As you can see in the photos above, my running has steadily been improving.
When I went to Prince Frederick (Calvert County), MD on Saturday, October 16, 2010 for the inaugural End Hunger in Calvert County 5K Run, I managed run the relatively flat (but windy course) in 20:53. My first mile was about 6:21, and my second-mile split was somewhere around the mid-to-upper 13's. I was certainly happy about that, especially considering I was getting a cold that I had for a bit over a week.
Then, the following weekend, On Sunday, October 24, 2010, I ran the Howard County Striders' "Legends of the Fall" Weekly Series Race #4 at Atholton High School in Columbia (Howard County), MD near where I grew. This course is one of the easiest 5K courses I have run in Howard County. I had only slept for probably no more than 3.5-to-4.5 hours the night before, because I had a bunch of work and I had gotten together with some guy friends the night before for a pre-wedding celebration at the Arundel Mills Mall in Anne Arundel County. That being said, I was not expecting anything much faster than 22 minutes.
Much to my pleasant surprise, I felt quite energized throughout most of the race. The first mile was flat and steadily downhill, and I ran that first mile in 6:02, which has been my fastest mile since last Spring I believe! Whooohoo!
Not long after there was a steady uphill, and then it flattened out for a while. Around mid-way into the race, I believed there was a chance I could run under 20 minutes and I think I said some quick prayers to God about it as I tried to maintain pace.
There were a couple more uphills before we got to the last stretch of the race that I am sure is at least a little over a quarter mile. I saw the finish line a little ways away, and I knew I probably had a little over a minute's worth of running at the pace I was at before I reached it. I was trying to hold onto the pace and pick it up, because I knew I would be close to breaking 20 minutes. I think I prayed real quick that God could help me finish strong.
As I neared the clock, and as the clock itself neared 20 minutes, I felt like I shot up the last little hill, and then surged through the finish line with a chip time (they started using this new interesting chip-timing system) of 19:57.05.
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN OVER A YEAR, I BROKE 20 MINUTES IN A 5K! And that was on a relative lack of sleep, a relatively stressful new job, and a rather inconsistent running schedule of late. There is a chance that course may be a little short, though all the same, that is the fastest I have run that distance in quite a long time, and it was not even my slowest time on that course (I can remember a time in high school in the tenth grade in January of 2000 when I ran that course in about 20:09). I was very blessed! (the photographs above, courtesy of Karsten Brown, were from that race at Atholton High School).
The day before I had run this course that was about two miles, give or take (probably slightly more than two miles), and last spring I had run about 15:43 and I thought it would be cool if sometime I could break 15 minutes on that. And I had run a 13:45 on it the day before the race. Those were two great runs that God blessed me with, with not having run for almost a week beforehand.
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