The city of Cuyahoga Falls and a local chapter of the Hibernians throw a ***FREE*** Irish Festival every year, with three days of music and food and dance. I’ll blog more about that later, after I’ve been to a few more acts (we went last night for about an hour and a half).

BUT, starting this year, they also added a 5k race. I kept looking at the weather forecast (which was looking cool and dry), and I kept thinking about the 3 seconds I needed to break 20:00 in a 5k. I asked Mer to let me run this race, since I was still in shape for a 5k, and after some pleading on my part agreed to let me enter (we need to be careful about money, and the race cost $20).

So, the race was today. The day was indeed cool (probably about 60 degrees at race time), and was low humidity. I had also gone out and bought new shoes before I knew about the race (my old shoes were about 14 months old and were getting pretty worn to run in), so I had that in the plus column. There were about 100 racers at the start line, but I got near the front, and after a cute “Good luck, Sweetie!” from Mer and a command to “Go!”, the race started. I ducked around a few runners and found myself in the front pack. We had a slight bottleneck through a road barrier that was still up from the festival, but that did not mess with my pace or stride. I was still passing people, and found to my surprise that after about 5 minutes I was firmly in the lead pack. I felt good. The sun was out, but most of the course was shaded. There was a small uphill at the start, and there was a brisk breeze in my face, but I felt good, and since it was an out-and-back race, I knew the wind and the small hill were going to be in my favor for the last half of the race.

I was still surprised that as we neared the turn-around area, I could still see the lead police car. I was starting to feel a little tired, but the race was half done, and I was about to get the wind at my back, and my pace was holding up. There was a small but slightly painful hill near the two-mile marker, but I talked myself through that (my running mind is always about getting to certain minutes – “just get to 15 minutes” and such). There was a fairly long straightaway that led to the home stretch, and that required some mental games as well. I was really starting to feel tired once I got to 15 minutes. The “just get to 16 (or 17 or 18) minute mark” alternated with a fairly steady “Please, God, help me!” While my legs and breathing were okay, my body was tired. I don’t how much God gets invested in my running, but I managed to keep going. I turned onto the final road, and was still struggling, but knew I would be okay if I just kept my pace steady. I managed to do that, and with yells of encouragement from my supportive and loving wife, I finished.

Official time: 19:35
8th place out of 109 finishers.

See the results here.

Yes! First sub-20 in more than 15 years.

Many thanks to Mer for her support of an obsession she does not understand, and thanks to God for making the human body so that it can do some pretty cool things.

I can now relax for a few weeks, and then switch my attention back to distance training for an October half-marathon.

An interesting note on the age classes this time. I was in the 30-39 group, and guys from this group finished 1,2, and 4, so no top-three finish for me in my age group this time (I came in 4th out of 21), but that is fine since I got my personal goal.