Today, at long last, I finally have a halfway decent indication that things are going well. I ran a 5K track race put on by the Baltimore Road Runners Club this evening. The race was stacked with a whole bunch of fast runners. It made for some good competition, that's for sure.
A 5K on a 400m track is quite an experience, with 12.5 laps making up the whole race. The best approach is just to hit your pace, zone out how much is left to go and just power through lap after lap, turn after turn, and straight after straight. The excessively large amount of feedback on pace can both help and hurt, especially for a runner like me who does not use GPS or heart rate monitors, just a watch and "feel."
My goal for this race was to go out at 5:20 pace and see what happens. Quite the plan, eh? 5:20 corresponded to 40 second 200 meter splits/80 second 400 meter splits. I knew it would be a bit hard to keep track of pace since I had no interest in hitting my lap split button every 400 meters, but I've done many track races before so I knew to just deal with it. The race actually starts on the back of the track and finishes on the front, so that the clock at the finish becomes next to useless since your splits are all with 200 extra meters of running. Thankfully, some guy was calling out splits from the original start line which really helped.
I toed up to a very crowded start line and we were off in a flash. A massive pack of about 10 runners took the lead with me and 3 others hanging on in the back. We went through the first 200 dead on 40 seconds. I hit 80 for the first lap. Though the main pack was pulling away, I stayed put and two other runners followed suit. I stayed behind the second runner and just settled into a steady groove.
Mile 1: 5:15. A bit fast, but I felt rather relaxed. As we approached 6 laps to go, the middle runner in our group started to fade and I went around him, tucking in behind the runner in our trio that was leading the way. As we pushed forward that runner faded out of hearing range. Things were getting a bit hairy as we started lapping people. That's what happens when you have 29 runners on the track all running very different paces. However, most people actually got out of the way (which is certainly very appreciated), but even the ones that didn't were no problem. I never felt impeded in anyway and their encouragement was very helpful!
Around and around we went until we hit 2 miles in 10:33. Some quick math made me realize I just banged out a 5:18. As far as I'm concerned, that was dead on even! I also kept that little bit in mind that the runner I was tucked in behind was probably starting to fade a bit and I would have to make a move soon to keep the pace up.
As we hit 3 laps to go, I started straining a little. That smooth relaxed pace was getting tougher to maintain. Regardless, I dove out to lane 2 on the front stretch and got around the runner I had been following for mile 2. After a clean pass, I put distance on him and eventually took him out of the picture. There were some fading runners ahead of me, but I never caught up. I was more concerned with just trying to hold on.
With 2 laps to go, I knew a big success was in my grasp. I don't remember my exact time, but I do remember the thought that even a 3:00 800 meter would still give me a sub-17. I thought to myself, no way will I slow that much!! Around and around I went again, slowly getting more tired but still running strong. As I approached the final stretch, I threw down whatever I had left and crossed the line in:
16:25.
2 seconds faster than my 5K road race PR. I ran that race back in March on a stress fracture. In fact, I shut it down for good just a couple days after that race. That was a race in which the first mile was all downhill and the rest flat. In my opinion, this race was harder. Regardless, three things hold true:
1. I felt strong during this race and strong at the end meaning my 5K legs are back
2. It was so relieving to be able to race a 5K without nagging pain in my left leg
3. My confidence is really making a come back
It only takes a couple good races for everything to fall back into place. I'm still not ready to even think a 2:39:59 is possible at Philly since 5Ks mean jack in marathons but this is another important step in that direction!
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