Saturday was the first event of the 2024 Atlanta Track Club Grand Prix series: the Jerome Scales Southside 5K/5M. I raced the 5k event.
- Official time
- 24:17
- Average pace
- 7:48 min/mi
- VDOT
- 39.7
- Splits
- 1mi
- 7:39
- 2mi
- 7:44
- 3mi
- 8:01
- 0.1mi
- 0:53
- Ranking
-
- Overall
- 55/325
- Male
- 47/149
- Male Master
- 12/70
- Age Group (M40–44)
- 4/18
- Event Page
- 2024 Jerome Scales Southside 5M & 5K
- Strava Activity
- ATC Jerome Scales Southside 5k
This is the first race I’ve given an honest race effort since this same event’s 5-miler last year. I’m running a lot fewer miles now than I was a year ago because of some knee pain that developed last year, so some loss of fitness is expected.
I was shooting for 8:30min/mi pace, but it was too cold (17°F feels like 7°F!) to see my watch, so I had to go completely by feel. I went out at what I thought was an achievable pace; it felt like threshold pace, but I faded hard. The last mile especially felt like my legs were out of gas, and I had nothing left for a kick.
Given that my pace slowed throughout, I believe I went out too fast. That’s good knowledge for the next race. And, with a proper race under my belt, I have better training paces and target paces for future races.
The next Grand Prix event is the Members 10k in March.