I went to Pittsburgh this morning to run in the Komen Race for the Cure 5k. Even though I have been mostly disappointed in my racing lately I felt as though I was ready to improve upon previous outings and wanted to push myself in this race. It is a challenging course with nearly 2 miles of hills from the start in the Schenley Park area of Pittsburgh with a downhill finish.
I did struggle early on but as the race progressed I was able to push aside the urge to slow down and fought through the negative thoughts and by the time I raced across the finish line in 21:16 I felt as though I really rebouned from mostly disappointing performances.
The actual finish time itself is not all that impressive as a whole. After all I've broken 20:00 fourteen times and this time was only good for 34th place all time on my 5k race list (out of 53 races), but it is a very challenging course. In addition I have become more interested in seeing how I fared compared to the field and within my age group.
When I look at the overall race, I finished 72nd out of 2,211 participants. That is in the top 3.3% of all finishers. When I look at the 40-49 age group I finished 6th out of 175 participants. That is within the top 3.4% of finishers in my age group.
I cannot be anything but pleased with today's performance and my plan is to build upon it as I now enter the summer racing season.
