Shamrock Around the Clock

A bit late for this race report. Shamrock 5k was Sunday in downtown Baltimore. A net downhill course, I figured I would be able to run as quick a time as physically possible at this stage of my comeback.

Shamrock, however, is a very big race. Probably largest I've done outside of the Marathon and Half last season. Luckily Jon ran last year and he had a strategy for getting in front of most of the slower folks that line up. We were about 20 rows back for the gun. I wasn't super satisfied with the warm up, but that's the nature of these type of races. Starting back just a little bit was nice for keeping the pace down, but I probably expended some extra energy getting around the slower folks.

For the first mile Jon was around me. Using his new GPS watch toy he let me know we were at 6 minute pace and it felt pretty relaxed. I know that's too fast but it's unavoidable on the course as the big downhill is right at the start. There is a bit of an uphill before the course turns onto Key Highway, and the first mile was around 6 flat.

The course is pretty simple, going out Key Highway and then turns around and heads back. It gave me an opportunity to see the front of the race going by the other way. Lots of the fast Fall Road crew in the first 15. Pretty impressive to see, considering there were some super fast people that were skipping this one. At the turn I was 10 seconds or so ahead of Jon. I was probably still on pace for low 19 at this point. The course has a slight hill and around there is the two mile mark. The folks read off 12:29, but it was closer to 12:20 due to the delay at the start. This means 6 flat followed by 6:20. Heading in the wrong direction...

The last mile is probably all mental, and I think I still struggle with this. Although, I might have just tired out from the hard running and did the best I could after that. But Jon passed me on the turn to Pratt Street and gave some encouragement. I tried to pick it up and hang with him, but there was very little fight. I passed the 3 mile mark around 19 flat and the finish was 19:45. Overall, it was a very good time considering my training and my recent history. First time under 20 since I was 20 best I can remember. Jon was 19:35, very good on the small amount of training he's been doing so far this year.

Next up: a double back home...