I realized the other day I hadn’t posted an update on how my first 5K went. Overall I had a great time!
My girlfriend (who had to work in the morning and was just watching) and I showed up to the starting area a little early and I picked up my race packet. It was really amazing to actually be pinning a number on myself, I felt like an actual athlete! haha! Now, I did sports when I was in school, and I’ve done martial arts off on an on since high school, but running in a race is a different kind of thing.
We first got to see the people who were running in the day’s 10K, and I think that included most of the more hardcore runners. A little while later they gathered the 5K people to start. Once the race began, I found myself following the pace of a pack of people ahead of me, and looking at my Garmin Forerunner 10 I could tell I was going a little faster than my normal pace. Eventually I let that group slowly move ahead of me and kept to my own pace. I think I had moved away from some of the slower runners, and didn’t have anybody breathing right down my neck at that point.
The race was basically through a little development and down a bike path, then you turn around and went back the way you came. The first half tended to have more downhills than uphills, which was great until we made our way back. But honestly I think it was going back and going up those hills where my training on the local hills paid off. I tried to maintain my regular pace and I think I did a pretty good job of doing so. That group that had outpaced me early on all had hit a brick wall going up the hills and I ended up passing them all. It was a cool feeling!
Near the end of the race there was one guy ahead of me and I made it my mini-goal to sprint to the finish and try to pass him. I ended up passing him with only a few seconds to go. I ended up finishing 11th with a time of 33:39. My GPS watch measured my distance at 3.6 miles and my 5k time at 29:19! I was thrilled!
5K Results
CLASS
PLACE PLACE FINISHER TIME
----- ----- -------- ----
1 Bill Zimmerman, 32, State College, PA 22:40
2 Matt Smith, 49, State College, PA 22:48
3 Tom Cali, 58, State College, PA 23:36
4 1 Scott Gest, 47, State College, PA 31:04
5 2 Ethan Lucas, 20, Bellefonte, PA 31:20
6 3 Corey Hudson, 32, Altoona, PA 31:29
7 4 Chris Cregan Ellis, 32, Yonkers, NY 31:38
8 5 Nick Gildow, 35, Philipsburg, PA 32:05
9 Mikala Morrow, 19*, Lewisburg, PA 33:01
10 6 Bill Morrow, 50, Lewisburg, PA 33:02
11 7 Scott Irvin, 31, State College, PA 33:39
12 8 Kevin Connor, 25, Fairfax, VA 33:41
13 9 Larry Lucas, 53, Bellefonte, PA 34:23
14 Nelitza Sarriera, 27*, Boalsburg, PA 34:39
15 10 Tim Little, 34, Patton, PA 34:58
16 Monica Reed, 35*, State College, PA 35:04
17 1 Sarah Reif, 13*, Lewisburg, PA 35:09
18 11 Adam Reed, 36, State College, PA 35:13
19 12 Willie Melendez, 32, Boalsburg, PA 35:22
20 13 Thad Smith, 10, Spring Mills, PA 35:37
21 14 Brandon Krause, 26, State College, PA 35:56
22 15 Bryan Gormont, 27, State College, PA 35:56
23 2 Kayla Meier, 21*, State College, PA 35:57
24 16 Adam Cardell, 25, Springfield, PA 35:59
25 3 Maria Zielinski, 33*, Elysburg, PA 36:33
26 17 Rupert Johnson, 25, State College, PA 37:25
27 4 Kathleen Shupenko, 30*, Port Matilda, PA 39:11
28 18 John Hurst, 49, Spring Mills, PA 39:12
29 19 Todd Kos, 46, State College, PA 40:06
30 20 Kevin Kos, 43, St. Louis Park, MN 40:07
31 21 Arnold Gasche, 83, State College, PA 41:00
32 5 Josette Zielinski, 56*, Elysburg, PA 41:14
33 6 Hannah Kennedy, 16*, Tyrone, PA 41:37
34 22 Scott Kennedy, 41, Tyrone, PA 41:38
35 7 Alison Weinschenk, 35*, State College, PA 41:58
36 8 Maryann Fitzgerald, 40*, State College, PA 41:58
37 9 Joyce Sutton, 40*, Kennett Square, PA 42:55
38 23 Tyler Olsen, 13, State College, PA 42:59
39 24 Bryce Fisher, 12, Pine Grove Mills, PA 43:00
40 25 Zeb Crews, 12, State College, PA 43:01
41 26 Rich Olsen, 43, State College, PA 43:11
42 10 Karlee McCloskey, 20*, Bellefonte, PA 45:09
43 11 Kera Smith, 43*, Lincoln Universit, PA 48:41
44 27 Simon Smith, 8, Spring Mills, PA 50:31
45 12 Amy Lucas, 51*, Bellefonte, PA 58:32
* indicates females
6 finishers among Males (no age given)
27 finishers among Open Men/OpM
12 finishers among Open Women/OpW
33 male finishers
12 female finishers
45 total finishers
I unfortunately didn’t run much since then, but I’ve signed up for my next race and training began today! This time my girlfriend is “running” with me! I put running in quotes because I honestly think this race will turn into more of a walk. It’s the Color Run, which is coming to Penn State. There will be like a thousand people, and I’ve heard these races aren’t even timed. It’s really just about getting hit in the face with colored powder. Hey whatever, whenever pictures from these things end up on my facebook feed it looks like a lot of fun, so I knew we had to sign up!
Yesterday I was actually at the first annual Mt. Nittany Marathon. No, I didn’t run, but I volunteered at the first water station! It was actually fun.. there was a lot of prep work getting all the cups poured and ready to go. Then we waited and waited, and then around the bend came one of the lead cyclists, and then a runner. Then another. And before you know it, there were dozens of them. We had maybe 6 volunteers with water or Gatorade, and we’d call out what we were holding to let the runners decide what they wanted. There were also porta-potties at our station in case anybody needed a bathroom break. The first water station was about 3.1 miles into the race, so a lot of the runners were still grouped up together pretty much. We ended up being done within an hour of the race starting. We just had to go clean up a zillion cups and other crap like gels that people threw along the road. Overall, it was fun, and I’d do it again!
