What is this amateur hour?- NE Distance 5k

This past Sunday, I ran in the New England Distance Project Community 5k in Woonsocket, RI.  This race helps provide support for the athletes who are a part of the NE Distance Project, which is a post-collegiate running group.  The group currently has two athletes who receive housing and train locally.  These athletes are working to compete on the national level.  They also hold part-tome jobs, in addition to training, where they serve the community in some way.  I hope that this group, and others like it, continue to grow and be a positive force in their respected communities. 

I was excited for my first opportunity to race a shorter distance post-Boston.  My goal in the 5k is to break 17:00, which comes out to about 5:28/mile.  Earlier in the week I had a very strong workout with my running club.  I ran 3 x mile in 5:35, 5:29, and 5:18.  It felt great to cut the time down through each repeat.  The last repeat, done in 5:18, felt pretty comfortable.  I tucked in behind my coach on the track and ran steadily behind him.  This workout felt smooth.  I also did a light workout on Friday.  I ran 8 x 1:00, with 1:00 rest.  In 15:00 (8:00 hard, 7:00 recovery) I went 2.65 miles.  This equals 5:40 pace overall, including all the recovery.  This means my 1:00 segments were well under 5:00 pace, with the recovery around 7:30 pace or slower.  I felt very good about both of these workouts.  This is the fastest I have been doing mile repeats in training.  I felt confident and determined heading into Sunday's race.  I knew the field would be small and that I would have a chance of competing up front.  I was too certain that I would PR and that everything would go according to plan.

I have always seen myself as a smart runner.  Many young runners go out too fast in road races and this ends up costing them time later in a race.  Last weekend, I ran a half marathon and went through the first two miles in about 5:45 for each of them, before reaching the hills on the course and maintained 6:00 pace throughout the rest of the race.  At the first mile, there were several other runners with me but then they did not run the rest of the race near me.  Many of those runners finished the half marathon with an overall pace over 6:30/mile.  It is not beneficial to go out like this.  The start of a big road race is exciting but there is something to going out right on goal pace or even a little slower.  With this being said, I acted in this exact way on Sunday.  The race began on a downhill and when we were given the starting command I went out hard.  I soon found myself in 4th place.  There were two runners in the lead, and the third just in front of me.  I worked aggressively to bring in this runner in the middle of the first mile.  This is not where races are made and I should not have focused on moving up in place.  I should have stayed within myself and made sure that I would have the energy to carry me to the finish line to reach my desired time.  I hit the first mile in 5:13. 5:13!  My indoor mile PR (which needs to go, only having run one of them) is 5:11.  I could have dropped two seconds if I had really wanted to.  My first mile put me on pace to run

(NE Distance 5k finish)

16:12.  This sounds nice, doesn't it?  The only problem was that I still had 2.1 miles left.  I think I panicked after going through the first mile so quickly and made a conscious effort to slow down.  The course goes up a small hill shortly after the first mile and I backed off pace.  The only problem was that I backed off too much.  My day was over after the first mile.  My legs were gone.  I was out of the race mentally.  I hit the second mile in 5:54.  This is getting closer to half marathon pace, not to mention in marathon training I hit 5 mile tempos at 5:45 pace.  That was the average for a 5 mile workout, not a 3.1 mile race.  I should be able to hold 5:30s or under in a 5k race.  I faded even more in the final mile, splitting 6:53 for the final 1.1 miles (6:12 pace).  Alright, that's right around what marathon pace looked like before Boston.  I finished in 18:03.  Pathetic.  I simply burned myself out early, and in turn, ran my worst 5k result since October.  I know this race was one week after I ran a half marathon, but I'm done making excuses.  I run great times in training and then cannot get it done in races.  I wanted to break 17:00 and could not break 18:00.  Even if I went out too fast, I should not have slowed as dramatically as I did.  It's frustrating.  I feel like I've wasted months of great training by not racing to my potential.  I feel like I keep failing.  I want to compete at a higher level.  I want to run faster times.  I need to prove to myself that I can do this and that all of the training I do is worth it.  I, however, just keep putting up very average times to me.  I feel like I'm letting Team David down.

David