Carlsbad 5000

I ran in the Carlsbad 5000 this weekend. It was a pretty huge event with about 8000 runners registered. Got a blue Under Armor tech tee with the event logo on it. Here's me and Mike before the race.

This was the first race I've been in with timing chips. They had mats you had to step on at the start and finish. It'd be cool if they had them at the mile splits also, but I guess that would be overkill for a 3 mile race. Here's a pic of my shoe with the chip.

I guess because they had so many runners at the event, they had to stagger the start times by age groups. I was in the 30-39 male group starting at 9:25am. Here's a picture of the start of my race, they had a pace car with police motorcycles escorting it. (Amazing what a $20.00 entry fee can get you these days :) )

I started with what I thought was and 8:30 pace....I hit the first mile marker at 7 minutes 30 seconds....."Ohoh", I thought to myself, "this could end badly." The run was up and down along the Pacific ocean, starting and ending in the village. It must have been around 60-65 degrees, a perfect day. I adjusted my pace slightly, saw the eventual winner (I think he ended with a 15' 15") of my division running by in the opposite direction. Hit the turn and started back up the coast, running by a group of elementary school cheerleaders giving encouragement to the runners. I was running behind people, figuring I might as well try to draft (does that really help?) but couldn't find anyone that was consistently going at my pace. I hit the mile 2 marker at slightly over 15 minutes. Then I was thinking, "If I just end with a 10 minute mile, I will break my personal record for a 5k.". I was going to try to pick up the pace slightly after the second turn and then use my "kick" for the last few hundred yards when I got a visual of the finish line. I made the final turn before getting the visual of the finish at around 23 minutes 30 seconds....wow, I can break 24:00 if I just sprint the last leg! Sent a signal to my leg muscles saying, "OK, turbo power initiate!", for some reason, they wouldn't cooperate and I came across at 24 minutes 13 seconds. Beats my previous PR by about 1 minutes 20 seconds, I guess the extended miles I put on since the last race helped a little. I'll try to break the 24 minute mark next time.

Here's some post race pics :

Mike at the finish:

Me and Mindy:

The rest of the family, strollers, kids, etc:

Here's what the view of the coast looked like for the race :

Well that's it for the race report. Overall a fun weekend, will probably go back next year and do it again. For now it's back to training for the next event...probably a 10k in June or July.