Notes
Well... this morning's 5K was nothing I hoped it to be with the exception of some incredible pace I managed to put out. It was probably the smallest race I ever ran in my life with 32 finishers. I fully expected to win this one and I didn't even place first in my AG!
It was a new race that my friend Demery, who runs a timing company, told me about way back in February. He said it was going to be a small race and they're actually putting $100 prize money out there for overall winner and he said no one of interest would show up and I should run it just to win it. I told him that I might consider it but given that it was a mere 2 weeks after my second marathon in 2 weeks I wasn't sure if racing it was such a good idea. So I held off on pre-registration and waited until race day morning to see how I feel. So I felt good this morning, Demery told me they had 20 pre-registered runners and nobody fast registered. So I show up and as soon as I get out of the car I see Heinz, a guy who's 23 and used to run 33 minute 10K in college just a year ago. I was like "well there goes the win". He's still in school and broke as one can be so I figured he needed the $100 more than I did so I told him as long as he paces me for a PR I'll let him outkick me at the end. He said we'd just have to see how things go but that's fine with him although he's not a good pacer :-).
Then someone pointed out another guy who can run 16 minute flat any day of the week. So now both me and Heinz are sweating the win. I less so than him, I kind of settled into the notion that I wasn't going to win so my only hope is that I would at least run a decent time on a good course. It was a simple 4 turn rectangle that was supposed to be fairly fast. So I inquire from the organizer whether the course is accurate. It's not a certified course but I trust Demery and his dad, Ricky that the course would be accurate. Ricky assures me that it was a bit short due to some last minute changes but it is accurate now within 20 yds. That's good enough for me.
We all toe the line and w're off. I'm trying to hang with the 16 flat guy, Heinz is right behind me and we have another, short older hispanic guy running in the lead. As we're making our first turn I start to feel that the pace is a bit much for me so I slow it down on the coming uphill a bit while the other three leave me in the dust. I settle in knowing that I'll finish 4th and I'll have to run the remaining 2.1 miles all by myself. Another half mile later my arms were getting really heavy and I felt they were about to fall off. This is where I realize that it's been almost 10 months since I ran a 5K race and I completely forgot how ridiculously painful and hard these races were. I try to shake off the arms but the pain remains. I'm trying to concentrate on not losing much more ground from the guys in front of me. Heinz was falling off the leaders by this point so I'm starting to feel bad for him not getting the $100 to get him some food.
We finally turn back, I ran the last 1 mile of the course as my warm-up so I know when I should start kicking. I do and I run towards the finish seeing that the clock is just turning 16. I cannot believe it! I ran 16:16, a 68 second PR from last summer with absolutely zero speedwork. I ran nothing but easy recovery runs for the past two weeks and I haven't run any kind of speedwork since October, 2011. I can only imagine what I could run if I actually put in the time and effort to train for a 5K.
So I didn't win the race, I only got second in my AG as 16 minute guy was a 33 year old and the age groups were 30-39. He got second overall so he won our AG. The hispanic guy turned out to be a 41 year old guy who could run 2:14 marathons back in the day. I don't feel too bad about getting beat by him. I guarantee you this was one of the fastest small races ever and only becaue there was $100 on the line. The hispanic guy and 16 flat guy drove 50 miles for this one.
But the real kicker was the fact that the course ended up being short. Despite the fact that I trusted Demery to measure the course accurately this morning the fire marshal crossed their planning by not allowing the race to run down to the last intersection and forced the race into the parking lot. This caused a last minute scrimage which ended up with the course being only 3.01 miles long. So my 16:16 is really the equivalent of a 16:53 5K which would still be a 30 second PR which I'll gladly take. Not the race I hoped for but a race that I'll take.