Day 259: Check one more off

I've been trying hard to keep up with my running this month, because, let's not lie, the perfect weather is not long before us.  And also, I want to be done with it already.  Just in case you were not yet aware (head under a rock?), I dislike running, and I'm slow.  But it's in my goals. (5k in under 30 minutes)

There is a local 5k at the end of October here, so I've decided to aim for that.  I've been doing short runs (2 miles, 2.5) and a few longer slow ones thrown in there to get ready.  And I have come across the course map so I thought that maybe I could try that out a few times before the actual event.  

Today I decided to run part of the course.  Leaving out the uphill section, duh.   But I was feeling pretty good.  And my iphone music shuffle was hooking me up.  So I decided to keep going.  As I rounded the last curve to my car, I checked the time.  I hadn't checked yet and I was not assuming anything.  But there it was, 29:30.  And I knew that I would have to bust my butt.  I'm not sure that there was any way physically possible that I could have actually gotten to my end point in 30 seconds from where I was, but I was determined to try.   I didn't make it.  Whomp Whomp.  I got to the car at 30:30.  

So I got home actually still pretty proud of myself.  3.1 miles in 30:30 is not bad.  And I'm sure with a few more tries I could do it in under 30.  Then I went on MapMyRun to log my workout.  And guess what!  Turns out that I ran 3.16 miles.  What?!?  With a bit of algebra, I found out that if I ran 3.16 miles in 30:30, then I ran 3.1 miles in 29:55.  Bam.  That's what happens when you bust your butt.