Greetings! This morning I made it to Denton (Caroline County), Maryland for the First Annual St. Patrick's Day 5K, a run that went through downtown Denton into Martinak State Park a little bit, and then back. It was a mostly flat, out-and-back course that started and ended at the Caroline Human Services Council, Inc. I enjoyed it, especially since the weather was a bit chilly and windy, but great for running. There were some rather gentle-to-moderate rolling hills towards the beginning and the end of the course that went through a shaded suburban neighborhood, and all-in-all it seemed conducive to running a strong 5-kilometer (approximately 3.1-mile) time.
I enjoyed the experience. I saw a few people I knew from other Maryland Eastern Shore running events and I met some new people as well, who seemed to think positively of my endeavors to run in races and running events in every county of Maryland. After the race at a local coffee shop in downtown Denton, I was talking to some other runners in the race and they gave me a "tip" about a 5K occuring at Queen Anne's County High School around Centreville, MD towards the end of the month. I'm hopin' to call up the school next week and see what I can dig up on it. If it's happening, that would be great, 'cause I don't really know of any other actual races occurring in Queen Anne's County until the fall, and even then, those seem a bit tentative. There's the Relay for Life at Kent Island High School in that county scheduled for Saturday, June 7, beginning in the afternoon/early evening I think. However, if I had to choose, I think I would like to do a race (but I may still participate in that Relay for Life anyway, we'll see).
Anyway, back to this race. The race started out all right. It did not take long for the leader to break away from us shortly after I moved up to the front of the pack (which did not take long to leave me huffing and puffing). But I was blessed to maintain what I thought was decent form throughout most of the race. I was pleasantly surprised to have gone through the first mile by Denton Elementary School in about 5:40, which was faster than I intended to go. I wanted to break 19 today and I hoped to maybe go out a bit more conservatively in like the low 6's/upper 5:50's, but I didn't let that get to me much, I just tried to make the best of it and keep trucking. At this point, I was entering familiar territory. If you remember earlier, back in the November of 2007, I had done the Turkey Trot Two-mile Fun Run that started and ended at Denton Elementary School (an event I've done for the past three years), and ran through a good portion of the Martinak State Park. That was where this 5K was going as well, except not as far into Martinak. Needless to say, I felt pretty confident about where I was in the race because I could roughly guage somewhat how much futher I had to go to the turn-around (which I think I hit in really low 9's/really high 8's, I forgot to take a look at my watch around then :)-
After the turnaround, the course wound left off of the roads onto more of a paved trail, which was ice, 'cause it was almost like running cross-country. Those trails lasted for probably a bit less than an 1/8th of a mile, and then it was back to the roads and retracing our steps back to the finish line. I went through two-miles in about 11:48 (faster than my 2005 and 2007 two-mile times of 11:54 and 12:36 respectively at the Turkey Trot Two-Mile Fun Run held in the same area as I mentioned before), and then came through about 2.1 miles in 12:31 (faster than my 2007 Turkey Trot Two-Mile Fun Run). It was somewhere around the 2-mile mark where I began to feel tired and feel my right foot begin to hurt, but not as much as it did during the Road Runners Club of America Ten-Mile Club Challenge last month or the more recent Funny Bunny 5K Run last weekend. God's grace and a lot of recent lifting at Howard Community College's weigh room helped me to hold it together and stay strong through the somewhat long stetch that was going back on 2nd street; a stretch that included a couple of gently rolling hills that we ran over towards the beginning of the race.
After getting up the last small uphill, I soon made the final right turn onto the last stretch where I could see the finish line arch composed mainly of green balloons. Here I could feel myself begin to pick it up. During this stetch, I was able to glance at my watch and see it read 18:22ish, and I looked ahead towards the finsh line that still seemed a far ways off. I thougth taht I would probably run low 19's at best, but I kept pushin' it anyway and as I neared it, I saw the left portion of the rectangular clock reading 18 minutes but the right-hand portion of it that displayed the seconds, so I knew that at any instant, it could change to 19 minutes. I kept pushin' it all the way into the finish line wher I saw the clock read 18:58. YES!!!!
Then, about 2-3 seconds after comin' through the finish line, I lookwed at my watch and saw that it read 18:58, meaning I had probably come through a couple of seconds faster than what the clock displayed. As I cheered other runners on coming into the finish line, I notecied that the clock was a about 3-4 seconds ahead of what my watch said. Therefore, if the clock read 18:58 as my finish time, I probably really ran 18:54/18:55 (probably 18:55) I thought it was an odd discrepancy, because I had pretty much started right near the front, and it had probably only taken me about a half-to-a-full second at the most to cross the starting line, which was when I started my watch. I'm pretty sure that's where I started my watch; perhaps they started the clock a couple of seconds before the race actually started. Ah well, no worries, I still broke 19 minutes like I wanted too, without as much pain as last week's slightly more hilly Funny Bunny 5K Run in Wicomico County, MD.
Another neat accomplishment as a result of this race was that in addition to three other races that currently occur in Caroline County, MD, this was the final race I had to run in order to run in all of Caroline County's four contemporary year-around running races (not including the Tuckahoe Triathlon or the Relay for LIfe that I think occurs around the 4-H Park area) in less than a 12-month period. On Saturday, April 21, 2007 I ran in Adkins Arboretum's Arbor Day Fun Run 10K in Ridgely, Saturday, September 22, 2007 I in the in Caroline Hospice's Remembrances Five-Mile Run in Federalsburg, Saturday, November 17, 2007, I ran in the 22nd Annual Turkey Trot Two-Mile Fun Run in Denton, and hten today I ran this First Annual St. Patrick's Day 5K in Denton. I just think that is really cool to have done all those different races in Caroline County, a county that in my opinion does not have many year-around running events compared to many counties west of the Chesapeake Bay. Now the reason I say "contemporary" races is because I know that there was apparently a Strawberry Festival 5K run or something like that that occurred around the Denton area (I think that was the area), but since that apparently no longer occurs (and I have a feeling there used to be other races in Caroline County that no longer occur). I guess what I'm trying to say is that ll of the races that currently occur in Caroline County, I have been blessed with being able to run and finish them within a year's time period :) However, if there are other races that occur in Caroline County that I have not mentioned, please let me know. I do not mind being challenged on this. However, I would not county those "Jr. Olympic Skills Competition" track & field meets/races that seem to be exclusively for kids/young teens (which, by the way, sounds like a pretty neat program that they have over at North Caroline High School in the Ridgely area).
Tomorrow afternoon I hope to go to Baltimore City, MD with one of my friends and some of his friends for the Kelly St. Patrick's Day Shamrock 5K Run, and God-willing be able to run a faster time than what I ran today, 'cause for one thing I hear that course is pretty much all downhill/flat. We'll see how it goes!
All right, thank you all for reading about my running and what's been on my mind. Thank you all for praying about my foot too; looks like it's been quite effective as God is the best healer :). I hope that you all enjoy the weekend/spring break :)
Running Events I have done this year as of Saturday, March 15, 2008
Maryland
Allegany County
Anne Arundel County
-Valentine’s Day 5K Run – Saturday, February 9, 2008 – Kinder Mill Farm Park, Millersville/Severna Park – 10th overall (3rd in male 20-29 age group division) – 17:59.15 (my best time on course J)
Baltimore City
Baltimore County
- Baltimore Road Runners Club (BRRC) Grand Prix Series Eight-Mile Run – Sunday, January 13, 2008 – Loch Raven Reservoir – 11th overall – 53:34
Calvert County
- First Annual Southern Maryland Community Network Resolution 5K Run/Walk – Tuesday, January 1, 2008 – Prince Frederick – 4th overall (20-29 age group winner) – 18:47
Caroline County
- First Annual St. Patrick’s Day 5K – Saturday, March 15, 2008 – Denton – 2nd overall (20-29 age group winner) – 18:58 (clock), 18:55 (watch)
Carroll County
- Winfield Mile – Tuesday, January 1, 2008 – South Carroll High School, Winfield – 6th overall (2nd in 20-29 age group) – 5:11 (clock), 5:10 (watch)
Cecil County
Charles County
Dorchester County
Frederick County
Garrett County
Harford County
- Leap of Faith Fun Run (7K prediction run – Approximately 4.35 miles) – Sunday, February 17, 2008 – Abington (Harford County, MD) – 3rd/4th overall (8th closest to predicted time) – 27:24 (predicted time: 28:00)
Howard County
- Howard County Striders (H.C.S.) Weekly Series (“Operation Iceberg”) #1: Burleigh Manor Middle School 5-mile run – Sunday, January 6, 2008 – Columbia/Ellicott City area – 7th overall – 32:18
- H.C.S. “Operation Iceberg” #3: Atholton High School 5K Run – Sunday, January 20, 2008 – Columbia – 6th overall – 18:38
- H.C.S. “Operation Iceberg” #5: Jeffers Hill Neighborhood Center 15K (first 15K I’ve done as part of the H.C.S. weekly series :) – Columbia – 11th overall – 1:10:11
- Road Runners Club of America Ten-Mile Club Challenge – Sunday, February 24, 2008 – Columbia (Howard County), MD – 122nd overall – 1:07:58.85 (clock), 1:07:52 (watch)
Kent County
Montgomery County
- 5th Annual Walnut Hill Ribbon Run 5K – Sunday, February 10, 2008 – Gaithersburg – 2nd overall – 19:51
Prince George’s (P.G.) County
- Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex Track Showcase (indoor track) – Sunday, January 27, 2008 – Landover:
- 1,500 meter race – 15th overall - 5:04.9
- 800 meter race – 2nd overall –2:17.5
- 3,200 meter race – winner – 11:24 (best indoor track time for that distance by one second, and the 10:43 3,000 meter split I believe was right around an indoor track best time for me as well :)
- Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex Track Showcase (indoor track) – Sunday, February 3, 2008 – Landover:
- 800 meter run – 3rd overall – 2:15
- 3,200 meter run – 2nd overall – Have not gotten time yet, but I’m sure it was close to the 11:24 I hit there last weekend :)
Queen Anne’s County
Saint Mary’s County
Somerset County
Talbot County
- Talbot Kids Fun Run (advertised as three-miles, but less than that) – Saturday, March 8, 2008 – North Easton Sportsplex (Rails-to-Trails), Easton – Winner – Probably ran low-to-mid 14’s based on the times of other runners (I did not run my watch on this one)
Washington County
Wicomico County
- Mid-Shore Family YMCA Funny Bunny 5K Run – Saturday, March 8, 2008 – Salisbury – 2nd overall (20-29 age-group division winner) – 19:35
Worcester County
Events outside of Maryland
Delaware
Kent County
New Castle County
Sussex County
Virginia
Accomack County
Arlington County
- Potomac Valley Track Club All-Comers’ Indoor Track & Field Meet – Sunday, February 3, 2008 - Thomas Jefferson Community Center, Arlington:
- 1 mile run – 6th overall – 5:17.0
- 800 meter run – 6th overall – 2:22.5
- 3,000 meter run – 7th overall – 10:59.8
Northampton County
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