I am Back! You Know It!

On Saturday I raced my first race since Broad Street in early May and my first 5k since late March. I ran the Ocean City Police Chase 5k and was very happy with the time. I had run the race last year after a late night out in Sea Isle and still finished 8th place. I also won the 20-29 age group running 18:06. My friend and Sea Isle City roommate Nick DeSantis won the race in 15:48 and had nearly a minute on 2nd place. This year, the field was a lot deeper. I knew that as soon as I got to the starting line. There were a couple guys that were still running for colleges that showed up. Nick wasn't racing this year because of a rehearsal dinner the night before being in our friends wedding.

My goal going into the race was to run just under 17 flat. My workouts during the past month showed that was about the range that I could hit. The night before Coach Jason Kilderry in a conversation said that I could probably run 16:50. I said I think I can run 16:45. We were relatively on the same page so I said my goal was to go out in about 5:15 for the first mile. He thought that would be good as long as I didn't go out any faster.

The night before the race I stayed down in Sea Isle and cooked a big pasta dinner for the beach house and our friends in girls beach house. My favorite shore cover band Go Go Gadjet was playing at the OD that night, but I decided that going out for a late night at the bar wouldn't help my race. I stayed in and while my roommates were pregaming and playing drinking games. I joined in, but drank water instead of beer.

Jimmy Dugan, manager of the Rockford Peaches and Sea Isle roommate, decided he'd stay in too and we watched Zombieland. I managed to sleep through the roommates returning from the bar and made my way to Ocean City. The weather was extremely foggy, but the temperature was in the low 70's. I couldn't really complain as the entire week before was in the high 90's.

After a short warm up and made my way to the front of the starting line on the boardwalk and did a few striders. I only saw a handful of other people doing striders so I knew they were most likely my only competition. When the gun went off, I took out the first quarter mile to make sure I was clear of all the 6 minute mile pace or slower runners. I was joined by a group of about 8 or 9 other runners. I believe the mile markers were not accurate. We passed the 1 mile maker at 5:40, but knew I was running about 5:15-5:20 mile pace. I ignored the marker, but some of the other guys must have thought it was accurate as they took off at this point. Since I was confident in my pacing and race plan, I just held the pace and let them go. I was still in a pack of about 3 runners until one of the turnaround points. I knew a couple of them were struggling so I made the decision to break them early and no t have to worry about them later. I through about a 200m surge and was clear of them. I came up to the "2 mile" marker, but this one was definitely short. I passed the marker at 10:30. I was sure that I didn't run the 2nd mile in 4:50 so I ignored this marker as well. At this point I was running by myself, but could see that leader (a steeple guy from Penn State) had made a move to string out the group of 6. I could see one guy falling back so I gradually picked up my effort to catch him.

The Trophy

The race ended with about 300m on the Ocean City High School track. When I stepped on the track I was in 7th place and 6th place was 4 or 5 seconds ahead of me. Being confident in my kick, I waited for 200m to go and then went. I blew by the runner in the Delaware Running Company singlet and he had no response. I ended up beating him by 6 seconds. My official time was 16:34, making it the first time since July of 2008 that I've broken 17. I also once again won the 20-29 age group. The award didn't show that it was an age group award, so that in combination of my time, I let my roommates think that I had won the overall race for a couple minutes for telling them that I was 6th and it was a much faster year. My time would have been good enough for a 2nd place the year before. Either way, I was still happy because it's a step in the right direction and it was nice to be competitive again.

After the race I met up with the my friends in the girls house in Sea Isle for a breakfast at Steak Out and then started getting ready for the wedding of my friends Megan Matera to John Roszko. I think everybody at the wedding and in Long Branch, NJ probably already knows that I had a blast. It was a great time.