Irish 5k

(Pawtucket, RI)

It's March!  I know I have not been posting much lately but I have been very busy.  I have been eating away at high mileage weeks and completing marathon specific workouts each week.  I ran the Irish 5k this past weekend on Saturday.  The goal was to run it as a workout and to make my long run on Sunday a little bit tougher.  I have this thought that I have mentioned plenty of times before.  I want to get faster at shorter distances to give me the confidence to run faster marathons.  The problem right now is that I am not taking any time out of my training plan for Boston to rest or taper for a short distance race.  I went into the race last Saturday at the end of a 90 mile week.  I doubled the day before the race!  To run well at Boston, I decided it would be more important to make sure I get to 90 miles as opposed to resting before the race.  With this being said, my immediate goal in the 5k is to run sub-17:00.  I know this is possible.  I also know that I have been in marathon training.  It is difficult to hold 5:20-5:30 per mile, but I can hold 5:40 pace for 6 miles (as evidenced in my recent tempo runs).  I went into the start of the race with the ambitious goal to break 17:00 on tired legs, in the middle of marathon training.  Sounds feasible, right?  Wrong.  When the gun went off, I was determined to not get "trapped" behind people at the start.  I sprinted out behind the leaders and the pace was going very fast.  After about a quarter of a mile I found myself in about 5th place but losing all of the energy I had in me very early in the race.  At this point, there is a decent sized hill that takes you to about a half mile and then the course flattens out.  This climb got me, less than three minutes into the race.  I worked hard early on in this 5k race to try and maintain pace, rather then keeping an even effort on the hills.  There is a nice downhill section leading into the first mile, which I hit in 5:26.  This was on target for my goal time, but I worked too hard to get there.  The second mile starts with a half mile climb, before you make a left and go down a street to a turnaround.  This mile felt terrible.  I ran the first mile off the hip of another runner and he started to gap me during this mile.  When I finally reached the second mile mark, my watch read 5:53.  5:53!?  That's slower then what I hope to average for a half marathon.  For the third mile, which is downhill, I split 5:34.  Then, it was time for the big finish.  I had been beginning to kick since the last half of the third mile, but really started to sprint from the 3 mile mark.  When I crossed the line, the clock said 17:42.  The curious thing, however, is that my split from mile 3 to the finish (the .1) said 48.72 seconds.  That comes out to a modest 8:07 pace.  This is obviously wrong.  My finishing kick should be in the high twenty to low thirty second range.  I mapped out the course after the race and calculated in to +- 3.18 miles.  That kind of inaccuracy in a 5k hurts someone like me trying to hit a certain time and is disappointed being just a few seconds off.  I think the second mile might of been a little long too, because I did not think I had run that slow and I certainly would not have run the final mile twenty seconds faster.  A 3.18 mile course would put my 5k time at 17:17.  That would have been a new pr, but for now it remains 17:24.  My finishing time for the Irish 5k was 17:42, good for 9th place overall.  I'll take being in the top-10!  My lasting thought for this race is to not place so much emphasis on reaching a particular time.  I ran well and then got in a 20 miler on Sunday, averaging an even 6:40 pace for it.  My goal is for Boston, not in a local 5k weeks before it.  I need to enjoy training and let things come.  I have been working hard and I will have other opportunities to set new personal bests.  One of the local clubs, the Western Mass Distance Project, always says to "respect the process."  These are good words to train by.  Good races will come and there is no reason to be discouraged if you are doing your best.  My next race is the New Bedford Half Marathon.  It is in just a week and a half.  This will be my chance to prove myself at a distance I like much better.  I have not tested myself at the distance since October.  New Bedford is just four weeks before Boston and will really help to indicate what I should target for marathon pace.  I am eager to "let it rip" and just try to run fast out there!

David