Notes
I'll update this if it turns out I can go by course time, which was 20:37!
It’s been a while since I’ve done a short race. My hope beforehand was that I could say: “A fast 5k is what happens when you run 2 marathons and a 40-miler in 4 months. An injury is also what happens when you run 2 marathons and a 40-miler in 4 months.” The second of the two would be true, either way. I just know that a few weeks post long-race is the best time to go for a short-distance PR, and while I haven’t returned to training, I did keep some kind of fitness (even if my VO2 max dropped 1 from 54 to 53).
I signed up for this shortly after Hungryland when I was still hopeful about end of semester stress and my fitness. My knee hadn’t been injured yet (and if it was [can’t remember precise details about timing], I figured it would heal in time), and I’ve been clocking pretty speedy (for me) times since Hungryland, with a CR on a 0.16 stretch that I’ve targeted many a time over the past 5 years. Track sessions were going well, but it was that first track session a little less than 2 weeks after Hungryland where I think I reinjured whatever I hurt end of December. I decided to still run the race, because taping the knee brought enough relief and I know I still have 2 months before I need to start thinking about building a base for Philadelphia. I don’t want to lose too much fitness during that time, but I can take some time off running and it won’t affect those race plans. My yearly-mileage pace bunny finally caught up with me, but that took about 3 weeks; I know I can make up that distance once I get back to training. Weirdly, though, my knee feels better since Saturday. I taped the knee and maybe it is the shoes and lack of old, old inserts. Maybe I can keep up a good base these next months.
This was another hard week; 50 hours of teaching, grading, and departmental stuff. Thankfully not too much else outside of that, though. Didn’t make it to bed until 12:30 the morning of the race and probably didn’t fall asleep until 20 minutes later. My FitBit tells me I only slept 3 hours, but it was closer to 4. At least my RHR is back down to 52. Pretty close to baseline. First race in a while where I was staying with my folks. After waking up I had a Vietnamese coffee, a few mini Stroop-waffles (closest thing to honey-stinger I had on hand) and a glass of water. Relaxed about 45 minutes at home before driving to the race. Had 45 minutes to warm-up, go to the restroom twice, do some ABCs and strides, take a lemon-lime Gu, and then head to the starting line. I had listened to music for the warm-up, but took the MP3 and earphones off before the actual race.
Mentally, I was feeling anticipatory, but not overly anxious. I told myself what I’d been telling myself all week (when I wasn’t stressing about whether I should run at al): All I could do was try. I hadn’t trained specifically for this race, and while I still had a reckoning with my 21:01 PR from last Sept., if it wasn’t this race, that was fine. But at the same time, I knew the potential was there, as I have just put in an intense training season. So, as I learned on the forum, I didn’t give myself a plan B. Plan A was run 6:45 mpm (sub-21) and stick to it as well as I could.
After the first mile it became clear that the markers were coming too soon, so I already prepared myself mentally for running through the finish line to get to 5k on the watch. I didn’t really count the course markers or my watch anymore after that and just focused on keeping the effort. Whenever the watch beeped the mile time, it threw me off for a second until I reminded myself, “stay focused, Trotter.” Lots of mental games. Ultimately the one that got me through the last .8 mile (started getting hard at mile 2.3--it was quite humid) was that my knee wasn’t hurting, so there was no reason to not give it my all. My watch tells me I sprinted the last .1, but I don’t remember that. I just remember seeing 20:xx on the clock and being like, I HAVE to get under 21—including however long after the finish I’d have to sprint.
I did go under 21 for the first time today, crossing the finish line at 20:37 and carrying on for another .1 ish (ugh, so hard, I was done at 3.05) to get 20:55 on my watch. So I’m proud to say sub-21 with and without an asterix (and maybe I’ll get lucky and the course was certified after all).
It may not seem like a bit deal, but to put this into perspective: I started running semi-competitively at age 14, and it took me 9 years to break my high school 5k time, and then another 7 years to break it again and get close to leaving the 21-minute realm. This time it only took me 7 months, so that’s progress in earning PRs. Is it the shoes? Who knows. They felt awfully good. But it’s probably the ultra running. That’s the only major difference in the past year. I guess running long does help. It makes 5k feel like it’s over before you know it; there’s not a lot of time to get mentally messed up. Once it gets hard, even in the first mile, one doesn’t have to hold on for too long (though those seconds can last an eternity sometimes).
Seeing the total lack of strategy for my race, I realize I probably could have gone faster. I was behind a few women for the first 800m, remember passing one (a girl, really), and another about mile 1.5. There was a guy with a toddler in a stroller who was in front of me the whole time, and looked way too relaxed. I kept telling myself, you don’t want a guy with a stroller to beat you (completive jerk side on full display in my mind), but I can’t remember now if he beat me or not. But he did keep me pushing.
But seeing as I want to take a bit of a break from speed work, and then get back to marathon training, I may not have another short race attempt for a while. There’s a 10k happening in July I’d like to join, but we’ll see what things look like at the end of May.
Today was also the day I made it to 479 days of activity, beating my previous 478-day streak from 2018-2019. My last streak marked my longest ever run streak plus a day. Now it symbolizes all the days I exercised with purpose for at least 10 minutes (so ran or walked a mile, rode two miles, went for a swim…there’s a 316 run streak in there as well). Also recently crossed 20,000 recorded lifetime miles. Kind of nice to mark those two things with a 5k PR.
Last detail: I had to rush to get home after this race, so I arranged for a friend to get my award for me and started my cool-down with another friend. As we were going back past the finish, we heard the awards for women OA being called, so I rushed over, got my award, stood there and smiled broadly, and continued for another mile cool-down with the trophy in my hand. Honestly a waste of material… don’t know what I’m going to do with it. But maybe I should appreciate it a little more.