#TwitterRoadRace 2012

I took part in the very first global Twitter 5k road race yesterday and it was great.  The event was organised by Doug Cassaro of Washington, DC who goes by the Twitter handle of @seedougrun and he used his blog I run because… to manage (very well I might add) registration, race day info, posting times and providing the results. This was assisted by some clever Google Docs and I shall have to look into how he did all that (but that’s another blog. Read on to see how I fared. Now with results!!

I’m not sure specifically how I heard about the event – but it was through Twitter and if I recall someone retweeted an update by Doug saying ‘who will be the 400th person to register?’.  I checked it out, liked what I liked and registered, and it turned out I was the 400th entrant.  I retweeted about the event that is using the #TwitterRoadRace hastag and as a result some twitter pals including @BimblerBaz, @DarrenRam and @m_pkent registered and taking part.

I decided I would do the event on Southend seafront as it was flat on an out and back route from Chalkwell Avenue to near the pier (route) but it was sooo windy I decided to rope in a support team to collect me from the end so I could just to an out only route.  The plus with this of course was that with the wind at my back I was able to shoot a good time – which I did.  A personal best of 24 mins and 1 second and 67th place overall.  Good thing about the support team was the daughter Liz who hopped out ever now and then to take some pics.

I walked/jogged down to the start to warm up and set off with the wind blowing, the sun shining and the tide and lapping on the shore of Southend seafront – all very nice.  I set off at a fairly fast pace and soon got into a steady rhythm (no technical gadgetry helping – just the wristwatch).  There were loads of people out running and cycling and I’m just glad I wasn’t running the other way looking at the faces of those running and cycling into the 18mph wind.

I passed the halfway mark at 12 min 35 sec and was disappointed it wasn’t nearer 10 mins which was a bit of a physcological setback if truth be told and the next half mile past the arcades was a bit of a struggle.  Once back on the open road (ish) I perked up and picked up the pace again.  Seeing the finish in the distance and the ‘oh man it’s further away than I thought’ hit the pace again for a bit but as it got nearer the flying finish adrenaline kicked in again and I managed a sprint finish.

It would have been nice to have come in under the 24 minutes but even so my final time was definitely a personal best so am very pleased.  You can see the route I took and the time on my runkeeper site.  My phone gps isn’t working at the mo so it was entered manually.  The 5k was measured using runkeeper btw so I can only assume it was correct.  At time of writing the actual rankings has yet to be published but the posted times are online here – I do appear to have come around 70th out of 800+ so am well pleased with that.  I’ll update to include the rankings when they are posted.

It was chuffing hard work that run and it took a bit to recover but a protein whey shake and loads of stretching and a massive scrambled eggs on toast did the trick and I feel fine today frankly – and well enough to go for a moderate bike ride this morning – still blooming windy mind.

~ Results just in ~ The full results have now been posted and can be found here. Despite 800+ registering for the event it seems only 376 took part (or at least registered a time).  I managed avery respectable 67th place out of 376 with my 24:01 time.  I was 12th out of 44 in my category (Men 40-49) and 60th placed man out of 174. Overall very please with the results.

All the photos my girl took can be seen on my Picasaweb photo sharing website here.

Big shout out to Doug for organising this event and doing such a great job.  can’t wait till the next one.

#RunningRocks