Andrew Schrauben

The Irish Jig 5K is a much larger event than I expected - almost 2500 runners! I'm sure St. Patrick's Day is part of the draw since it provides a good excuse for those who want to drink on a Saturday morning. It was COLD, too! This past week we saw temps in the 50s and 60s but it wouldn't last. While we had clear skies, a bright sun, and light wind to cheer us up, the 20-degree air wasn't exactly ideal. Of course, I wore shorts.

Several of my co-workers were there, most of whom I never was able to find among the huge crowd. I did get to talk to a few both before and after the race, however. A couple of them were my lunch-hour running buddies so we'll have a lot to talk about during Monday's run.

My goal for this race was to get under 22:00, a goal I failed to reach in my last 5K. This wouldn't be easy, as my modern-day (i.e. after high school) PR for a 5K is a dog-assisted 22:42 last October. There was such a throng of runners that it took me 40 seconds to reach the start line! In the first mile I passed literally hundreds of runners, so while I may have started too far back I think the real problem was the slow runners starting from the front. I suppose they didn't know any better, but it was still a pain to weave past these folks.

I wanted to start out fast and see how long I could keep it up - I figured that if I crashed, at least I'd know my limits but no way was I going to start slow and finish with too much in the tank. I was hoping to get close to a 7:00 pace and was shocked when I passed the 1 mile mark in 6:50! Sweet.

Now I just have to maintain that pace... while it was certainly easier said than done, I was still able to hold a good pace. I was still passing people frequently, yet a few others passed me. For a while along this stretch I was following a young girl who must've been three feet tall! She was amazing - she couldn't have been older than 10 - wearing little pink sunglasses and a day-glow jacket that was probably necessary so that other runners wouldn't step on her! The course wound through a residential neighborhood with a fair amount of spectators, so I wonder what they though to see this bright little girl being chased by a guy twice her height wearing black. :)

Finally I passed the 2 mile mark at 13:50, which means I ran a 7:00 second mile. Not bad! Going up a slight hill I passed the little girl but just a minute later I was feeling TIRED. There aren't supposed to be any walls in short races but it felt like I was running through mud. One of the neighborly spectators was sitting in his driveway playing a well-known tune on his bagpipes! Awesome. I wanted to say something but I could barely breathe.

Actually it was all I could do to keep my pace up. If my attention lapsed for a minute I found myself unwittingly slowing down so I had to frequently remind myself to push the pace. I started looking for the 3 mile marker at around 15:00 - WAAAY too early but I was dying for the finish to be near. For inspiration I started thinking of my dogs and how excited they get when running - it kept my mind smiling rather than thinking about how much pain I was in!

I finally reached the 3 mile mark and looked at my watch, but I couldn't do the simple math to calculate my split and for the life of me I can't even remember what the time was. My mind was turning to mush. It was already a slight downhill at this point (thankfully) and I was picking up speed knowing that the finish was near. I rounded the last corner just 50 yards before the finish and kicked in the afterburner. Holy cow, doing that on a downhill can really make me go fast! My legs almost got away from me and my mental reaction time was so slow that I was afraid I'd crash into someone at the finish.


Almost there - just 50 yards from the finish line!

Luckily I squeaked into the chute without incident. Did I mention that my mind was completely gone? Amanda was photographing along that home stretch but I never saw her. At the finish I forgot to stop my watch and I never noticed the giant clock they have there, so I had no clue what my finish time was. Amanda thought she saw me cross at 21:47, which would be sweet if true. Unfortunately I had to wait until they posted the results online to know for sure.

The results are in - I finished in 21:07!!! Wow, that's much faster than I'd hoped. Before the race I would've predicted 21:45 to 22:15. Amazingly a 21:07 is a 6:49 pace, so I must've been pushing hard in that last mile. Needless to say I'm very pleased with my effort today. The results put me at 28/191 for my age group and 237/2488 overall.

That's almost enough for me to feel a bit fast, until I look at these guys below... Amanda got photos of the top four finishers and they all crossed the line under 15:00! Wow. The winner blazed in at 14:23!! Unreal. He finished 30 seconds after I crossed the 2 mile marker! Now those guys are FAST.


The overall winner in a time of 14:23!


These guys finished (left to right) 4th, 3rd and 2nd, all under 15:00!