Half-Assed Runner

Posts Tagged ‘5K’

If a PR falls in a race and no one records it…

God I hate 6am…especially on a Sunday.  I got up, showered, and made sure that my son did the same.  We headed south to participate in the race for a nearly unpronounceable German "founders festival".  I was running the 5K and the Monkey was running a 1/2 mile kids run.

The weather was very nice.  55 degrees with a light, intermittant breeze.  For some reason the humidity was at 96%.  It definitely did not feel that humid.

There was a pretty good turnout for the run.  So much so that the start was delayed (only about 5 minutes) to allow everyone to finish registration.  I had pre-registered so this was not a problem.  The race shirts were nice, funky green (white for kids) technical shirts.  The race was chip timed using B-tags (the "chip" is in the bib and is disposable) and the bibs were printed with the race name.

I had no expectations for this run.  I was just hoping to have a fun run and that my son have the same experience.  I lined up very near the back once again.  After a nearly inaudible announcement by the race director, the starting pistol was fired and we were off.  I waited until I actually crossed the starting line to start RunMeter.

The first mile went by quickly.  There were at least two nice downhill sections.  On the second of these, I passed about 20 runners by blasting down the hill on the left.  Of course, I slowed up substantially as that hill lead right into another incline.  The splits were well marked with large, white mile markers.  Shortly after passing the first of these, RunMeter announced (it always seems to measure long miles) that my pace was 9:02/mile.  Looking at my splits after the run, it was actually 8:59/mile.  Another RunMeter idiosyncracy is that it announces the splits slower than it actually measures them.  Anyhoo…I was flying.  Well, flying is relative when talking about my slow ass.  Still, my first sub-9 minute mile.    This was also accomplished with the usual glacial start and jockeying for position.

Mile 2 was a bit up and down.  I settled into a slower pace and picked a runner to follow.  I had (as usual) forgetten my heart rate monitor.  I would have been interested in seeing my heart rate because I felt pretty relaxed (as much as I ever am during a run).  We got out of the downtown area and I saw the water stop up ahead.  Right behind it was a big ass hill.  The course description mentioned "two or three challenging hills".  I walked through the water stop.  After about 15 seconds of walking and drinking, I started up the incline.

The hill was long, but the climb was not too steep.  As this was an out and back course and I could see some of the faster runners coming down the hill in the other direction, I started looking for the turnaround.  I have RunMeter set to announce every half mile.  The last announcement I remembered was at the 1 mile mark which seemed to have been at least 5 minutes ago, so I was waiting for the 1.5 mile announcement which generally coincides very closely with the halfway (turnaround) point.  This was the only part of the race that sucked.  I looked ahead and the turnaround was at the top of the hill.  I reached the turnaround and decided that I must be running very slowly because the time between the 1 mile mark and the 1.5(5) turnaround point seemed to be closer to 10 minutes than the 5(ish) minutes I expected.  I reached the top of the hill and took my second, short walk break before hitting the second half of the run.  I looked at RunMeter and it showed 1.89 miles.  WTF?  Not only had I missed the 1.5 mile announcement, but it looked like my 3.1 mile run was going to be close to 4 miles.

My mind went back to the race director’s announcement.  Although I couldn’t hear most of it, I did recall him saying that the turnaround point had been moved back 20 meters to make it a "true 5K".  After running a long 5K last weekend, I was sure I was looking at an "ultra" 5K today.  If RunMeter was right, I would be running nearly 4 miles.  Crap.  With my speedy first mile, I was hoping to be in a position to PR.

I started down the hill and I was definitely not in my happy place anymore.  Oh well, it was a nice day and I was going to enjoy the decline after the long climb.  Shortly after I started running again, I saw the 2 mile sign.  That meant that the course was measured accurately.  The halfway point must have been the water stop (that’s probably why I didn’t hear the 1.5 mile announcement – I had removed my headphones briefly at that point) and – although this was an out and back course – the second leg must take a different route.  Sure enough, when we got back down to the bottom of the hill, instead of going straight we veered left.  I would have noticed on the way up the hill if I had not been paying so much attention to the water stop and hill.

I had settled into a comfortable pace at this point.  I did a little mental math and calculated that I was near the 2.5 mile mark.  I was determined to run the rest of the route since I could have easily skipped the last walk stop.  I was now in a group of about eight runners and decided to keep pace with them.

The last leg had plenty of small rises and falls.  Much of it was spent on a paved trail.  After what must have been around the 2.75 mile point, the route became mostly uphill.  I was actually moved ahead of the group I was pacing with and was on my own between them and another small group ahead of me.  The last bit was a pretty steep uphill climb.  I turned the corner, saw the 3 mile sign as well as the crowd near the finish line and started sprinting.  Even running uphill, I blasted past the entire group of runners that were ahead of me before crossing the timing mats [Is this a dick move?].  I caught a glimpse of the clock and it read 28 something.  Holy crap.  I had set a PR. I went to hit stop on RunMeter…but it was already stopped.  Crap.  I must have hit the stop button when bringing the app to focus on my iPhone preparing for the final sprint. Nuts.  Oh well, I would just have to wait for the official timing to see what my official time was.

I grabbed a sport drink and a banana before locating my son.  The race was well stocked with after-race goodies.  There were apples, oranges, bananas along with water and zero calorie sport drinks.  There was also an assortment of breakfast bars.

We waited until the last 5K runners finished before the kids 1/2 mile run began.  The boys ran first.  My son did much better than he had anticipated.  Just like his old man, he finished in the middle of the pack, but was happy with the results.  He even received a sweet medal for his efforts.

We headed back home.  I knew that the rest of my day was shot as I was on call and Hurricane Irene was taking out a number of our east coast networks.

So what was my official time?  There was no official time!  Not for me.  For whatever reason, my results did not show up.  According to the results…I didn’t run at all. 

I was able to identify the last guy I passed and I finished just in front of him (I passed him about 5 feet from the mats).  He finished with a 28:35, so my time was most likely 28:34.  This is a PR by just over 30 seconds.    Not bad for a relatively hilly course on a run which I had no expectations other than to finish.  Too bad there’s no official record of it.  Not a blazing time by anyone’s standards, but it’s 4.5 minutes faster than my first 5K…which was only two months ago.  At this pace, I’ll be running sub-20 minute 5Ks by January. 

My legs were a bit dead yesterday after my 5 mile run on Thursday night.  When I woke up on Saturday, they seemed fine.  This would be my third Saturday in a row running a 5K.  Today’s run was in a small town only about 10 minutes away and the run started at 10 am, so I got to sleep in later than the past few Saturdays.  I did not, however, escape the humidity curse.  The last couple of Saturdays the humidity level had been over 87%.  Being a sweaty beast, I had hoped for a respite, but it stormed last night and well into this morning.  The humidity level was at 97% when I woke up and was at 86% at race time.  Other than the humidity, the weather was outstanding.  64 degrees with a slight breeze and the sun was buried behind the clouds.

I had run around this lake a number of times, so I was familiar with the course…except that the 5K was going to be run in reverse of the route I usually take.  Still, I knew that there were a couple of long inclines on the first half of the run.  The course we took was slightly different than the one I run and it (thankfully) meant missing one of the big hills.

I had preregistered for this run.  Check in was quick and painless.  I always get a bit worried with the old skool mailing of paper registration and check as opposed to registering through a website.  I like having instant verification that I can reference at any point.  The post office did not fail me and I was preregistered.

Around 9:50 I wandered to the starting area.  This was going to be a pretty small field.  I estimated that there were probably only 50 or so runners.  This is a blessing and a curse.  A blessing in that I would not be dodging runners at the start of the race, but a curse in that I would not be able to hide my crappy running.

Even though I positioned myself at the back of the pack, this was the first race where I could actually see the starting line at the beginning of the race.  At 10 am a pathetic sounding horn signaled the start of the race.

I started out at a good pace.  I was going to really try to finish this race under 30 minutes.  I was going to allow myself short walk breaks (a holdover strategy from my Galloway Marathon training).  My strategy was to try to get through the first half of the race with a 9:30 minute per mile average.  Since the first half was pretty much uphill, I figured that even if I could pull that pace off, I would have a decent shot at finishing under 30 minutes even with breaks as the last half would be somewhat downhill and I was familiar with the course.

It still takes me about half of a mile before I get into “running mode”.  My body fights me a bit at the start and my breathing is a bit fitful.  I worked on keeping my arms low and my strides and arm pumping short.  Even though I find this a bit counter-intuitive, it helped me keep a nice pace on my last few runs.

About a quarter mile in, the small field pretty much broke into even smaller clumps of runners.  I found a guy about my age and followed him.  I had no idea what pace I was at, but I didn’t feel like I was pushing too hard.  Near the beginning of the course, there was one of those electronic signs that flash your miles per hour in order to slow down speeding drivers.  I laughed as it flashed the speed for the runners as we passed.  According to the sign I was setting a blazing 8 miles per hour pace at that point.

Runmeter announced my half mile pace in the 8 minute per hour range.  I was a bit surprised.  Though this isn’t a blistering pace for most runners, it’s a pretty quick pace for me – especially at the start of the race.  I wasn’t feeling like I was going too fast, so I settled in and followed the pace of the guy ahead of me.  At the 1 mile split a race volunteer announced that we were running an 8:42 pace.  Wow.  I was well ahead of my goal of 9:30/mile and this was on the uphill portion of the race.  As usual, Runmeter announced my 1 mile split quite a bit later and a bit slower (8:57/mile).  Still, I was well ahead of schedule.

The uphill portion continued until about the 1.2 mile mark.  There was a brief downhill stretch, followed by another brief uphill stretch.  I was near the crest of that hill that I took my first walk break.  I had conflicting emotions about this decision.  I know that I could have kept running and I’ve completed at 1.55 miles with no stops on every 5K I’ve run so far.  I was testing to see if using quick walk breaks would benefit me on a 5K as it had on my long (okay, “long” is relative here) run on Thursday.  At the start of my break, Runmeter was showing that I was still at a 9:15/mile pace.  I kept my first break to about 15 seconds and resumed running.  I couldn’t tell if the break had aided me or not.  I did lose the guy I was pacing at that point and a couple of runners passed me.  I would stop a total of six times on this run.  Most of my walk breaks were less than 15 seconds.  I really hated taking them and I’m sure that I pissed off the couple of runners that would pass me during my breaks, only to have me pass them again later.  One thing that kept me hopeful was that there was a woman about 400 yards ahead of me who was taking breaks as well.  She seemed to be maintaining her position through the entire race.

Mile 2 is where I generally lose my mojo.  The last couple of 5K runs, this is where I’ve stopped.  For whatever reason, between the 2 mile mark and the 2.75 mile mark, I run out of juice.  I was about this point that the course changed from paved streets to a dirt street.  Eventually, it would change again into a gravel path for the last .75 miles.  Runmeter announced the bad news at the 2.5 mile mark: my pace for the entire run was now at 9:48.  Granted, Runmeter paces seem to be about 10 seconds or so off of the “official” pace, but that still meant that I needed to make up 8 to 18 seconds per mile over the last .6 miles.  My walk break strategy seemed to have failed and I was doomed to coming in after the half hour mark yet again.

Oh well, I was feeling pretty good so I picked up the pace.  I had been pacing a woman since the halfway point who ran the entire race.  I would actually take my walk breaks when I caught up with her, so I never actually passed her.  After my last walk break, I started off a bit quicker, but not at a full gallop as I knew that I didn’t have it in me to push it too much over a half mile.  I caught up to my pacer and passed her.  I picked up the pace a bit and caught up to the next runner.  As I passed her, a race volunteer announced “300 more yards.  Less than a minute left.”  I had no idea how far 300 yards was in miles (turns out to be about .17 miles) but I decided that I could sprint 3 football fields in order to finish this damn run.  I took off and even kicked it up one more gear once I could actually see the finish line.  I finished only about 5 feet behind the woman who had also been taking walk breaks who had also maintained a healthy lead over me throughout the entire race.

I hit stop on Runmeter and gasped for breath after slowing down in the chute.  I ripped off my race tag and handed it to the race volunteer at the end of the chute.  There was no digital clock (and the race was not chip timed) at the finish line.  I looked at my iPhone with dread because I was sure that I had missed the 30 minute mark again.  To my shock, not only had I broken the 30 minute mark for the first time, I was within 6 seconds of breaking 29 minutes.  My final (unofficial) time was 29:06.  While this is a time that most runners would spit on, it represented a new PR for this slow bastard.

Needless to say, I was very happy with my time.  I still need to work on my stamina.  I’m hoping that increasing my long, easy runs will eventually make 3.1 miles seem like a short stroll, but for now the 2 mile monster is still kicking my ass.  This may well simply be a mental barrier.  I’ve been trying to determine which part of my body is making me want to stop and I can’t narrow it down.  My breathing is not labored, my legs don’t hurt, and I’m not exhausted physically.  The humidity might be a factor, but at this point I’m chalking it up to a lack of will on my part.