Another day, and another 5K. This race was set to take place at Druid Hill Park at 9AM. Temperatures were in the mid-40s with a rather cold and stiff wind blowing roughly East to West. I know Druid Hill Park well and was looking forward to racing there.
In the few days leading up to the race, my hips and back were killing me. I've blamed it on running my Wednesday tempo run on dead Saucony Fastwitches. So I retired them a few miles short of 200 and broke out a fresh pair for the race.
This was Back on My Feet's race for November, and I was given the honor of leading warmups and stretching. Though I love doing it, I have to make sure to get in my own warm up and stretch, just to be sure I'm ready. A quick 12 minute warmup and some stretching from 8:00-8:20 took care of that. I spent another 20 minutes warming up the Back on My Feet crew, then ran around and did strides to stay warm before toeing to the line in just shorts and a t-shirt.
After lining up and looking around, I immediately identified 2 people that I recognized and knew would make the race interesting. I was hoping for a race, and it looks like I got my wish. After the starting horn, a guy in a yellow shirt quickly jumped out to the lead. After the first minute or so he had built a decent lead quickly. However, I could sense in his stride that he was reaching and decided to sit tight and slowly regain the ground. I did not want a repeat of a race I ran back in August where I stayed 10 strides behind the leader the whole way and never caught him. If I couldn't slowly bring him back I would surge to catch him by mile 1.5 if needed. As it turns out, this runner was the same guy I could not catch back in August.
We ran towards Druid Hill Lake to run around it counterclockwise. I've run that damn loop so many times, so I was glad to do it in a race. It was really easy to run the tangents despite the many turns. As we approached mile 1 I started closing in on the leader. Overall, I knew the pace was faster than 5:20, despite my best efforts to control it early. I looked at my watch and discovered much to my dismay, that it had not started when I hit it at the beginning.
Rather than flip out, I just said "f--k it, all I need to do is catch this guy, who cares about the pace." When we passed mile 1 I hit the start button to at least get some feedback on the last two miles. At this point, the wind was right in our faces, but I continued to gain ground. I also no longer heard footsteps behind me, so I knew most likely, the race would come down to this moment. As we made the far turn around the lake I finally caught the leader and ran alongside him for a good couple of minutes.
I could tell he was struggling to hold the pace and as we left the lake and went down a hill; I picked it up just a bit and passed him. From that point on, I was only concerned with holding pace. At the time, I didn't know the first mile split (though it ended up being 5:15), so I was just focused on trying to come in under 17. At mile 2 my watch read 5:30. Another 5K, another race where I couldn't hold the early pace.
Regardless, we hit the turnaround and I continued to push hard. The course was mainly flat at this point. We only had an early uphill, and a slight downhill so far. As we made the turnaround, the lead vehicle starting instructing runners coming the other way to move to the right. It got a little hectic. At one point the SUV had to stop because there were too many runners coming the other way. I actually caught and almost passed it, but everything cleared up at the last second.
The home stretch included two slight uphills, but they were just enough to kill me. My third mile was a 5:42 and I ended up crossing the line in 17:03. I did win the race, though I was disappointed that for the 6th time in a row, I have failed to go sub 17 after doing it back in March.
The wind and the slight hills did not help, but I'm not one for making excuses. I think my main weakness at this point are hills and holding that tough early pace. I can train on the hills, and I need to come with speed workouts that will train me to hold 5K pace. I have some ideas that I can hopefully implement next summer. I think all the speedwork I did this past summer helped, but perhaps I need to cut the rest between reps or include some "combo" workouts that include running and speed work. I bet if I run the course that I got my PR again, I'd probably get another one.
In the meantime, I'm sure my 5K time is eventually going to explode through the 17 minute barrier. Two years ago, I was stuck on 19 and through marathon training, I broke through that. My 10k-half marathon range continues to be my strong suit, and I continue to be frustrated by the fact that I can sometimes hit 5:40s in those races but yet barely run that in the last mile of a 5K. However, the same was true when I was stuck at 19 minutes. So I just have to accept that the 5K is no longer my strongest race (which is fine!).
If I want my marathon time to significantly improve, my other race distances by default have to improve also. I'll continue to take it a day at a time like I always do!
Now it's time to recover for a 10K tomorrow. I need to wipe out my 1 year old PR. I have yet to run a 10K this year and am looking forward to it.
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