Last night we met up with some friends in Louisville and played CTF. I wore the GPS and HR monitor – just to see what the effort was (but not count it). As it turned out, it was a bit over two miles and most of it was HR less than a 100. I was playing pretty half heartedly as I felt tired. In the middle of the game, as I was making way for a jailbreak, I got walloped by one of the teenagers who was playing. It sent me into the dirt – opened up my nearly healed knee cut from the bike wreck last month at Pikes. I was rattled a bit but no biggie. But by the time I went to bed – my left hip was tightening up pretty painfully. A night of sleep helped but it was troublesome through the night.
On a whim, I decided to race a local low key 5k down the street. Literally down the street. It was a 1.3 mile jog for me over to the registration start. Given the tight hip, an ascent on Green yesterday, and more importantly – little work to prep for a 5k as of late – I had no expectations. I had mentioned the possibility of this race to JW earlier in the week, and I had serious doubts if I could hold near six minute pace since other than strides – nearly all of the work I have done has been no faster than 8 minute pace. I completed the warm up of 3 miles and got to the line with about two minutes to go and lined up in the second row without issue.
Small experiment for this race: I wore an IPOD. I am pretty sure that I won’t do this for any race ever again – at least at this sort of distance. I had Tool playing but the entire time it seems as if I did not hear it as I was thinking pretty intently otherwise. I also seemed to not pick up other elements of the race that I like – namely the sound of your competition.
A small crowd lined up for the start and we got off. The eventual winner was out like a rocket – and so he led wire to wire. I worked up to a pace that I felt comfortable at over the next hundred yards and this put me in about 6th place. As we turned off the main road to the bike paths, a couple folks, including the lead woman, came back to me and I was then in third. About a minute later, I slipped into second – and was concerned. I glanced at the watch a few times before this. The HR was okay - (low 170s) but the pace looked too fast. I saw a 5:12 which I knew was reflective of either the GPS having a “kind” moment or that I needed to get it under control quick. 5ks have never been about how I feel in the first mile – I always feel good. They are about surviving the last mile, and you can make that very difficult with a first mile that is over your head. Under different circumstances, this mile would not be over my head, but it definitely now.
In second, I was about 40 yards behind the leader and about 20 ahead of a couple of folks. I speculated on going after the leader, but it was clear that he was continuing to move up well. So I did some running / racing in fear of losing a position that I took probably too easy.
We passed the mile in about 5:28. I was pleased to see that the GPS reading was really close to where they marked the mile. II knew this was a bit hot for me, even with the excitement of the start – and a slight downhill over mile 1, but tried to maintain an effort that was consistent. I took the occasional glance back and it seemed that I was getting a bit more daylight between me and the chasers. Mile 2 was 5:49. I knew there had been a slow down because of some of the tight turns and hills in this section (versus the slightly down on mile one), but I knew the slow down was also occurring because of just poor racing tactics (read – out a bit too fast).
Just past mile two, I noticed that the chalk lining that seemed all over the course was suddenly missing. I swung around the north side of the library and then could see the leader on the road ahead in the distance. I came out on the road and could see, now a bit closer, the chasers coming around the south side of the library. I grimaced because I then knew I had gone off course. In the pic below, I should have swung around the outside of the library and the blue line reflects where I actually went.
Very quickly I went through the following thoughts: I was pretty sure that it was a wash and approximately the same distance around either side of the library. When I cross the line, I hope it is still 5k. And if it is, I will tell them they need to scratch me from the results. And I am going run this thing anyway and not go back at this point. I thought about just jogging from here on in to essentially forfeit my position, but that seemed too much like just giving up to me and I was now curious as to what the heck I was going to run for 5k anyway. All this transpired in my little head in about 20 seconds.
No major kick coming in, but with about 3/4 of a mile, I did try to drum up focus that I needed to feel the line and get there. The third mile was a 6 flat, and then I finished up in 18:15. The GPS had the course as a touch long – 3.17. I was sort of glad to see that because I did not want to end up with a short course result. This ends up being a 5:45 average over that distance.
Immediately afterwards, I went to the race official at the line and informed he needed to not include me in the results (they did not take bib tags in the chute – so I could not withhold that). I told him why, he looked at me a bit inquisitively and said, okay – but seemed a bit perplexed by the request. My children greeted me at the line and heard all this and – well, they were pissed (you can see this a bit in their faces in the pic above). JZ looked at my GPS and said, “but you ran the same distance!” I explained to him and KZ that it really didn’t matter – and that I was fine with this. I was also able to tell the next two racers behind me that I had pulled myself out of the results – and they thought it was not necessary and did not make a difference in the race either.
In retrospect, I probably should have gone back and got on the route correctly but then I’d be disappointed in running 3.3 miles rather than 5k. And I am pretty fine with this result – I think it gave me the opportunity to speak with my kids about fairness in competition. Max HR was 185, average HR was 176:
On whole, I am actually pleasantly surprised with the result. While an 18 something is not stellar for me, I seriously thought it would be a much greater challenge for me to get under six given the work I have done. The fall off in pace shows my fitness for that sort of race – but no surprise there. It was good to be back out there … a little rust buster so to speak. And then I can play the excuse game of “well, Green yesterday, tight hip, etc, etc” Nothing tweaked for the worse afterwards – actually did not have those typical post race symptoms of hacking or dead legs.
No warm down afterwards – hit the pancake breakfast with the family and then headed off to soccer games for the kiddos. Got to serve as a line judge for KZ’s game. Was glad I did not need to make any offsides calls.
After looking at the pic above in the PM I was really wondering what the distance difference was and felt very compelled to get back to the course and measure the difference. I went and measured it on Google Earth. The distance I was supposed to go measured as .10 miles (pic on left below). The distance I went was .12 according the GPS and .11 according to Google Earth (pic on right below) Definitely did not change my opinion about forfeiting this my position, but I felt a little more relaxed about the whole thing.
But still, I wanted to get out and see what the difference was. So for the afternoon jog, I went out there again and jogged the circle a couple of times to see what stupid mistake I made and get some GPS data on it. Each time it was .11 or .12 around the back side where I went, and .10 on the correct side (that I missed). 6 miles in the afternoon
