Mothers Day 5k Review

Our friend Gary Westlund runs several races over the summer, and we like them.  Always low key, always allowing everyone to finish regardless how much time they need.  One of these was today's Mothers Day 5k in Maple Grove, MN.  This race was well organized, as always.

I haven't run a 5k race in a long time.  My plan was to run 7 minutes, then walk 3, until the finish, according to my usual training method.  However I quickly switched to 70 seconds and 30 seconds.  Same ratio, but much easier for me somehow.  I'll get back to the longer runs in training, but this works pretty well for races.

By my watch my finish time was 33:07.  This was not a chip-timed race, so official results are not up yet.  I imagine, though, that I will be first of one or second of two in my m75-79 age group.  Doesn't matter - I'm happy enough with the time.  If my watch was correct (it might be better than their clock) then my pace was 10:37.  I can do better, and I will.  Faster every week.

Weather was perfect.  The loop around the little lake is very nearly 1 mile, so we ran it three times.  In addition I ran one before the race, as a warmup, and another after my race with my girls, for a total of five miles.

There's another 5k in two weeks, flatter than this one in fact, and I'll try to get that pace below 10.

Watch: 10:47, 10:38, 10:31 (31:56), 1:11, total 33:07