After my experience with the Seahawks 5k, it was nice to return to a smaller race of 1,446 runners. The start line for this race is right in front of my favorite running store Super Jock 'n Jill and is the same starting location for a lot of my weekly running routes. The race started at 8:30 and I arrived an hour before and started warming up. I recognized a number of runners from The Monday Night Run group and a few Super Jock n' Jill employees warming up as well. I stepped up to the starting with a little time to spare and repeated the following in my head for the next few minutes: "DON'T GO OUT TOO FAST!"
Guess who went out too fast? I don't understand it. I can mentally come to terms with this deceptively simple plan, but my body has the hardest time following it. It's like adrenaline and race nerves hooked up and produced a 5:41 first mile split love child and named it Pacing Strategy Disaster.
I found my "running pack" in the second mile, and held on for dear life as the adrenaline wore off. There were a few breakaways and a few who fell off but for the most part it felt like the majority of the pack was content to ride the second mile together at a steady 6:17 pace.
Two miles down and my watch showed an elapsed time of 11:58. I figure I had a shot at breaking 19:00 and turned up the pace ever so slightly (please remember I was kind of dying). I managed to pass a couple of runners from the pack I was in and I held a 6:13ish pace. I turned the final corner and flew past the finish line with an official time of 19:32.
Ugh. I really wanted to break 19:00. I am not quite sure why this race was harder for me than the Green Lake Gobble 5k or the Valentine's Day Dash 5k, but I will take this race with a serving of humble pie. I will remind myself that it is still about 30 seconds faster than when I ran this race last year and look ahead to the next race.
Also thought I would include a snapshot of my GPS watch summary of the race. That first mile though...
Post race thoughts:
1. If I had a nickel for every time I circle back to that first mile...
...I'd probably hire a pacer to keep me in check :).
2. Ran into a friend who coaches cross country/track at Nathan Hale High School and he was saying how hard it was to break his 5k PR from high school. Well folks, we talked a bit more and took the concept of the Master's division and Olympic B-Standard qualifying time and combined them to produce what I call the "old man PR B-standard". This beauty wipes the slate clean at 25 and allows you to go for personal PR glory once again. Awesome, right?
I found my "running pack" in the second mile, and held on for dear life as the adrenaline wore off. There were a few breakaways and a few who fell off but for the most part it felt like the majority of the pack was content to ride the second mile together at a steady 6:17 pace.
Two miles down and my watch showed an elapsed time of 11:58. I figure I had a shot at breaking 19:00 and turned up the pace ever so slightly (please remember I was kind of dying). I managed to pass a couple of runners from the pack I was in and I held a 6:13ish pace. I turned the final corner and flew past the finish line with an official time of 19:32.
Ugh. I really wanted to break 19:00. I am not quite sure why this race was harder for me than the Green Lake Gobble 5k or the Valentine's Day Dash 5k, but I will take this race with a serving of humble pie. I will remind myself that it is still about 30 seconds faster than when I ran this race last year and look ahead to the next race.
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| Jonathan Lafler and Megan Heuer win the 2014 Top Pot Doughnut Dash 5k! |
Post race thoughts:
1. If I had a nickel for every time I circle back to that first mile...
...I'd probably hire a pacer to keep me in check :).
2. Ran into a friend who coaches cross country/track at Nathan Hale High School and he was saying how hard it was to break his 5k PR from high school. Well folks, we talked a bit more and took the concept of the Master's division and Olympic B-Standard qualifying time and combined them to produce what I call the "old man PR B-standard". This beauty wipes the slate clean at 25 and allows you to go for personal PR glory once again. Awesome, right?
Do I get another clean slate at 29?
ReplyDelete-Drake
If it helps motivate you to go out and race then I would say absolutely! FYI, did you know the Green Lake Valentines Day Dash 5k has a sister race in San Francisco at Golden Gate Park?
ReplyDelete