Tonight I decided to set out and “officially” record my 5K time as a benchmark for me to improve upon.  My route is right in my neighborhood and is according to Google Maps just over 3.1 miles.

My time was 27:04  Compared to when I last timed myself at 17:26 I have a lot of ground to make up, but compared to what I am seeing on some of the races I am looking at running in 27:04 is a respectable benchmark that will only improve as I train over these next 90+ days.  My source for this information comes from the following three sites:

• Runner’s World
• 2009 Cary Road Race Results
• Festival Of Races – National Cherry Festival (results for Males age 30 are below)

Bib

FName

LName

City

State

Div

Age

Sex

ChipTime

ClockTime

Overall

SexPl

DivPl

AgeGrade

Total Pace

1520

Adam

Beers

Traverse City

MI

M 30-34

30

M

26:57

29:06

637

421

33

47.9%

8:42/M

1890

Tim

Dehr

Ann Arbor

MI

M 30-34

30

M

31:05

32:02

1058

572

49

41.6%

10:02/M

2186

Curtis

Hansen

Traverse City

MI

M 30-34

30

M

23:34

24:04

328

252

18

54.8%

7:36/M

931

Philip

Jones

La Plata

MD

M 30-34

30

M

20:55

21:27

147

122

6

61.8%

6:45/M

1760

Matt

Myers

Traverse City

MI

M 30-34

30

M

20:52

20:59

141

117

5

61.9%

6:44/M

1223

Bob

Robke

Dexter

MI

M 30-34

30

M

35:21

37:40

1417

684

57

36.5%

11:24/M

1960

Adam

Scripps

Traverse City

MI

M 30-34

30

M

26:24

27:07

578

392

32

48.9%

8:31/M

2213

Josh

Standfest

Traverse City

MI

M 30-34

30

M

26:13

27:03

551

379

30

49.3%

8:27/M

1604

Darryl

Thompson

Stratford

ON

M 30-34

30

M

25:32

28:11

488

353

25

50.6%

• Festival Of Races – National Cherry Festival (results for Males age 31 are below, which will be the age that I will be when I run the race for the first time)

Bib

FName

LName

City

State

Div

Age

Sex

ChipTime

ClockTime

Overall

SexPl

DivPl

AgeGrade

Total Pace

2241

Aaron

Andres

Spring Lake

MI

M 30-34

31

M

20:07

20:17

100

89

2

64.4%

6:29/M

1698

Aylwyn

Bromhead

Houston

TX

M 30-34

31

M

28:45

31:05

827

498

44

45%

9:16/M

2084

Brian

Burch

Holland

MI

M 30-34

31

M

27:35

28:32

703

444

36

46.9%

8:54/M

1998

Matt

Classens

Traverse City

MI

M 30-34

31

M

28:46

31:01

829

499

45

45%

9:17/M

698

Joshua

Delamater

Howard City

MI

M 30-34

31

M

22:35

23:20

264

206

13

57.3%

7:17/M

874

Daniel

Heitzmann

Ypsilanti

MI

M 30-34

31

M

23:30

24:30

322

248

17

55.1%

7:35/M

1132

Corey

Northrop

Weidman

MI

M 30-34

31

M

21:01

21:38

150

125

7

61.6%

6:47/M

2392

Jason

Owens

Rockford

MI

M 30-34

31

M

31:51

34:53

1151

604

51

40.7%

10:16/M

1954

Jason

Plowman

Empire

MI

M 30-34

31

M

26:12

26:47

549

378

29

49.4%

8:27/M

2162

Chris

Street

Traverse City

MI

M 30-34

31

M

27:07

28:58

655

427

34

47.8%

8:45/M

2329

John

Vandeguchte

Belmont

MI

M 30-34

31

M

25:12

26:19

445

323

23

51.4%

8:08/M

2389

Shane

Vandekerkhof

Traverse City

MI

M 30-34

31

M

23:20

24:10

315

242

16

55.5%

7:32/M

1419

Max

Warner

Maple City

MI

M 30-34

31

M

19:27

19:34

80

75

1

66.6%

After running I spent a good 15-20 minutes in static stretches as I know I needed it.

Static stretching: side split, front split, double sitting straight leg, single sitting straight leg (both sides), butterfly, quads (both side)

Food:  Breakfast was 1 bowl of Golden Grahams with a glass of V8 fruit juice.  A cup of coffee in the morning at work.  Lunch was a Claim Jumper frozen meal of chicken alfredo with water.  I had a snack of jalapeno chips at work and more water.  Dinner was chicken chow mien, with crunchy noodles and I also had a large bowl of Japanese rice seasoned with regular soy sauce (not low sodium) and Japanese rice seasoning.  Oh, and I’m hungry again!

Rating of my day (5 star scale):  3.5

Highlight: Ate more and slightly better than from previous days and enjoyed a great 5k run!

Something to improve upon:  Getting more limber

Oh and in closing here are the images of what I am striving to improve upon: