I just went and looked a little more closely at the St. Patrick’s Day 8K standings and decided to compare them to the previous three years I ran the race. Specifically, how I finished in comparison to those in my age group; the first year was a 25-29 age group, but it’s been 30-34 since then.
2003: 379/379 (oh good lord)
2004: 512/513 (hey, I beat someone in my age group this time…)
2005: 305/368 (82nd percentile)
2006: 294/469 (62nd percentile)
If that isn’t an eye opener, I don’t know what is. I certainly feel a lot better about Sunday. (Not that I felt bad, you know… but certainly less than jazzed.) If I could finish one above the halfway point in my age group I’d be stoked. Sadly that may very well not happen until I shift into a slightly less competitive age bracket, but you never know. I mean, hell, I was last in my bracket in 2003. So I’m stoked about this.
(Here’s the funny thing—for a bit I was thinking, “Well, maybe it was just that there were more people.” So I took my pace from last year’s 10K and figured out my finishing time for an 8K. That would’ve been a 48:52, which would have made me 386/469 instead… or 82nd percentile, the exact same as last year. Ha!)
Congrats on your improved finishings! That’s awesome!!!
Thanks! It’s nice to actually start picking up some speed. 🙂
until I shift into a slightly less competitive age bracket, but you never know
You know that’s not until you hit 45… I am in the same boat… I have a guy who wins 5ks in 15 and change and was 37th OVERALL at Chicago marathon in my age bracket. YAY! I have to make sure that the races go 3 deep for overall!
Still you did real well in increasing those times. I can tell you the longer the race, the higher percentile. So what is the next race?
You should just Tonya Harding him, make life much easier. 🙂
The next definite race is the Cherry Blossom 10-miler on April 2nd. I have absolutely no idea what to expect from it. I don’t have lots of long-distance runs on my place like in past years; I’ll probably try and knock out a 10-miler this weekend in the “better safe than sorry” category, though. If I could nail a 9:30 average I would be really happy.
Beyond that… there are two short runs that I want to do at least one of (Sallie Mae 10K on April 30th, Race for Hope 5K on May 7th) but I need to make sure they’re possible and that will depend on my AIDS Marathon staffing schedule. I am signed up for the Capitol Hill Classic 10K on May 21st, which should be a lot of fun.
Oh yeah–and percentiles should be rather interesting for the Cherry Blossom. The age group I’m in for it? 20-39. God save me from fast 20-somethings.
Now if that isn’t a f’ed up age group. Too cheap to buy extra awards? I hope it’s a decent race. You have to watch out for the early-early twenty who are just sheer-fast or the early 30s who know what to do and have the discipline to train fast!