Saturday 112010

II got word of fellow Fleet Feet team mate Rich D  participating in his company’s 5k.  It was open to the public, close, and cheap – so I decided to jump in.  Plus, there were turkey’s to be won, so why not.  I had considered the Brighton 5k, but this worked better as the family was heading to the CU –KSU game in Boulder.  My father in law is a K-state grad and we thought it would be cool for him to see them at Folsom for what might the last time they play there for a long time.  Any case, it was a lot quicker at the Brighton race (see Justin report).

It was a bit colder than I expected it to be – in the low 30’s at the start, with a lot of humidity hanging around.  I did a short (1.75 mile) warm up with Rich.  I spied a younger guy doing some pretty snappy strides, and with a form that set of my spidey sense.  Given this was a low key event, I had contemplated hanging back a bit and then pushing it up in the last mile.  Seeing this guy, I knew I did not want to have him around in the last mile, or even worse – the last 200.  So, when “go” was called, off I went and was out leading in pretty short order.  By three quarters a mile, I knew I was a bit over my head, but I also knew Rich and this guy were in close pursuit.  Shortly after we pulled into the second of three laps, the kid (Darren, 24) and Rich passed me.  I made a conscious effort to try to hang on for a bit, but it was too rich for me.  Darren began to put some daylight between him and Rich and Rich got about 20 yards on me over the next three quarters of a mile. 

I made another conscious effort to reel Rich in – specifically to not too far back into no man’s land and a place where I’d just thrash, and he actually started to come back to me.  I caught him just about at 2 miles, debated on passing him for a bit and so we ran even.  As we pulled into the third lap, I figured I better make a push now, because I did not want to end up in a kick down with Rich (who ran 1:51 at one point for the 800).  I played a game of surging for a hundred strides (left foot), lost count a couple of times, relaxing for a short stretch and then picking it up again.  I was able to hold him off for second place (by 20 seconds) and the masters win.

The course was long – 3.3 according to Rich and my GPS came up a bit shy of that, but definitely long for a 5k.  All good – I got what I came for:  a bit of racing, a good workout and a turkey.  I still have a good amount of work to do to get to that sub 17 thing I have yapped about.  I averaged 5:49 pace, off of 5:39, 5:58, 5:57 miles.  The finish was in 18:46.  It turned out to be about 5:48 pace average.  Ugh.  Seems pretty clear to me that 17 is a ways off (and given that, it might be easier to just concede a six pack to the hairy lumbering mountain jogger Brit)  and that I need to get work out there where I get out, and then hold on.

 

Warmed down a bit with some guys I have not seen in a long time, including Dave Dooley and Jim Reynolds.  Then I picked up my turkey and ran up the creek path to meet the family for the game.  Running with a 15 pound frozen bird in my back pack might have been harder than the race. 

13 miles on the day.

Peter Gilmore rants:  If the most common question I get asked is, “How do I run a fast marathon?”, the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th... most common questions have something to do with diet, running form, sleep, footwear, stretching, weights; anything but actual running.