Notes
5k at Jim Duncan Invitational. This race didn't go well. It may actually have been as bad as I have felt in a race since Regionals senior year. I knew I had been running more the last couple weeks and had some tired legs because of it, but typically that just goes away while racing. Today it just led to my back and abs tightening up though.
I was in the fast heat and got out in the middle back of the pack as we went through the first lap in 71. I knew it would settle in after that so I wasn't too worried. Shortly after that a gap started to grow in front of the guy in front of me. I still could tell the pace was right for me so I was fine to let the pace go and hoped my group wouldn't slow down a ton. We didn't, and actually ended up running basically my target pace for the first mile (4:55). The problem was that I could already tell I wasn't feeling good. And not simply tired, my back was tightening up and I was starting to feel it in my abs as well which was making me feel sick. So I started to slip to the back of the race. as I ran 78 and 79s for most of the middle mile. I seriously considered dropping out as I fell to last in the race and was thinking I might end up running over 16 minutes. Plus the pain was making it very difficult to even focus on the race. I just kept telling myself to see how I felt after the next lap and after I finally got to a mile to go I knew I needed to finish if I had come that far. Even though I wasn't feeling any better I started to pick it up a little since I knew I would be done soon. It wasn't much but dropping a second each lap led to me catching a decent number of guys coming back to me. I finished decently but didn't really have anyone to catch and my back was getting so tight that I couldn't really focus 100% on trying to run fast. I was able to bring my time back under 16 which was nice and end up running at least a time I can accept.
Overall, I'm not sure if it was the extra training the last two weeks, the warmer temperatures, not enough food and water, or just not being ready to race, but it was a very tough day. In the end I'm really happy I stuck it out though and, honestly, kind of pleased with the time considering how bad I felt. I know that isn't anywhere near my fitness since I was basically just trying to survive/finish instead of actually racing, so I'm confident I should be able to run much faster at the next one. The current increase in miles might not help the next couple of races but I want to try to get back to running more and hopefully it will payoff in the future. On the plus side, it was fun to watch Nutmeg get in a win on the Drake track.
71 - 74 - 73 - 75 (4:55)
76 - 79 - 78 - 79 (10:09/5:14)
78 - 77 - 76 - 73 (15:16/5:07)
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