Saturday morning, August 11, 2007 saw one of my better cross country 5K races this year so far. I wanted to run at least under 19:30 at the Oakland Mills High School Cross Country course for the PRE-Season Cross Country Races, because my best time on that course from 2005 was 19:36, and I ended up taking that down my over forty seconds! I felt really strong and pretty much ran the way I wanted too. I really wanted to go out conservatively, because I knew the hilly switchbacks near the beginning that really hurt me last time would be near the end as well, and that if I was to go hard and gain ground throughout the race, it would probably be a good idea to focus on the middle of the race. I think I wanted to go out at about 6:20 the first mile or something like that, but I went through the first mile in about 6:31, and I was huffin' a little bit, but I knew if I wanted to break 19:30, I would have to pick it up and I knew I had the energy and strength to do so. Since the course was pretty much flat aside from the switchbacks and a few other minor hills, I was able to build into the second mile and go trhough two miles in 12:29 (now at 6:14-per-mile pace, something that would get me in the low 19:20's or maybe just under 19:20 if I kept it up). With that sorta math in mind, I continued to try and push it through the last mile and really surprised myself that I was able to keep up with the people in front of me and catch up to new packs of runners.
When I reached the switchbacks near the end of the course, I did not hurt that much, in fact my legs did not lose feeling like they would by this point of a 5K race. I think I'm finally getting over that stuff. I think it helped that there was a small pack of runners in front of me and that motivated me to keep pushin', and some motivation that was, because my third mile ended up being the fastest and I ended up breaking nineteen minutes with a time of 18:53, by far my best time on the course! I was definitely pleased and I finished eleventh overall.
Soon after, I ran the 3-kilometer race which hardly had any hills and they cut out all those switchbacks on the hill behind the Oakland Mills High School campus. I ran that one more easily, sort of like a cooldown and ran a 15:12 (I didn't catch my splits). I finished fifth overall in this one and like all the other participants, received a free bag of gummy bears as a prize for participating (one of the reasons I decided to run this race as well :)-
I was grateful that I felt strong on both of these races, even though I was chillin' on the 3K. After the cross country races, I met up with a coupla friends at the Mall in Columbia and saw the new Adam Sandler movie, "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry", a pretty funny movie and I thought it was one of Sandler's more humorous flicks. Afterwards we ate a nice lunch at the Uno Chicago Grill by the mall.
Later that evening I went into Baltimore City, Maryland and over to the Lodge Bar in the Power Plant Live area by the Baltimore Inner Harbor for my five year high school reunion (the photo of the city at night in the upper left is a view of Baltimore City from like the fourth level of the parking garage). It was just a really great time. I had not seen some of those folks at least since graduating Hammond High School on Tuesday, May 28, 2002 and we had a lot to catch up on. My only issue was that later on in the night, the place got so crowded and noisy, but on top of that, they had to blare the music, so everytime I tried to talk to someone, I had to strain my already fairly sore vocal chords and practically yell into someone's ear. Needless to say, those crowded lodges and bars typically ain't my scene, but it was definitely worth it to see people I had not seen in a while, and I mentioned my state-wide running endeavor to several of them and they seemed happy for me and supportive of it, so that was really cool. I'm glad I went and hopefully I can make it to future ones!
I was certainly pleased to have gotten so much into last Saturday!
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