Saturday I raced the Atlanta Track Club (ATC) Decatur DeKalb 5k in Decatur. This was the fourth race in the 2025 ATC Grand Prix series. This was my seventh year participating in this race, but this was a the first year it was a 5k instead of the Decatur DeKalb 4 Miler. I trained through this race (versus tapering), but made sure I only had easy runs Thursday and Friday and skipped my normal Friday strength training.
- Official time
- 23:14
- Average pace
- 7:29 min/mi
- VDOT
- 42.9 (73°F)
- Splits
- Mile 1
- 7:28
- Mile 2
- 7:30
- Mile 3
- 7:32
- Final 0.1mi
- 0:43 (6:30/mi)
- Ranking
-
- Overall
- 288/1,786
- Male
- 240/911
- Age Group (M40–44)
- 29/96
- Event Page
- 2025 Decatur DeKalb 5K
- Strava Activity
- ATC Decatur DeKalb 5k
I’ve been training with paces for a VDOT of 42.3 which, with a forecast temperature of 77°F, is a 5k of 23:40, or 7:37/mi pace. My plan was to aim for a 7:40/mi first mile effort. This area is hilly, so a pure 7:40/mi pace isn’t realistic. After the first mile, my plan was to pick up the effort each subsequent mile.
ATC asks for estimated race pace on the registration and assigns start waves according to that. Hilariously, my friend Robin and I both but our estimated race time instead and got placed in wave E. We positioned ourselves at the front to avoid any wave E walkers out of the gate. After about a four minute wait after wave D, we started and a group of about 20 ran out in front. Apparently we weren’t the only ones accidentally in wave E.
The first mile went mostly to plan, if a touch fast. It’s always hard to keep the pace in check with race day adrenaline. Robin and I pretty much stayed together on this mile, separating briefly with the ups, downs, turns, and dodging people. We quickly caught up to wave D and the crowd never thinned. My first mile split was 7:28, but my watch indicates that it might have been a touch short. At the mile marker, my watch said my average pace was 7:36/mi, so pretty close to my target.
With my watching showing a first mile pace of 7:36/mi, that became the pace I wanted to beat on mile two. Mile two was mostly downhill, and my watch shows a pace of 7:26/mi for that mile. Robin and I were generally together for this mile, too. Strava shows a Grade Adjusted Pace (GAP) of 7:32/mi. So hit my mile two goal.
Mile three had a long uphill, and I knew it was coming from the course map. I still wanted to pick up my effort, but I knew that my actual pace would probably be slower because of the hill. Because it’s the third mile, though, I could push hard up the hill without too much worry about ruining the rest of the race. Robin and I pushed up the hill together, and then I pulled ahead and the subsequent downhill and didn’t see her again until the finish. My watch indicated the third mile was a touch long. So it shows the 7:32 split as 7:26/mi pace and Strava show a 7:15/mi GAP. Mile three goal also accomplished.
I had enough gas for a decent kick, which i started after the final turn and I could see the finish line, just a touch before the mile 3 marker. It’s a slightly uphill finish so my kick gradually slowed, but still averaged a 6:30/mi pace for that last 0.1 mile. Such a strong kick indicates I could have pushed the pace a bit more during the race. Probably on the second mile as Strava shows that as having the slowest GAP. Also, to me, that middle mile is the key for a good 5k.
I’m very happy with my results. Hitting my race strategy is huge. It wasn’t a better VDOT result than the track mile, but it was my fastest 5k since 2022’s Turkey Strut. Since this race’s 42.9 VDOT is higher than my training 42.3 VDOT, I’ll increase my paces accordingly. I thought this 5k course was much better than the previous 4 mile course. It exchanged the worst parts of the 4 mile course, two very tough hills, for one longer more gradual hill.
