Yet another 5K report

Rickshaw · Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 2:37 pm

I must be a glutton for punishment! I hadn't planned to race today. My last 5K was just a week ago, and I did a very tough track workout only yesterday. I also did some fairly tiring hilly runs this week. To top it all off, the chest congestion I was battling last month has returned, exacerbated by yesterday's lung-searing track workout. But last night I realized that if I didn't race today, I'd have to wait until the end of May, which was too long a wait for me.

The course was a certified, paved, flat 5K loop along the baylands, very similar to the one I ran last weekend. I warmed up with two easy miles, and felt pretty weak. I didn't have high expectations for the race. I figured that just matching last week's relatively disappointing 21:04 would be a good accomplishment. To do that, I'd need to run about 6:45 miles.

I tried to start a little easy, and ran the first mile in 6:46. I stayed in the groove, pacing off the runners around me, but the 2nd mile split was 7:04. I think the first mile marker may have been off a little, and both miles were closer to about 6:55 pace. After the 2nd mile, I started to lose interest, and couldn't summon the will to push myself to the max. I slowed a bit, then picked it up again near the end. The 3rd mile split was 7:04 again. I finished in 21:3x, but forgot to hit my watch, so I'm not sure of the exact time.

The only interesting thing to say about this race is the small battle that developed near the end. About half a mile from the finish, I recognized the guy ahead of me as being the guy who finished immediately behind me in last week's race. He was maybe 50 yards ahead. I tried to surge to catch him, and made up a little ground, but couldn't really summon the will to do more, so I gave up on the idea of catching him. Then coming around the final turn, maybe 100 yards from the finish, I saw him probably 30-40 yards ahead. A long way to make up in a short distance, but I could tell he was tired and was just kind of jogging it in. So I turned on the jets full sprint, and since I'd been taking it kind of easy up to that point, my sprint was actually modestly impressive. I ate up ground on him in a big hurry, and the finish line crowd loved it. He heard me coming and picked up his pace, but I was still gaining on him fast. In the end I just barely ran out of maneuvering room, and finished half a stride behind. If the finish line had been wide enough for us to run two abreast, I think I would have caught him, but it narrowed to a single file gate right at the finish. Doh!

My average HR for the race was 179, and max was 187. I averaged 186 HR for last week's race, so you can tell I just didn't have the will to muster a maximum effort today. Oh well. Now at least I'll have a few weeks to get stronger before I race again. If I want to break 20:00, I've got a long way to go...