Monday, February 16, 2009

Accurate PRs and Official Results


The fam and I are on vacation and I decided to run in the inaugural Kiss-im-mee 5K on Valentine's Day morning. The race was scheduled to do the "ready, set, go" thing at 7:30AM and I figured that I could be back at our home away from home, the Memory Maker (see http://www.vrbo.com/64595 ), by 9AM ready for a day at Disney. I know it is frightening that I ran a 5K while on vacation but that is a topic for a different day.

My personal record for the 5K could have been viewed as a bit tainted. It was done at the AHA Start! Wall Street Run last May and while we were waiting for the start (in the rain) the race organizers announced that they shortened the course a bit due to road construction. My finishing time was 31:38 and the Garmin said 3.1 miles so I viewed that as a bonafide 5K with a pace of 10:17/mile. However, the NYRR "officially" reported it as a 3 mile race and calculated my pace at 10:39. Even so, I shattered my previous 5k PR since prior to that day my 5k PR was 34:51.

I wanted to do better than my tainted PR in Kissimmee. I figured the terrain (pancake like) and weather (low 60s with a little breeze) would be my friends. I finished by my watch in 31:23 and the Garmin said the course was 3.08miles (close enough). I left the race course happy. Of course when I got back home my loving and supportive family questioned the course length or my timing accuracy as they couldn't imagine me running that fast. But then again, I had a hard time imagining it myself so I couldn't really blame them.

When I was able to check the website for the official times, they have me about a minute faster at 30:22 or a 9:47/mile pace. While I had a good race, it wasn't that good. So, which should be my 5K PR - 30:22 or 31:23? I've decided to go with 31:23 while I reach out to the race organizers for clarity.

This means that I'll have to break 30:22 to get rid of the new PR "taint." Oh well, more training required.

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