I've been putting off writing this race report long enough. At first I had the excuse that official results weren't out until Wednesday evening, but now that it's Friday that's obviously not the real reason I've been procrastinating. Honestly, I'm disappointed with my race and it's been easier just not to deal with it.
Official time: 40:39
That happens to be the exact time that I ran in 2005. Since my watch read 40:40, I was actually a little relieved to have at least officially matched my PR. Funny how one or two seconds in either direction could affect how I feel!
The race started fine. I felt relaxed in the first kilometer and even wondered if I was running too slowly. My 1k split of 3:51 told me I was exactly where I wanted to be. I crossed the 1-mile banner in 6:24. Again, I thought I was in fine shape, slightly under my 6:26 per mile goal pace. But my 2k split was 4:08. I had slowed down without even realizing it!
I determined to get back into it and buckled down, running the next (uphill) kilometer in 3:59. Perhaps it was a mistake to push that hard, as the course continued climbing. Kilometer 4 went in 4:12. Now I was a little concerned. I had told myself it was ok to run as slow as 4:05 on the uphills, and now I'd gone over that twice. I was on the verge of oxygen debt, and tried to keep myself just below that threshold.
As I approached the halfway point, I saw the banner up ahead and quickly glanced at my watch. It looked like I was back on schedule. Then I realized I was looking at the 3-mile banner, not the 5k mark. I passed 3 miles in 19:42 and 5k in 20:17.
I knew I'd really have to work for it now. To run a sub-40 I would need to run the second half in 19:43. There was a net loss of elevation on this half, but there were still two tough hills.
Before the race I told myself over and over: kilometers 4 and 6 are the tough ones. If you can minimize your losses there, you'll be in good shape. Even with that mental preparation, I couldn't get my legs to turn over fast enough.
Number 6 went by in 4:17, way slower than goal pace.
I knew my goal was probably out of reach, and it was a horrible feeling. Running for a PR was the only thing to keep me motivated now. At least I had a nice downhill after Casey Hill at mile 4. I was happy to see my legs speeding up with the gravity assistance, and I ran K-7 in 4:02. K-8 followed in 3:56, which felt encouraging. I was hurting for real now, and trying not to give away any spare seconds.
I turned onto Folsom for the homestretch, and turned it on as best I could. The final hill to the stadium felt slow, but I consciously took shorter, faster steps and pumped my arms hard. In the stadium now, I gave it everything. Just 200 meters to go. I crossed the finish line and stopped my watch. The announcer was saying, "Keep moving through the chutes, there are thousands of runners behind you." But I barely had enough left to put one foot in front of the other.
Now that it's over, I feel ambivalent about the race. On one hand, I'm proud of myself for putting in the base miles, researching and creating a full-fledged training program, and for sticking to it. I'm also happy that I took 30 seconds off my all-time 5k PR. But of course I'm disappointed that I didn't make my sub-40 goal at the Bolder Boulder. And I feel that I've somehow let down those who may have been rooting for me. I wanted it, I went for it, but I didn't get it.
Not yet, anyway.
I will keep trying for the sub-40, but unlike previous years, I won't wait until the next Bolder Boulder. I'm going to look for another race in a month or so and try again.
Meanwhile, the question remains: after nearly doubling my running volume and following a carefully-researched training plan for the first time ever, why could I only manage to match my PR? The truth is, I averaged 14.7 miles per week in the ten weeks leading up to my 40:39 Bolder Boulder result in 2005. This year, I averaged 27.9 miles per week over the last ten weeks. The differences are even larger when you look at weeks 20 to 11 leading up to each race. In 2005, I averaged only 8.9 miles per week. This year, 24.9. As for quality workouts, this year exceeded 2005's efforts in every way. In 2005, my "long run" was 6.6 miles. This year, I ran at least an hour and a half long run every week. In 2005, I did one hard workout (5k race or intervals on the track) each week for the last 7 weeks. This year, I completed at least 2-3 tough track workouts or races each week.
Maybe there is something to that last point. Perhaps I was doing too much speed work? I don't know. It certainly made me faster at the 5k distance than I've ever been. Or maybe it had nothing to do with my training. Perhaps the fact that 2005 was a cold, rainy day made me that much faster relative to my fitness on that day. This year's race was not exactly hot, but it was sunny and warmer. I might never know the answer, but I think as long as I keep running, I'll keep learning.
Now, on to the stats for this race...
Kilometer splits (from my watch):
- 3:50.8
- 4:08.2
- 3:59.4
- 4:11.8
- 4:06.5
- 4:16.8
- 4:02.2
- 3:56.1
- 4:02.3
- 4:06.2
And mile splits (from the chip timing):
- 6:24
- 6:29
- 6:49
- 6:44
- 6:18
- 6:39
Even though I didn't negative split, I was at least happy to see mile 5 (not mile 1) was my fastest. And I ran the final two-tenths of a mile to the finish in 1:16, which is 5:56 pace. My overall place was 629th out of 50,816. Incidentally, over 500 runners broke 40 minutes at this year's Bolder Boulder!
No comments:
Post a Comment