5k Race Report

Well, the "Big Bunny Fun Run" certainly lived up to its name.  There was a guy dressed up in a 'Big Bunny' costume, we ran of course, and the event turned out to be a lot of fun.  

My 15 year old son and I were going to be running and my wife was doing the 2.5k walk w/ a friend.  We arrived about an hour early, and in order to rectify one of the mistakes I made in my first race, we immediately picked up a course map and looked it over.  The course started off w/ a long straight away, made a left turn and then after another turn, another good straightaway followed leading up to a major street (that would be blocked off during the race)  We also noticed that although the course was more or less a loop, the final portion came back to that main street and followed the exact same path back to the finish.  I decided that it would be a good idea to run our warm up out to this main street, marking the mileage at a few points so when we were heading for home, we would know our exact position in relation to the finish.  (and as it turned out, having this info played a role in the finish of the race)

The initial straight away was about 0.17 miles, and the total distance to the main street was almost exactly a half mile.  We jogged to this point and then returned for a nice mile warm up.  After some stretching and a few strides (where I didn't feel all that great) I was ready to go.  

One thing I noticed before the start was that Mr. Superman (the 45 year old 15:50 guy) was surprisingly absent.  Well, if that was the case - this thing might be wide open.  As the name suggests, it's a "Fun Run" w/ an Easter theme - lots of 'running families', several HS kids, parents who are avid runners, etc.  (i.e. - no college guys).  With the perennial winner not here this year, no one had any idea what sort of time you'd need to win this thing.  

My son, Michael is currently running track where as a sophomore he has twice run 5:00-flat miles (one was literally computer timed at 5:00.05 - damn that's close!)  His friend Jesse (the top sophomore X-country runner in his HS, but a bit out of shape at the moment) would be another one to watch.  At the starting line, I began to look over the rest of the competition.  A couple guys certainly looked the part - one guy had these super tight racing shorts and this wacko open back type top.  You better be pretty damn good if you're gonna race in that, I figured - so I penciled him in as one to watch out for.  (he turned out to be a poser BTW)  A few other guys looked pretty good as well.  Should be interesting.

Another thing I found interesting about this race - as the announcers always say, "slower runners please start more towards the back", but typically no one ever goes along.  In this race, a couple guys who I know run low to mid 18's lined up a good 6-8 feet from the starting line BEFORE anyone came in in front of them.  Wow - low 18 guys voluntarily starting in the 3rd row?  Pretty cool.  I got up in front w/ my son to the left of me, and his friend Jesse to the right.  The horn sounded and we were off.

First thing I noticed was that the crappy feeling I had during the strides was nowhere to be found.  Second thing I noticed was that although I felt totally comfortable and relaxed, I was in front.  I took a quick peak back to see Jesse right behind me.  As we made the turn after the long straightaway (about 300 yards in) I took a look down at my pace thus far:  4:44, gonna need to reign that in.  About 1/3 of a mile in, my son Michael joined us, and it was me, Jesse and Michael 1-2-3.  Jesse didn't have a watch, so I told him I'd call out our splits.  After about 3/4 of a mile I asked them to take a look back to see if anyone else was close.  "There's two guys back there" came the reply.  A short time later I called out the mile-1 split (course was not marked), 5:25 - and at this point I clearly remember saying to myself, "damn, I feel fantastic".  

About a quarter mile later, Jesse began falling off and I thought Michael did as well as I felt like I was alone.  Just me and the truck in front it seemed.  Where this presented a problem (if you can call it that) was that it was difficult to maintain pace.  I'd look down at the watch to see a pace of 5:40 and say, "damn pick it up - don't lose focus" - and then I'd promptly take it back to about 5:32 w/ no problem.  I found it hard to press-press-press w/ no one in front of me.  

As I got close to the 2-mile mark, we had a few zig-zag turns which allowed me to more easily take a look behind.  Somebody else was closing in on me and now in 2nd place.  I went through mile #2 in 5:39.  I still felt OK, but no longer "fantastic".  This guy continued to gain ground, and with slightly less than a mile to go, he was right behind me.  I figured he might pass, but he didn't.  I soon realized the guy was just drafting.  

As we headed for home I could feel a 3rd person now in the mix, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was Michael.  I called out, "good job Michael, stay with it".  

Now, w/ this guy immediately behind me for a few minutes I was able to pick up a few things:  #1 - his breathing was better than mine - not good.  #2 - he was drafting pretty well, so I took that to mean he probably had a fair amount of experience - not good.  #3 - he didn't look like one of those wispy rail-thin distance runners  (i.e - this guy looked like an athlete who probably had some solid finishing speed) - not good, and #4 - he was likely younger than me - again, not good.  

At this point, I kept looking for that marker of the main street to know when we had exactly a half mile left - I'd just bide my time until then.  When we got to the 1/2 mile to go point I decided to pick up the pace to see if I could separate myself from him.  No luck, he picked it up and stayed right w/ me.  As I suspected from his better breathing pattern - he was probably a better endurance guy than me.  This wasn't going to work.  

On to plan-B.  Slow down.  Sure this would hurt my finishing time, but at this point I was more concerned w/ racing and trying to win than worry about my time.  I figured that he was probably flat out better than me, and my only shot was to slow down, lull the guy into a false sense of security, conserve my strength, and simply out kick him at the end.  I had to think that younger or not, good athlete or not, he was not faster than me.  Of course the potential problem w/ this plan was that faster or not - I simply might not have enough left in the tank to hold him off.  

I could see the final turn approaching - after that it's about 300-320 yards to the finish.  I was still in front, but he was right there.  I hadn't checked my time or pace in almost a mile.  

As we rounded the corner, my plan was to hug the inside of the turn forcing him out wide and dropping the hammer at the same time.  I figured the change of direction plus the huge increase in pace would get me some separation and hopefully demoralize him to the point to where he might not even bother giving chase.  

I executed what I wanted perfectly - as I later discovered looking at the Garmin data I almost immediately dropped my pace from 5:30 to 4:10!  Great plan - but unfortunately, executed at the wrong time.  After about 60 yards or so I just didn't have enough to maintain it and I could feel myself slowing, and what was a substantial separation for a brief moment began to close.  He had clearly started a solid kick, and although he couldn't match the speed, his staying power was much better than mine.  About 180 yards to go and he pulled right alongside me.  By this time I had regrouped enough to send off surge #2 to go back in front.  

It was obvious to me now that I had made a tactical error.  I would have been better off simply maintaining pace - having HIM make the move (after all, I was leading) and if he had waited until there were 150 yards left or less - he would have been toast.  But as they say, the genie was out of the bottle now.

This second surge wasn't as fast and didn't last as long.  With 70-80 yards or so to go he was right alongside me again.  I tried a 3rd surge that again briefly put me out in front, but by now I was running out of gas.  With about 20 yards to go he took the lead for the first time all race - but unfortunately for me, those were the 20 yards that mattered - he edged me by 1-second.  

At the end of the chute w/ us both gasping for breath I congratulated him on the win.  The first words out of his mouth were, "thank you - you pulled me along.  I couldn't have done that w/o you".  Next thing he said was, "I'm sorry - I drafted you the whole way, that was unfair - I should have taken the lead for some of the time"  I said, "hey, don't sweat it, you ran a good race and did what you needed to do to win".  

I discovered later that Calvin was a triathlete, so as I suspected a good all around athlete, and clearly he had much more endurance than I did.  He was just the better guy today, perhaps next year I'll be in better shape and we'll be able to do it again.  Somewhere along the way I realized I had forgotten to stop my watch, so I had no idea what my time was at that moment.  

Michael wound up coming in next in 3rd place overall!!  He ran a great race, especially considering he had just run a 1-mile race the day before.  As we discovered later, he absolutely buried the other kids in the 13-15 age group w/ a time of 17:25!

When the awards were announced I finally got my time - 17:14 and first master.  (the winner was 17:13)

I'll probably post some more thoughts on this race later (geez, this is long enough, no?)  Overall a lot of fun and a good race.  Sure, I'd like to have won, but when one guy is so close to you in ability, it's tough to go wire to wire - and I still think I would have had I been a little more experienced and executed my kick at the right time  (should have waited until the last 100 or so yards - the more time you give the guy w/ better endurance to beat you, the more likely it is he will beat you)  But live and learn I guess.  I was much happier w/ my race and effort this time - I think just a little lack of experience did me in.    

I probably could have shaved a few seconds off my time had the race not turned tactical over the last 1/2 mile - but hey, it's a race after all.  If you need to take a hit on time to execute the tactic that you think will give you the best chance to win, that's what racing's all about I guess.  Bottom line - it was fun, and we had a really good time.

5k on Tap

Similar to the last build, I will be capping off my base training w/ a 5k run.  It just so happens that this time every year there is a pre-Easter 5k "fun run" in town.  This "Big Bunny Fun Run" as it's called, is a nice little event - they also have a walk, a 1k run for the little kids, and a large raffle afterwards where they give away a huge number of prizes.  

Things worked out perfectly here where I was scheduled for a down week, so I took it easy the past few days (the long interval session on Tuesday was the only hard running this week), and I'll be doing the 5k tomorrow!

We have a local masters guy who wins this thing every year.  I believe he's about 45 years old and runs a 15:50.  He's a big time marathoner and ultra runner and has probably banked a good 80 thousand more miles than I have.  (I'm thinking something like 82,000 vs 2,000 - but hey, doesn't that mean I should have fresher legs!?)  Clearly I won't be going out w/ him, but if possible I'll try to keep him in sight for a while.  

I have no idea how the race will go, what kind of competition there will be, etc.  I just plan on going out there and putting in a good effort.  About six months ago I ran my first 5k in 18:03.  Obviously, I'll be looking to improve on that time.  

I'll let you know how it goes.

Training:

Wed, 4/1:  5-miles @ 7:07 pace

Thurs, 4/2:  Off

First Race - Mixed Bag

When I awoke this morning, the little issue w/ my back had improved yet again and I knew it would not interfere w/ my race at all.  No, I was as close to 100% healthy as one could expect.  The weather was going to be nice too - sunny and about 58-degrees for the 9 am start.

The race was at Stanford University - we were going to be running around the walkways on their campus (which is nice) and it was being run by one of their sororities.  (insert your favorite joke here!)

My 15-year old son was going to be running this race w/ me.  He's a Sophomore on the X-country team at HS.  He ran a very tough 8 x 800m in practice on Thursday at about a 2:42 average pace, and followed that up w/ an 11-miler on Friday - so even w/ the off day Saturday this was just going to be a "fun run" for him.  I figured he'd finish in about 19 minutes.

About 120 people entered the 5k.  I made sure I got a good position at the start.  The plan was to go out in 5:40 and then adjust depending on how I was feeling.  I didn't have a specific target time as this was my first road race of any length, but I really didn't want to finish in over 18-minutes if I could help it.  (5:48 per mile)  Being at Stanford, there were a few college runners in the race and I repeated to myself a few times, "don't go out w/ the college kids and get sucked into their pace"  

Gun goes off, or was it a whistle, or just some hung over college girl yelling "GO!!"  Immediately I'm in about 15th place.  I see one college kid moving much quicker than the rest of us and getting to the front very easily.  After about 150 yards I'm in about 12th, quick check of the Garmin says I'm at 5:43 pace - that's fine.  There are about 4-5 guys right in front of me forming a pack.  After about 50-60 yards w/ them I feel like it's too slow - check the watch - 5:55, yup too slow - later boys.  I make my way around the 5 of them and I can see that I'm now in 7th.  Over the next half mile or so I pass a few more and am now in 4th.  The first kid is way the hell out there, 2nd and 3rd are within 10 yards of each other and about 30-40 yards ahead of me.  At the 0.7 mile point we make a 90-degree left turn which gives me a chance to take a quick peak behind me - no one's close - maybe 60-yards.  

And at that point boys and girls, for all intents and purposes, the "racing" phase of today's event (at only the 0.7 mile mark) was over.  Positions 1 thru 4 would not change the rest of the way.  And in fact, none of those positions would even be challenged.  

I come through the first mile in 5:43 (according to the Garmin - there are no mile markers)  A few seconds slow, but w/ all this time to go, shouldn't be a problem.  The goal now is to simply hold the pace - don't lose concentration on this 2nd mile and slow down.  The second kid has now distanced himself from #3 who is still about 40 yards ahead of me.  I try to focus on him to help me keep my pace - closing in on him doesn't seem like a smart thing to do.  

At that point I hear something fall and hit the ground.  As I turn and look, I see it's my car key - shit I forgot to zip up my back pocket!!  Luckily there was an attendant a few yards ahead - I call out to him "hey, can you help me out - I just dropped my car key".  He starts to head down the path as I yell back "thanks a lot".  As I look forward again, the #3 guy is still there - whew, didn't lose much time!

I look down at my pace - 5:43.  Damn this is like clockwork!  Another 90-degree turn (there would be a lot of these - and it isn't pretty at the end) another quick peak back. . . . and there's nobody there.  I take a second look almost in disbelief - nope nobody there at all.  5th place would eventually finish a minute and 17 seconds behind me.  

The unfortunate thing I'm beginning to notice now is that I'm not racing - because there's no one for me to race.  No one's behind me, the kid in front of me is 40-50 yards ahead, and I can't even see the two kids who are ahead of him.  I'm totally alone here and have been for at least a mile.  This is really nothing more than a fast tempo run on Stanford's campus.

I come through the second mile - 5:42.  Good, I had held the pace.  (just like a damn tempo run)  Now what?  Quick assessment of how I feel.  Well, not great but compared to what you're probably supposed to feel like 2-miles into a 5k, I'd have to say pretty good.  Let's try to pick up the pace.  I'd love to start reeling in the #3 guy but he's picked it up too and is now probably 70-yards ahead.  Damn college kids!!  I have the Garmin set to auto-lap each mile so when I check out my lap-pace for mile #3 I see that my pace for the first 1/3 of this mile is now 5:38 - not bad, I'm indeed picking it up.  

This is where the race goes to hell on me in a hurry!  I mentioned a while back that we have a lot of 90-degree turns in this race, I think there are 12 in all. . . . but what I didn't notice when I looked over the course map prior to the race is that the last 5 of these guys are all in the last half mile or so.  And they're not marked!  Making things worse is that there are buildings all over the place now as we run through the campus and we're turning so frequently that I no longer have visual contact w/ the guy ahead of me.  (and like I said, he's only 70-yards or so ahead so that gives you an idea how quickly we're making 90-degree turns)  Also, due to the buildings, I can't locate him after he's made the turn so I'm kind of blind.  Now, they do have a girl at each intersection . . . . but you'd expect them to be holding up huge arrows or something pointing you where to go.  They're not.  Instead, I have to call out to each girl as I approach, "which way!?"  And then they point.  Now I'm not now, nor was I then upset in any way at these girls.  They got their butts up really early on a Sunday morning to host this thing and the proceeds went to charity - so congrats to them for doing a pretty decent job overall - these ain't the World Championships or anything.  The real issue was that lost focus during this time.

So this is where I sort of blew it.  I got so caught up in trying to figure out where to go that I lost focus on what I was doing.  I'm simply not good enough at this point to be running a 5:38 pace after 2.5 miles of a 5k when I'm changing directions every 70-150 yards AND not concentrating on the task at hand.  

Mile-3 comes in at 5:49.  Shit!!  I get my focus back, run the last 0.14 of a mile in 5:37 pace (after one more 90-degree turn).  0.14 you ask?  Yeah - another issue - the course was long.  Afterwards I went up to one of the girls and asked if this was true and she said it was - last year they measured it and it was long; and this year the course is exactly the same.  How much does an extra 0.03 matter?  At my pace it adds 11-seconds.  Finishing time - 18:03  Man I just typed it and I already hate looking at it.  (would have been 17:52 for 3.11 miles)

So my time was wrecked by two factors - one of which I had some control over (losing focus and costing me a good 10-seconds) and one was just that the course was long.  The reality is the time doesn't matter - if the course were short by 0.03 instead, would I be thrilled that the clock read 17:41?  Not really - it's the race I ran that matters.  And my average pace even w/ the loss of focus was 5:44.8 - I can live w/ that for my first race.

So let me look at the things I did well:

#1 - I didn't go out too fast and that's one I was really worried about

#2 - I immediately recognized that I was in a group that was slightly slow and moved ahead

#3 - Nice even pace for the 2nd mile (first 2-miles:  5:43, 5:42)

#4 - correctly evaluated that I could step it up and moved to a 5:38 pace for the first 0.3 of the 3rd mile before I hit the 'maze'.

Now the things I learned:

#1 - If you haven't run the course before STUDY the map carefully!  (I could have saved myself some panic if I knew how many turns there were down the stretch and I wouldn't have needed to talk to the girls had I realized that 4 of the last 5 turns were right hand turns)

#2 - Don't lose focus on what you're doing.  I did such a good job keeping focus during the 2nd mile, but did a very poor job of this at the end.

#3 - EFFORT!!!!  I did NOT race this close to hard enough.  Litmus test - as I came through the shoot and the girl was ripping off the bottom of my bib I was having a nice pleasant chat w/ her . . . about 7-seconds after the finish!!  Shouldn't I be gasping for breath about to fall down??  

After thinking about why this was the case, I came up w/ a few reasons - First, I had no one to race - I was alone from 0.7 miles until the end.  I think the adrenaline disappears when you're racing alone, like I said it almost turned into a tempo run kind of feel.  Second, my only real goal was to finish under 18-minutes and after seemingly banking 11-seconds in the first 2-miles and then picking up the pace from there, I was sure it was already in the bag (and it would have been if the course were 3.11 miles)  So I had no sense of urgency - but next time, screw it - lesson learned:  when there is no sense of urgency, CREATE ONE!!

But hell, I did several things right too, and it's just the first race.  If I had to do over again next weekend, I'm pretty sure I pick up 10-12 seconds from effort/focus/lack of panic over where I'm going, and of course another 10-12 seconds if the course length were correct.  Where I went into this thing w/ a slight lack of confidence, I now know I can go 17:4x, hell next weekend - and knowing that gives me some kind of reference point to work around.  

Being that I was the first non-Stanford student to finish, I did win my age group which netted me a nice gift bag of Pete's Coffee I think (I haven't looked yet)

What about my keys??  OK - after finishing I look down the course trying to see where my son was going to finish.  I figure he'll be in any minute and we can go find the guy who "hopefully" has my key.  I see someone come across - not him.  Then a second person - that's him, a nice finish in 6th overall.  I call out to him " hey, we need to go find someone".  He says, "why to get your key?"  As I was about to ask him how he knew that, he opens his hand and there it is!!  Evidently he was in 5th place at the time, saw me look back, noticed the key on the ground and scooped it up on the way!  Problem solved.

I may post some more thoughts on this race later, but I think I've probably bored you guys long enough.  Feel free to tell me what a bozo I was for screwing up the last 0.7 - I welcome any criticism/advice you may have.