 28 min. (her report) I am sure she will vastly improve by the time we run a next race. Also, Steve K. ran in 25 min something with a baby stroller. I am super impressed by that.
this is great, Nari! I love the stats!! thanks again for running it with me!
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