Last night I had my third attempt of the year at the 5k distance. All three have been at the Dash and Dine race series at the Boulder Reservoir. It's a great little race series -- for $15 you get a race, gear prizes for the top 3 or 4 in each category, and a nice BBQ dinner.
The weather cooperated (finally), and it was 66 degrees, sunny, and calm. No whitecaps on the lake; only the occasional riffle from a light breeze. I knew tonight was going to be the night for me to break 20 minutes for the first time.
As I started my warmup, I noticed a pair of osprey cruising at treetop level along the shoreline. Such beautiful birds. I took it as a good sign.
I ran at an easy pace past the one mile mark on the course, then turned around at about the 1.25 mile point. On the way back I picked up the pace slightly and then added five 20-second strides. Total warmup: 2.5 miles in 21:46 (8:42 pace).
Just before the race starting time I saw someone I'd met briefly from my climbing days, a guy named Tony.
"I need someone to pace me," he declared.
"How fast are you running?"
"I'm shooting for 19:50," he said. It turns out he had already run two sub-20 5ks that week, but both were between 19:50 and 20 minutes, and he wanted to break 19:50 in order to qualify for the 2nd wave at the Bolder Boulder. It sounded perfect, except I was thinking I should use him as my pacer!
The only problem was that he had already run that morning and then played ultimate for an hour at lunch. That's in addition to the two sub-20 5k races he'd run that week. He mentioned his legs felt like wood.
The race started, and as usual, I tried to go fast but not too fast. Tony loped past me and called out, "You've got to go faster, Mark."
Well, I've never broken 20 minutes, and he's already done it twice in one week, I thought. So he must know what he's doing! I sped up and kept the gap between us at about twenty meters. I was feeling quite good, breathing relatively hard, but not in pain. As we approached the one mile mark I noticed that the gap was closing gradually. I passed the cone just a few steps behind him and glanced at my watch. 6:08.
That was fast, but I still felt pretty good. Since this is an out-and-back course, the 2-mile cone is only a tenth of a mile past the one mile cone. I caught Tony a little after that.
"You're going to have to run a huge negative split," he yelled, disappointedly. "We're way off the pace."
It took me a second to register what had happened. He thought the 2-mile cone (for the return trip) was our 1-mile marker. Thus, he thought we were way slow for the first mile.
"No, you missed the first cone. We hit the mile in 6:08," I said. "Stay with me!"
But I could tell Tony was fading. I forged on ahead. Nearing the turn-around, I saw the leaders running toward me. Actually, there was only one leader, Will Kelsay, a fellow Xterra triathlete. He's a great guy, and turned pro a couple years ago. He doesn't usually win these 5k's, but he was gunning for it today. I gave him a thumbs-up as he blazed by me.
I hit the turn-around and headed for home. I was still feeling ok, but could tell I wouldn't for much longer. At this point I told myself I had time in the bank. All I had to do was finish strong. Soon my breathing rate increased even more and I really started to hurt. Still, I was reeling in a straggler here and there. I kept telling myself it would all be over in just a few more minutes.
Climbing the 2nd (and last hill), I glanced at my watch. I had less than three minutes left. I was still a long way from the 3-mile marker. I heard footsteps, and soon I was passed by a tall guy. I tried to stay with him, but couldn't. Thankfully, I reached the downhill that led to the 3-mile cone. I needed all the help I could get, and gravity was helping right then.
I remembered to take a 3-mile split, but I didn't even look at my watch. I was focused on the finish line, and more importantly...the clock. It came into view and I was relieved to see 19:30. Actually, I let the relief take over too much, because I think I relaxed knowing I had my first sub-20 in the bag. Despite a minor slowdown near the end, I crossed in 19:47. Tony held it together for a very respectable 20:22.
Success! A new PR always feels good, especially if it comes at the same time you break one of the arbitrary time "barriers," in this case twenty minutes.
Later, looking at my splits, I realized that I paced this race quite horribly. I went out way too fast, and slowed dramatically until the last tenth of a mile, when I managed a feeble kick. Here are the details:
| Split | Time | Mile pace |
| Mile 1 | 6:08.1 | 6:08.1 |
| Mile 2 | 6:23.0 | 6:23.0 |
| Mile 3 | 6:34.6 | 6:34.6 |
| Last 0.1 | 0:40.2 | 6:16.2 |
| 1st Half | 9:38.4 | 6:12.3 |
| 2nd Half | 10:07.5 | 6:31.1 |
| Finish | 19:47 | 6:22.1 |
My second half was nearly 30 seconds slower than my first. I think I'm done with the "Go out 6% faster than goal pace" strategy. I would much rather run even pacing or negative splits and finish strong. And I'm pretty sure I'll be faster that way, too.
Final results: 19th place out of 147.
5k progress report for 2007:
| Date | Race | Time | Pace |
| 4/10/2007 | Dash & Dine #1 (results) | 21:08 | 6:48 |
| 5/1/2007 | Dash & Dine #4 (results) | 20:11 | 6:30 |
| 5/8/2007 | Dash & Dine #5 (results) | 19:47 | 6:22 |
4 comments:
Hi,
It's me again, I commented on your log earlier and you replied, so thanks for that.
Just wanted to say congratulations on your 5K time ... onward to the sub 40 10K, good luck.
By the way, my name is Kieran, I live in Ireland, I've been too busy with my kids to do much running for the last couple of weeks, so at the moment I'm living vicariously through your blog !! I'm really enjoying reading it so please keep updating it UNTIL you hit the sub 40 10K.
I came across your blog last week and have been quite interested to read how your push for sub 20 and soon sub 40 has been going. congrats on going sub 20. You mentioned that you are finished with going out 6% faster in the first mile. Seems like to me that philosphy pushed you to the PR. Perhaps if you would have gone out at an even pace you would not have had the extra 15 or 20 seconds at the end to push you under the 20 minute mark.
Hello
This is Pam otherwise known as Stormy Waters on Coolrunning, thanks for your advise there. Thought i'd have a look at your blog, looks very interesting .
Good luck for your 10km i have heard about this race, even from the UK, maybe one year i'll do that one. As for your blog i think i might add you to my favs if thats alright
Pam
Thanks for your comments, guys. It's nice to know people read this once in a while!
Thanks for the encouragement as well. I know it's not a given that I'll reach my goal. In fact, some would even say it's unlikely. So it's good to have some folks that you know are hoping you succeed.
Anon, I'm considering your theory and of course you may be right. My gut says I'll be faster if I take the first mile at around 6:20. I'm going to try to hit that split in next week's D&D and see how it goes from there. This should at least provide a comparison to see what works better for me.
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