Beginners and Beyond

12

My Newest Racing Lesson: Don't Jump to Conclusions (Read 165 times)

Love the Half


    In July, 2008 I ran the Keyser Independence 5K.  It wasn't my first race.  That was a half marathon in March, 2008.  The 5K was my 2nd race.  I go back every couple of years and run it again mostly for sentimental reasons.  One of the things I learned from more experienced runners is to avoid jumping to conclusions immediately after the race.  Give it some time before you decide what went well and what didn't go so well.

     

    I didn't have a lot of expectations going into this race.  It's the holiday and I've put on a few pounds plus I did a very hard workout on Thursday.  Doing that less than 48 hours before a race is not conducive to an optimal performance.  But, I was doing this to have some fun rather than to PR which I had done two weeks ago.  Mentally, I wasn't ready to go flat out anymore than I was physically ready to bust it.

     

    I abbreviated my warm up as it was fairly hot and I still don't know if that was a good idea.  I also experimented with wearing compression socks and I honestly think those things left me feeling a bit weak.  Then again, that may be due more to the Thursday workout.  I'm going to continue wearing the compression socks on all hard and long runs through June and then not wear them in August and see if I notice a difference.

     

    The gun fired and there were about 10 people in front of me.  I looked at my Garmin around the 1/4 mile mark and it showed a 5:45 pace.  That's about what I'd expect at that point and I tried to settle into a sustainable effort.  Shortly after that, I was passed by a guy who was fairly obviously in the 50-59 age group.  Dayum.  I'm on a sub 5:50 pace and he passes me.  Oh well.  If he's that good, I have nothing for him.  Somewhat to my surprise though, he doesn't put but 5-10 yards on me and the gap doesn't increase.  I keep reminding myself to run my race and not worry about him.

     

    At the half mile point, you have to go around a cone and run back the way you came.  I hate that as it involves losing all of your momentum and then accelerating back to race speed again.  Hate it.  Apparently, my competitor hates it worse than me as he gives up 2-3 seconds to me on that turn.  Hell, now I'm off his shoulder.  He glances at me a couple of times and I hang there for a few hundred yards.  I feel like the pace is slowing a bit and his breathing is not as smooth as mine so I decide to see if he can hold onto a faster pace.  Dayum again.  He can't.  The 1 mile mark is at the start finish line and the starter calls out 5:55 as I cross.  I hear him call out 5:58 for my competitor so I know he's on my heels.

     

    I'm not much past the 1 mile mark when I start feeling the effects of Thursday's workout.  Aerobically I feel fine but it becomes impossible to make my legs turn over faster.  They feel incredibly heavy and I can sense that I'm slowing and resign myself to getting caught.  Surprisingly, he doesn't catch me.  Not surprisingly, I pass a couple of younger guys who busted guts at the start.  There are a couple of other young guys in sight but they are far enough ahead that I know I won't catch them so at this point the race becomes a mind game to hang in there.  That's another bad thing about where I'm at in my running.  I can't keep up with the young guns but I frequently don't have anyone running right with me either.  

     

    As we approach the two mile mark, I see the leader.  He ends up running 16:45 or something like that and looks like he's just out for a tempo run.  I find out after the race that he's on scholarship at Marshall which is a D-1 level school.  Yep.  That'll do it.  Anywho, just past the two mile mark, you have to lose all of your momentum, turn around another cone, and accelerate again.  At the Mile 2 mark, I hear 12:10.  Holy Moly!  That's a slow ass mile.  I knew my legs were dead and I knew I was struggling to maintain focus but that was stupid slow.  It doesn't feel better going back.

     

    Mile 3 was all about fartleks.  I'd accelerate for a bit and relax for a bit.  I just didn't have it in me to maintain an even effort.  Still, here's why you never give up.  About a quarter mile from the finish, I start picking up the effort.  I think I might actually have a chance at one of the two young guys in front as they are both slowing relative to me.  Smack at the Mile 3 mark, one of the youngsters steps to the side of the road and commences puking.  I think about stopping but I see a volunteer going to him and there wouldn't be much I could do in my state at that point anyway.  So, I push through to the end.

     

    I end up 5th overall and 1st in the 50-59 AG with a time of 18:52.  My AG competitor finishes in 19:19.  I'm rather stunned I put that much time on him.  Paces for splits are 5:55, 6:15, 6:05, & 5:21.  I puzzle repeatedly over the 6:15 and the 6:05.  That doesn't make a lot of sense to me as the third mile felt awful and I can't believe I ran it 10 seconds faster than the second.  I'm also a bit shocked that I ran the second mile a whopping 20 seconds slower than the first..  I attribute the 6:15 to tired legs and mental fatigue and the 6:05 to trying to catch the young guys.  And that's why you shouldn't jump to conclusions.

     

    I look at the elevation from Garmin and it appears that there is a gradual rise in the road from the start/finish line westward to the turnaround point just past Mile 2.  I don't buy it as I think the course is flat.  However, I check the box on the Running Ahead log to ignore GPS data and it shows the same thing.  So, I plot the course on mapmyrun.com and on gmap-pedometer.com and all of them show the same thing.  Dayum for a 3rd time.  It's not much of an elevation change - maybe 20-30 feet spread out over a mile but it's there.  After the race, my AG competitor said he was trying to make up some time on me when we were "coming back downhill" and I had no idea what he meant.  Now I do.  He's a local and knows the course intimately.

     

    Final thoughts.  I really enjoyed this race.  I didn't care so much about my time and was just hoping to get into a race with someone.  I did and it was a lot of fun.  I am once again reminded that racing is not about going for a PR every time.  Sometimes, it's just about lining up and seeing who can cross the line first.  I got a nice little mention on the local running club's website in their report on the race.  (4th paragraph if you care to click on the link).  Also got a nice pic near the start/finish/1 Mile mark where you can see my AG competitor not far off my shoulder and few nice pics approaching the finish.

     

    Story link

     

     

     

     

     

    Short term goal: 17:59 5K

    Mid term goal:  2:54:59 marathon

    Long term goal: To say I've been a runner half my life.  (I started running at age 45).

    kristin10185


    Skirt Runner

      Nice work! Love the floater pic at the end! Congrats on the AG award!!!

      PRs:   5K- 28:16 (5/5/13)      10K- 1:00:13 (10/27/13)    4M- 41:43 (9/7/13)   15K- 1:34:25  (8/17/13)    10M- 1:56:30 (4/6/14)     HM- 2:20:16 (4/13/14)     Full- 5:55:33 (11/1/15)

       

      I started a blog about running :) Check it out if you care to

      Docket_Rocket


        Nice pics and great work.  I can see the slant downhill on your pics, so I assume there was an uphill you forgot mid race.

         

        Great work!

        Damaris

         

        As part of the 2024 London Marathon, I am fundraising for VICTA, a charity that helps blind and visually impaired children. My mentor while in law school, Jim K (a blind attorney), has been a huge inspiration and an example of courage and perseverance. Please consider donating.

        Fundraising Page


        Hip Redux

          I guess when you're moving that fast, you actually do float.

           

          So you are thinking the false flat was the 20 second difference in pace, and not what you first attributed it to?  Or a combination of fatigue + a false flat?

           

          FSocks


          KillJoyFuckStick

            You people have issues 

            Zelanie


              It's funny, because I love reading your RRs because you're so competitive with the folks around you and truly make it a race, but in this race it seems like you did as well as you did by *not* letting those around you get you sidetracked.  That is, you let your AG competitor go at first when he seemed faster, but reeled him in by trusting your own pace.  And you didn't run ahead and catch the folks that looked out of reach, only to end up catching them in the end.  I guess everyone had positive splits that day!  But it sounds like in this case, yours might have been a whole lot worse if you'd have spent a lot of energy speeding up to pass people that you ended up passing in the end anyway, if that makes sense.

               

              Congrats on the AG win!

                Insightful report, Brad.  Congrats.

                 

                Beating the guy you wanted to stay ahead of is sometimes sweeter than a PR could be, nice racing.

                LRB


                  Paces for splits are 5:55, 6:15, 6:05, & 5:21.  I puzzle repeatedly over the 6:15 and the 6:05.  That doesn't make a lot of sense to me as the third mile felt awful and I can't believe I ran it 10 seconds faster than the second. 

                   

                  You felt awful because you were running it faster than the 2nd mile lol!

                   

                  I hate, hate, hate, those cone turn a rounds man.  Seriously, I hate them.  That could also have something to do with the slower 2nd mile mile, trying to pick up the pace if you will.

                   

                  You make it sound as if you would have stopped to aid that runner had a volunteer not been there.  If that is so, you are a better person than I, as I rarely look at anything other than the ground a few yards ahead of me while racing.  And if I did happen to see it, they would have to be doing a lot more than puking for me to stop.

                    Congratulations on your racing experience for this 5K.  BTW in the shirtless photos,  you are putting some of us guys to shame. If some of us attempted it, then the cry heard around the race course is shield the eyes of the women and children first.  Smile

                    “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” - T.S. Eliot

                    Docket_Rocket


                      Wait, are you running in compression socks?  Another convert?????

                       

                      Seriously, you look bad ass in those pics!

                      Damaris

                       

                      As part of the 2024 London Marathon, I am fundraising for VICTA, a charity that helps blind and visually impaired children. My mentor while in law school, Jim K (a blind attorney), has been a huge inspiration and an example of courage and perseverance. Please consider donating.

                      Fundraising Page

                      scottydawg


                      Barking Mad To Run

                        Congrats on your race, Brad, and on the AG win!   Nice photos, you look really strong in them, even though you said you were slower this time out.  6-something per mile pace is slow?  I can only dream about having a pace like that, lol.

                         

                        Again, congratulations!

                        "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." Theodore Roosevelt

                          Nice work, congrats on the AG award.

                          wcrunner2


                          Are we there, yet?

                            Well done! Good lessons learned. You don't have to follow every surge or fight off every runner that tries to pass. Observe your competitors. As you saw, their breathing and level of effort can give you clues to whether they can hold that pace or not. In the final analysis it's not your place at the 1-mile or 2-mile split that matters, it's your place at the finish.

                             2024 Races:

                                  03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles

                                  05/11 - D3 50K
                                  05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour

                                  06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.

                             

                             

                                 

                            meaghansketch


                              20 feet or so of elevation gain doesn't seem like much, but I guess it really can be when you're running all out, and when combined with other factors (the competition, the cone turnaround).  Nice work, especially considering the hard workout a couple days prior.  Congrats on getting 5th overall and the masters win!  Nice mention on the website-- amazing that the top two women were both masters runners.

                              tracilynn


                                Congrats and nice read.  The socks look hawt!  You should keep them bc they are sexy.

                                 

                                You always say that you are a heel striker but it doesnt look that way in the pics.  There is one pic that looks a tad heel strike, but just barely.

                                ~~~~~~~

                                Traci

                                 

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