In last week’s post, I mentioned I was running a 5K on October 6th and I wanted to get at least 19:54. The previous year’s winning time had been 20:42 so I partly hoped I could win the race. Races hand out awards differently. Most do the traditional top three overall followed by age group awards. At the Taste of Louisville, there is a prize for first place overall and then it goes to age group prizes. Bolder Boulder gives medals to the top fifteen in each age group. The 5K on Sunday awarded top three overall and nothing else. Finishing in the top three became of paramount importance.
The course is difficult. It’s an out-and-back that starts three quarters of a mile flat, then has a brutal uphill, followed by a long gradual downhill to the turnaround, then reverse all of that. I hit the first mile at 6:40 (sixteen seconds behind 19:54 pace) and I threw out the possibility of 19:54. Partly this was because I was in third place and fourth was right on my heels. First and second were both far ahead. With the need to finish in the top three at the forefront of my focus, it was all about jockeying for place.
We hit the turnaround and I did not consult my watch, but I did start pushing up the hill, hoping to put some space between fourth place and me. At the top of the hill, I noticed second place was much closer than he had been earlier in the race and I started my effort to close the gap. As we crossed the two mile mark, went back down the steep hill, and began the last three quarters of a mile to the finish line, I was gaining on him.
A 10K was also being hosted that morning, finishing at the same spot, and this was a huge advantage with course distance markings. When I saw mile six for the 10K, I knew I had .2 miles to go and when I hit mile three for the 5K, I knew I had .1. This was also an advantage for second place, for he checked over his shoulder at .2 to go, saw me bearing down, and started his kick. He upped the pace again at .1. He was already far enough ahead that this basically settled the race. He finished in 19:44, I posted 19:47 for third (a little faster than the 19:54 I had planned), and fourth place came in at 19:58. For a community 5K, that’s a close race and it was a lot of fun, even without getting into second.
Obviously I made up a lot of time after the 6:40 opening and this was a second way that the .2 and .1 markings were helpful. Given that there were three of us racing at full speed for the podium, I still would have been going recklessly all-out, but at .2 to go, I saw that my time was 18:17 and knew that sub-20 was back in reach. And yet, though I couldn’t have really increased my speed at that point, in the back of my mind I knew I had to keep the pace going to stay sub-20, even if third place became a lock.
So, I was way off-pace at mile one and yet, my final time turned out the way I had hoped. This was probably helped by the fact that it was such a close race among three of us. We pushed each other a bit harder than we might have otherwise. It’s also the case that with the steepness of the climb on mile 1, getting a fast split there is just not realistic. You do have to reach the same elevation on the way back, but it’s a more gradual effort and clearly faster. The lesson from all of this echoes others from past posts, which is you just don’t know what to expect on race day, and the opening of a race doesn’t always dictate the final outcomes.
Speaking of collaborative efforts, the Ineos1:59 challenge has been set for this coming Saturday morning, sometime between 5:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. Vienna time. I’m going to push my prediction for Kipchoge up to 1:59:53. I was confident at 1:59:57 but now I don’t think he would cut it that close, assuming he’s working with some margin. We’ll know soon.
Running food review of the week: (note–gels, bars, chews, and other items affect everyone differently. Try them on a short run before using them for a key training run or race): Reign Peach Fizz: This is an energy drink from the same company as the Monster line of beverages though designed more for workout use and recovery. I got this as a free sample, not by seeking it out. In a 16 oz. can it has 300 mg of caffeine which would be like drinking six 12 oz. cans of Mountain Dew. I only drank half and it was apparently more than enough. I thought my head was going to blow off and not in a good way. I was pretty fidgety the whole run and focusing was difficult, though it was supposed to enhance that. Long story short, I did not finish the second half of the drink and I won’t be using this one again.
Source used:
https://ineos159challenge.com
Running anecdotes, running food reviews, some race coverage, and more