Weather – 36 degrees, cloudy, windy. Rain/snow.
Woke to poor racing weather, but since it was expected, it did not bother me, I put away thoughts of time and focused on battling the elements.
The previous night I felt my nervous excitement reach levels that were perhaps too high strung. I plugged into my iPod and listened to a 19:40 piece by Philip Glass, and I ran a 5k in my head as I listened to the music while laying in bed. I felt pretty spent after this mental exercise, so I went into my study and meditated for a few minutes. Before falling asleep I read a good book on 5k/10k training, but this seemed to bring the nervous tension back. I dozed off and slept deeply for 8 hours.
I ran to the race site, which happened to be the midpoint (2.5 miles) of my route to the Zendo. I tried to monitor my energy level as I ran, I did not feel good, but I did not feel bad either. Snow/Rain was falling, making the streets bright and smooth, it felt refreshing to gaze at the long lines of car lamps reflected in the river-like asphalt. I felt like I was going too slow, and wondered why. Perhaps it was the weight of jacket, 3 shirts, hat, gloves, and sweats? When I got to the registration tent I turned around and realized I had been running into a stiff wind during the entire jog, which made me feel better about my speed and neutral feelings. I went inside the hospital (Christie Clinic was the race sponsor) and pinned my number and warmed up a bit. I took a 5k race map and headed outdoors to run a bit of the course. I came across a schoolyard and did 4 x 75M accelerations. They felt fast, and I was starting to feel good. The final mile of the course is a straight shot to the finish, with the wind at my back. I ran about 400M at race pace, my confidence gaining with each stride.
When I was standing at the start line I realized I had left my gloves inside with my sweats and jacket. My hands were already going numb, but with only 2 minutes to race time I stuffed them in my shorts pockets and tried to forget about it. Unlike the last 5K I ran a few weeks ago, I positioned myself near the front, so that I would not have my pace interrupted by slower runners. The horn sounded and I was immediately passed by a throng of runners. For 200M I was passed and passed. I couldn’t believe it when Don from 2nd wind passed me, he ran 24:47 at the Earth Wind and Fire 5k. Either he had done a massive amount of interval training in the past 4 weeks or he was going out over his head. I rechecked my pace, I was fine, actually a bit too strong, so I did not panic, although it did not make me feel confident seeing 30-40 runners surging ahead of me. After 600M I felt my pace pick up, and it was a good thing that I had forgotten my gloves, because the cold feeling in my fingers made me think that I was constantly being slapped in the face, and this caused my nervous energy to stay at a high level. At 800M I was going even faster, and as I began passing the runners who had passed me earlier, I saw they were slowing down. As I passed Don he was talking with another runner, and slowing appreciably. I sometimes wonder about the tactic of surging at the beginning of a race - what purpose does it serve if one slows down permanently after 1000M? At the one mile mark I had passed all the fakers, leaving about 10-12 runners ahead of me. I checked my watch and was hoping to see 6:10-6:15, but instead it read 6:32. This depressed me, I had run the same mile split in the last 5K, where I ran 20:15. Was I headed for another similar effort? With all of the good training I had been through in the past month, that did not seem right, but the split time does not lie. As we made a turn off the long straight, I realized I had once again forgotten to account for the wind. The first mile was kicked directly into the fists of a 15-20mph wind. I felt better after realizing that I ran a 6:32 mile in those conditions. I knew I would soon be turning around and have it at my back. At about 2000M a man pulled up beside me and looked like he was going to pass, but as he took a few steps ahead of me he slowed his pace and we remained equal. Watching him for 50M I realized I should tuck in behind him. He should have gotten behind me, but since he missed his chance, I decided I wasn’t going to miss mine. He did not seem to mind blocking all that wind for me, and I tried to run the pace on autopilot, waiting for the turnaround, which would soon be upon us. I sensed he was trying to shake me because he was slowly increasing the pace, but it was not enough to make me let him go. I was starting to labor a bit but I knew I would soon be feeling very good. We caught a swift moving slender female and we ran in a line of 3. We reached a 100M downhill at the turnaround, so the wind was now at our backs. I thought of the downhill sprints I had worked on in the past few weeks and I let the brakes off, quickly passing the 2 runners I had been following. I was probably running this downhill at 5:30 pace. When it flattened out I slowed a bit, but not too much, the wind was really pushing me along. When I got to the final mile straightaway I started to push the pace. I passed a runner, and saw another about 200M ahead of me. I did not think I would catch him, so I put my head down and started grinding/smoothing the pace. With a half mile to go I surprisingly passed this runner, I seemed to be really moving because he was out of my sight in a heartbeat. I worried that I was going too fast, I still had 800M to go, and I was already in top gear, but I felt in control and it was great having my legs in full stride. With 400M to go I turned my head to see if anyone was making a move on me, but the closest runner was about 100M away. I was safe, but I increased the pace anyways. With about 200M to go I started going anaerobic, but was able to hold my form and had a strong sprint into the chute as the clock clicked 19:13, which meant I had PR’ed by 7 seconds. I was able to recover in 1-2 minutes, and after watching a few runners finish, I took a 1 mile jog. I felt strong on my jog, as if my body was expecting more training. That made me smile.
From the race site I decided to run 1.5 miles to the Zendo, and I meditated for one hour, which calmed my body and mind. I then ran 3 miles back to town, which gave me 12 miles for the day. #148 z.m. - #62 | 