Seattle Marathon 5k Recap

My last race of 2013 was the Seattle Marathon... 5k Santas vs. Superheroes. Sure, even I have to admit it would sound a bit more awesome if you left off that last part but I had focused on the 5k distance the entire year and wanted one more shot at a comparatively difficult 5k course which had given me trouble earlier in the year at the Susan G. Komen Race For the Cure (which is a nice way of saying that if I had attempted to run the full marathon, the scorecard would have read something like “Marathon: 1, Me: 1986 – 2013, RIP”). But enough of that, on to the race recap!

The Seattle Marathon 5k was held on November 29, which also turned out to be one very cold and windy weekend. The course started at 5^th Ave and Harrison by the Experience Music Project and after warming up with some light jogging and strides, I lined up at the the start.

FYI, the internal dialogue in my head at this moment went something along the lines of: "**** it's cold! Why did I choose the shorts/singlet combo this morning?!"

One area that I am constantly working to improve on is controlling my split times, especially at the start of a race. It is so easy to get lost in the energy of the crowd, and to unleash the built up adrenaline at the start. I have to make a very strong conscious effort to try to keep myself in check at the beginning of races, and even then I find that I usually start off faster than I probably should. This race was no different, and when the start gun went off I kicked it into high gear and ran the first mile split in 5:43.

The second part of the course was a down and back along 2nd Ave. It was a long gradual uphill/downhill and I did a decent job of making use of the downhill sections. One unexpected but very welcomed surprise was the words of encouragement from other runners when coming back up 2nd Ave. It gave me a little energy/morale boost which I gladly took. The fast first mile and uphill sections definitely took their toll, and I ran the second mile split in 6:26.

The final stretch of course included a nasty final uphill section, where I fell behind the 2nd place female runner. When racing a 5k, I set my gps watch to display distance traveled + instantaneous pace for the first two miles, then switch it over to display distance traveled + time elapsed for the final stretch. With about a half mile to go, I knew I was on track to just break 20 minutes and decided it was time for the final push as I rounded the corner of Mercer Street. I managed to maintain pace for the third mile and ran the third mile split in 6:24 and was pleased to see the gun time clock read 19:44.

I came out with a final official time of 19:40 which put me 1st in my age division and 14th overall. Not a PR time, but very satisfied considering the hills on this course.

A couple weeks later, I found a nice surprise waiting for me in the mail from the Seattle Marathon Association.

Lessons learned from this race:
- I still need to work on pacing at the start.
- Bring arm sleeves next time...

Also, a big thanks to my brother Allan for coming out to the race and biking to a number of intersections along the course and taking race photos. All photos above are credited to him.

And so it begins...

I am a Seattle runner whose current 2014 focus will be on the 5k distance.

I consider myself a competitive runner. However, when I say competitive I definitely do not mean it in an aspiring running professional sense or even amateur professional sense. Rather, I am referring to competitiveness which is directed at myself and the love of what only competition and a competitive atmosphere like a target race, can bring out in a runner. 

A brief recap of 2013:

At the beginning of 2013 I made two important decisions that would affect the rest of my year: 

1. I set up firm 5k race goals for the year (under the 20 minute threshold as goal A, and then if that was achieved, work to get as close to the 18:30 threshold for goal B).

2. I decided to start attending a local running group that met weekly on Mondays called The Monday Night Run (go figure) hosted by the Super Jock 'n' Jill running store at Green Lake.

A friend who I met at The Monday Night Run has worked with me throughout the 2013 year, providing training suggestions and tips to help me achieve the goals I set out at the beginning of 2013. My development started off with increasing my weekly base mileage to run as close to 40 miles per week as I could get. This took a couple months as I took it slow and steady to avoid injury (increasing mileage two consecutive weeks in a row then dropping mileage the following week, rinse and repeat). It took a good couple months before I started seeing noticeable improvements at races, but it was worth it. In the second half of 2013 I also began experimenting with the more technical and indirect aspects of racing the 5k distance such as mile splits, warm-up routines, and finding the right balances in sleep and nutrition.

I will take all I have learned and started to learn this past year, and hopefully continue to build upon it this year. Bring on 2014 (without any injuries please)!