2020 Time Trial #1

I think we all have needed something like this to help us feel a little more normal. I know I've missed our busy Saturdays, leaving from DeMatha before the sun is up and spending all morning, sometimes into the afternoon, at a cross country meet, sprinting between mile markers to get splits and encourage our boys to the finish line.

What wound up not being normal was the distance of our course today. I measured the distance three times this week, including once this morning as I put cones out on the course, on my bike using my Apple Watch. Every time I rode it, the distance came out to exactly 3.10 miles (a 5k). Then I went out to do my own individual time trial before our athletes began arriving and my Apple Watch measured it to be 3.32 miles, nearly a full quarter-mile long. I'm not sure how that works, but I mapped it out online and, sure enough, it came out to 3.31 miles.

Not to worry though, it's better to go long than short, especially for conversion purposes. When you look for your times below, you'll see five times: your finish time for the 3.31-mile course, your first mile split (which wound up being closer to 1.06 miles), your second mile split (which was more like 1.1 miles), your final 1.1-mile split (more like 1.15 miles), and the estimated time you would have run if the course had been only 5k, represented by P5 (projected 5k).

Before we get to the times, I'd like to thank everybody for today. I appreciate the parents who stuck around to help, as well as everyone's patience as we did get out of there a bit later than expected.

Since this is not the same course as the normal parkrun course, there are no PCBs (personal course bests), and we can't mark an official PR (personal record) for a 5k on an off-distance course. However, I will mark where athletes set Virtual PRs and Virtual PCBs as appropriate, using their projected 5k times as calculated using a formula devised by research engineer and marathoner Pete Riegel.

Individual Time Trial

Since I now know that my Apple Watch was pretty much right on the money, I will use its actual mile splits below for my time trial:

Coach Cory Puffett '10 - 19:52 [(1) 5:45, (2) 6:01, (3.31) 8:06, (P5) 18:34]

Group A

1 Gavin Foran (Sr.) - 20:51 [(1.06) 6:20, (2.16) 7:12, (3.31) 7:19, (P5) 19:30] Virtual PCB by 59 seconds

2 James Hudson (Sr.) - 21:10 [(1.06) 6:26, (2.16) 7:13, (3.31) 7:33, (P5) 19:47]

3 Ian Parsons (So.) - 21:20 [(1.06) 6:28, (2.16) 7:13, (3.31) 7:39, (P5) 19:57]

4 Langston Stovall (Jr.) - 21:48 [(1.06) 6:39, (2.16) 7:25, (3.31) 7:44, (P5) 20:23]

5 Michael Metz (So.) - 22:00 [(1.06) 6:45, (2.16) 7:29, (3.31) 7:46, (P5) 20:34]

6 Christopher Toomer (So.) - 22:09 [(1.06) 7:00, (2.16) 7:47, (3.31) 7:22, (P5) 20:42] Virtual PCB by 29 seconds

7 Jaiden Mosley (Sr.) - 24:28 [(1.06) 6:59, (2.16) 8:14, (3.31) 9:15, (P5) 22:52]

8 Desmond Holt (Jr.) - 24:36 [(1.06) 7:13, (2.16) 8:35, (3.31) 8:48, (P5) 23:00]

9 Sam Cockrell (So.) - 26:04 [(1.06) 7:12, (2.16) 9:09, (3.31) 9:43, (P5) 24:22]

Group B

1 Andrew Ross (Fr.) - 27:10 [(1.06) 8:38, (2.16) 9:15, (3.31) 9:17, (P5) 25:24]

2 Jonah Lyke (So.) - 27:53 [(1.06) 8:54, (2.16) 9:56, (3.31) 9:03, (P5) 26:04]

3 Jacob Robertson (Jr.) - 27:54 [(1.06) 8:24, (2.16) 9:29, (3.31) 10:01, (P5) 26:05]

4 Austin Boynes (Jr.) - 29:10 [(1.06) 8:53, (2.16) 10:17, (3.31) 10:00, (P5) 27:16]

5 Andrew Righi (Fr.) - 29:16 [(1.06) 8:56, (2.16) 10:36, (3.31) 9:44, (P5) 27:22]

6 Peter Brown (Fr.) - 31:24 [(1.06) 9:07, (2.16) 10:50, (3.31) 11:27, (P5) 29:22]

7 Ian Brown (Jr.) - 32:02 [(1.06) 8:46, (2.16) 11:24, (3.31) 11:52, (P5) 29:57]

8 Maximo Legaspi (So.) - 36:57 [(1.06) 12:02, (2.16) 12:38, (3.31) 12:17, (P5) 34:33]

Final Thoughts

While these times might indicate that many of us are behind where we'd hope to be by the middle of September in a normal season, I'm very happy with these results as they indicate that the team has been doing everything they can to train through this summer even when we could not work out together. Now that we are able to train together on a more regular basis, these times will improve and I am excited to see what our results will be later in the fall.

We are still missing a lot of our athletes, and I hope to hold another of these time trials in two weeks on October 3. Assuming things continue to move forward for there to be a meet on the Glory Days/WCAC Championship course on October 10, that time trial would be the one to determine who runs in which sections of that meet (varsity, varsity B, JV, etc; however they break down the sections). If you have not been cleared by our trainers yet, you will need to do so before then to participate in the time trial, so please be sure to get that done over the next couple of weeks.

Great work everybody! I'm proud of everyone's effort today! Now that we have a sense of where we are at, we can use these times to plan out our workouts more efficiently and more productively.

"Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up." - Dean Karnazes