Race #145
5k #50
2018 Race #6
2018 5k #2
Race for Adoption 5k #5

This race ended up being a lot harder than I thought it would be. I thought for sure that I would have no problem meeting the time goal that my coach set for me. The weather, primarily, had other ideas.

I started race day with a 40 minute warm up from my house to the race start. Originally, my coach had 20 minutes before the race and 70 after but he said that it would work perfectly for me to run longer on the front end. I estimated 35 minutes but it ended up taking me just under 40. I felt sluggish from the get go. I felt the temperatures, which would ultimately rise to nearly 90 degrees, draining me of energy and wondered if I would be able to finish well or at all. I remembered feeling the same way before Reedy River a few weeks ago so I did not abandon all home.

I arrived at the race start just after Mom. We took a pre-race selfie at the car in which I look like I have been swimming previously.

Hamming it up for no apparent reason

Just before the race started, the organizer, a different person than has organized the races in the past, gave some pre-race instructions which included something about a few people still putting timing tags on their shoes. Wait, what? Ellis picked up the packets for us Friday which included no such tags. No one said anything about it until a minute before the race started. The announcer also mentioned that the timing company would also take down numbers of those who did not have the timing chips. This should have been all the foreshadowing I needed.

We were off a few minutes after nine.

I knew that I wanted a minimum 8 minute pace to meet my time goal. I adjusted that to 7:50 to give myself a little bit of a cushion, or so I thought.

Mom and I positioned ourselves at the very front of the startline. In a race with this many unexperienced small children, such positioning is necessary to avoid collisions and even then still results in near misses when a child darts across your path without looking.

I knew we started off fast and expended a bit of energy. It’s nearly impossible not to. THe start has a gentle incline and then a steep decline. I hoped to bank this time into the second half of the race which I knew would get tough.

Mom told me a few times to go on without her but I told her that we were going too fast and attempted to slow down.

Mile 1 7:30

The heat kicked in before the hills did. I started to feel fatigued just after the first mile and with that fatigue came increased awareness of every minute incline adding to the effort I had to put forth. Usually I can at least maintain the early pace in that middle mile. Not this time. I could feel myself slowing down.

About halfway through that mile, near the one aid station placed approximately halfway through, Mom could not keep up. I told her that she could but she needed to slow to either grab water or catch her breath. I kept pushing forward but wondered how I could possibly maintain anything close to this pace for the final mile which is nearly entirely uphill. I struggled in this mile.

Mile 2: 8:05

I tried to psych myself up for the hill that is the final mile but my body just would not have it. I knew i had a small cushion but not enough to slack off. My legs would have none of it. Sweat poured off me. The heat drained any energy I had remaining. I made myself get at least to the halfway point of the final mile before I walked. Yes, I walked. I knew that as soon as I did, my time goal would fly out the window, which it did. I simply did not have much, if anything, remaining in the tank. I managed to walk for about 30 seconds, not too terribly long but the final half mile felt like a dreadful slog.

Mile 3: 8:30 (If you want to see perfect positive splits, run this race. Happens to me every time.)

We finally made the turn onto the sidewalk with the end in sight. I could hear sound close behind me and knew that someone was coming up on my tail. The competitor in me just won’t die. I was this close to the finish. I was not about to let anyone pass me.

As we crossed the street, the guy pulled ahead of me but from somewhere deep within me I dredged up speed and pushed hard every step until the moment I stepped on the timing mat. That felt good, the only part of the race that did.

Final Time: 25:08, nearly a minute slower than goal time

Looking back on the race, I do not think that I could have done anything else to prepare better for this race even though I did run it three minutes slower than I have in the past several years. My body is in marathon training mode and has not yet adjusted to peak summer heat and humidity. (Of course, it is not acclimated; it’s the beginning of May!)

I think that overall workload has also been getting to me but I’m not sure. I had pretty much the same about of workload last year when I ran a 22:17.

Mom finished just twenty or so second behind me looking good!

Afterwards, we heard the announcer saying that awards would be handed out in about 20 minutes. Awesome. We decided to run about 16 minutes of the 50 we had to do afterwards, come back, pick up the rewards and then get the rest in.

Did not happen that way.

We got back and waited. (I was thankful for the waiting time because I felt like I would not be able to finish the whole 50 minutes afterwards.) Nothing. Waited some more and heard that it would be another 10 minutes. Okay then. We ran another 10 minutes, came back and waited and waited.

I walked over to the timing tent and witnessed the mess going on there as the people running the system attempted to figure out the results. I will spare you the details of the mess but it was a huge mess, a mess that took quite a while to figure out. I have never heard of this timing company before. They are likely new and as such present themselves as affordable. My advice to the new race director, who, by the way, handled the whole situation beautifully and professionally, find a new timing company.

We they announced the results, I ended up winning 2nd in my age group and got a few gift cards that I will not use but Mom will. Mom won her age group.

We finally finished up the run.

Not the best of races or long runs for me today but definitely a learning experience which I get to put to use next Saturday in the form of a half marathon!