Wednesday 072810 Freeman Myre Corporate Challenge 5k

Had a fun time at the Freeman Myre Corporate Challenge 5k tonight.  Pic courtesy of one of my neighbors, Nancy.

Fleet Feet Boulder set us up with entries, and given Peter, Tim, James, Justin were racing, it set us up for a nice get together of sorts (I love getting together with these guys).  Additionally, given that there was prize money on the line, it set up for a bunch of fast guns to roll sub 15, 16 in pursuit.

I knew from the get go I was in waaay over my head.  Sure, elite status for Masters was considered sub 18, but really there is a world of difference between the guys racing sub 16 and the guys racing sub 18. 

Let’s see … the commute to this race took … umm, 5 minutes down 287?  I got to the race around 5:45, and immediately saw the ambassador of Fort Fun, Nick Clark.  Got to connect with him, and his family  a bit and several others.   Saw Jayson and Bryan D from work as well who were out to watch.  Also met Aaron.  Watched the corporate race, which included Simon.

As I warmed up, I suddenly became ridiculously aware of how ill prepared I was for this event.  Okay, I understand I am not preparing for an event like this, but I felt crazy out of place in terms of preparedness.  Suddenly I could feel the load of the miles over the last four days (29, 7, 16, 6 this AM) and the lack of specific work I had done.

Ah, whatever.  I had to set context.  No high expectations here, and I decided I get out with some of my peers, roll with it and expect to blow up in the later half.  Jayson informed me that I’d need to average 5:38s to be sub 17:30.  I had thrown out there that sub 18 would be about where I’d expect to be (given other 5k performances), and 17:30 would be a bit off the charts.  I figured I’d get out faster than that 5:38, expect it to hurt and see what happened after that.  That would not set up for my best race, given the nature of this event – it seemed to be appropriate.  Sure.

We were set up for three loops of about a mile each – with each containing 2 turns of 180 each.  We had a count down and were off.  I knew within 200 meters, it was too fast, but was in contact with Timmy and Nick and decided to roll with that for as long as I could.  Plus, it was a slight down hill to start.  We came through the quarter at 78 and the half at 2:40.  Yeah, a bit hot for me given where I am.

At the mile (5:27), Tim and Nick had begun to build some daylight on me, and I knew I was soon to be running alone.  Well sort of.  I could see them and I could see the leaders ahead of me on the turn arounds.  And I could see the elite women gaining on me (as they had started a minute behind us).

At a mile and a quarter, I knew I was drowning.  The occasional glance at my watch revealed paces over (ack) six minute pace.  Damn.  Did I really use to run faster than this for a half marathon not too long ago? 

Somewhere in a 5k, there is that feeling of hurt nausea, “why the hell am I doing this shouldn’t I take up competitive rock skipping? feeling that washes over you.  Go out too fast and this sentiment comes at a mile, mile and a quarter.  Go out more conservatively and it sneaks up on you at two miles.  That difference of three to five minutes can seem like a lifetime in the middle. 

Two miles were hit in 11:19 (5:52!).  That was a long middle mile.

I guess I got what I signed up for – a tough effort.  I think if I were out there alone, I would have folded and called it at two miles.  But this was a race, and hell there were people watching – right?  Yeah, stupid ego pride I know but it gets pretty basic like that in the middle.   That said, it was also motivational to see folks like Justin, James, Tim pour it on ahead of me.  I noticed Peter behind me, and got a bit nervous that he was setting up to kick me down.

I could see and hear the women closing, but I was not overly worried about this.  Clearly they were running faster than me, and they’d probably split finish ahead of me given the staggered start.

Just before the last turn around, I was caught by the lead woman, and a kid very much younger than me (who had run a smarter, more evenly paced race).  Not much of a kick coming in, but I was able to pick it up some.  Lots of folks out, so it kept you somewhat honest.  I could see the clock ticking and was surprised to see it in the low 17s as I ran down the final straight.   The third mile split came in at a fading 6:01 (pic courtesy of Nancy, one of our neighbors)

GPS data read the race at 3.01 miles.  Dang.  That would put me right at 18 for a true 5k.  No real PR here.  There was some discussion of consolidation that while the course may have been short, the hairpin turns might make it a wash in terms of time. 

On whole, however, I am happy with the effort.  This is my third race of the month (and three races in a month has not happened in a really long time), and probably my last race before some event on some mountain somewhere down south some time next month.  The whole thing did get me thinking about chasing 5ks for a bit.  They are short enough that you can pull them out every weekend, and I obviously have a challenge to get myself back into the 16 range.

Post race was fun, as I got to spend a bit of time b.s.ing with Nick and his family, catching up with a few others, sipping some Avery IPA and then heading out for decent cool down with James and Tim.  As there were four masters in the race, and I was able to keep ahead of Peter, I got the third spot, and a win a voucher for a pair of PI shoes (excellent!)  13 miles on the evening.

Good times posted by folks across the board too.  Results buried in here.

Nick’s report.
RunColo report, with video
Aaron Kennard report, with good pix.