The Carlsbad 5000 (San Diego County) bills itself as the fastest 5K in the world. I suppose this is
because they set quite a few road race world records in the past 10 years. They even give out medals
to the top 250 in each heat.
The course starts in downtown Carlsbad, about 1/4 mile from the Pacific Ocean and finishes a short
distance away on the next street to the south. The race heads west to the ocean, makes a left turn
when it reaches the old coastal highway (101), goes south for about a mile, makes a U turn and goes
north for about 1.25 miles, makes another U turn to go back south until it turns left to finish back
in downtown Carlsbad. A good portion of the course has a great view of the Pacific Ocean from atop
the bluff.
There are 9 different heats starting at 7:05 and ending shortly after noon. I was in the 7:05 heat,
all old guys, 40 and over. But I've got to tell you, some of these old guys can run it in under 15
minutes, and that's fast.
The weather is uncharacteristic for this time of year. It was 60 degrees, cloudy, and ready to rain.
In fact it rained twice on the drive up from downtown San Diego. We in the first heat lucked out and
escaped the rain.
There was probably about 2000 old guys lined up ready for the starting gun to fire. I took my usual
starting place about 10% behind the line. The start was clean and off we went. It was about 1/2 mile
before things streched out enought to be able to run comfortably. A little after the 1 mile mark I
saw the leaders coming the opposite direction, with three guys in the lead pack. Heading south it
felt like there was a slight headwind. After turning back north, I didn't notice any tailwind at
all. Funny how it always seems to happen that way. A couple minutes after passing the two mile mark
I spot the leading about to make the final turn for home, but now it was a two man race. After
making the last U turn, there was a slight uphill for a couple hundred yards. That's when I noticed
that I was slowing down and people were passing
me. After making the last turn, the finish line is in sight, about 200 yards away. This is about
when I start to hear the announcer calling out finishing times, encouraging the runners to
finish in under 20 minutes. I crossed the finish line just at 20:00 appeared on the clock.
Since it took me probably 7 or 8 seconds to cross the starting line, I'm timing chip time
should be under 20:00.
According to my watch, my splits were First mile 6:10 Second miles 6:26 Last 1.1 miles 7:15 Total
19:52 Since I had not been training very much the last 4 months with no speed workouts at all, I was
pretty satisfied with my time. I ran about 30 seconds faster than I had expected. Had I gave it a
full effort, I could have cut another 15 seconds off my time, but I don't have the motivation for
that any more.
One the drive back home, I passed by Ozzie and his Sunday morning workout group at Mission Bay. I
waved from the freeway, as they were streching in the rain. Such hardy souls. My wife suggests that
I stop and run with them, but being a wimp, I said it's too wet.
Good course. Great race. If you get a chance to run it, I recommend that you do it. (Oh,yeah, I got
one of those top 250 finisher medals.)