VyStar Gator Bowl 5K

December 31st was the day I sought to fufill my New Year's Resolution from a year ago: to break 20 minutes in a 5K (I'm pretty predictable, eh?). But let's rewind back a year. I'm at the Gator Bowl 5K in Jacksonville, competing in my 2nd ever road 5K. I had a feeble build and with it I finished the 5K in 22:52, a blazing fast performance to me at the time and my 5K PR at the time. Later that night, I toasted to the New Year and made it my goal to break 20 in a 5K before '09 came. Fast forward a year and I'm here again at the Gator Bowl 5K looking to make my resolution true. Since my PR at the Reindeer Run 5K, my training wasn't going so well. About a week after the race I came down with a severe cold that halted my training by half a week and made me suffer through the short runs I managed to squeeze in. Unfortunately I had little time to get back into the swing of things because of the trip to Charleston (you can read a report on that trip on my travel blog). But more or less, I was ready for the Gator Bowl 5K, whether or not a PR was within my grasp. Since the race would start in the afternoon at 1:30 PM, I had plenty of time to gear myself up for the race. We arrived 45 minutes before the start of the race, a good hunk of time to spare. And the second I got out of the car, I entered the furnace that is Jacksonville. A couple more paces later I noticed another prominent force mother Nature brought to the table on this hot winter afternoon, that being the wind. The combination of wind and heat made downtown Jacksonville feel more like a convection oven to me. After about 15 minutes of frolicking around, my coach arrived and warmed up me and my teammate, Steven. Twenty minutes later and I'm toeing the line, preparing to (hopefully) achieve my resolution. Once the gun fired I powered forward, dodging the chip timing system. I got into the groove traversing the city streets, turning every once in a while. I felt some soreness in my legs but took it with a grain of salt and thought it was nothing to worry about. The course took us out to the Stadium, on the way passing the first mile which I crossed in 5:58, a time that made me double-take at my Garmin watch to see if the distance was accurate. It sure was, and that lightning-fast first mile reminded me of my sore legs that wouldn't go away. I struggled through the 2nd mile, knowing it would take a miracle to break 20 minutes. At this point I was just trying to survive the dreaded last mile, let alone cruise through it towards a PR. I ended up plodding through the streets, plagued by the omnipresent wind and heat, and finished in 20:52, my second best 5K time. I was disappointed with my fourth place finish (of the 30 runners in my age group) and didn't receive an award (nor did I deserve one). My watch registered a suspicious 3.16 miles, but I ignored it and let myself accept my performance. Luckily, I'll have some high-intensity track training starting in January which should bounce me back for the Matanzas 5000 on January 24th. So long and keep trying!