5k - Baden Road Race

This is the race formally known as The New Hamburg Classic, and today was my fourth race. In the first year I finished with a time of 25:51. The two years following that, I kept getting slower and slower. That being said, my time last year - 26:38 - was good enough for third place for my age category (45-49). 2014 is the first year they were awarding medals, and I've never earned one before, so I figured that I should be able to accomplish that today.

Today's time was my best ever for this course - 25:50 - so I beat 2011's time by a single second, and 2013's by 48 seconds. However, that was only good enough for fifth! I was happy with my time when I crossed the finish line, but very disappointed I didn't qualify for a medal when I checked the official results.

I gave it everything today, so I don't feel bad about that. My legs were toast when I reached the finish - I had to go into a squat and catch my breath - compared to last year, when I felt like I still had gas left in the tank at the end.

But I really wanted that medal.

Edit: The day after the race, a fellow runner asked me on Twitter how it went, and helped me to put the result in perspective.

@nigelgordijk awesome...I'll take a PR over any type of placing any day!
— Dr. Sean Delanghe (@DrSeanDelanghe) May 11, 2014

Sean's right; I can't do anything about other people's performance, but I can work on improving my own. I did so massively compared to last year. All I can do is focus on doing even better next year, regardless of how quickly other people run.