A 5k? Really? You're Writing about a 5k? Yup! So I've never really focused on it, but I've always wanted to break 20 minutes at a 5k run. Ever since one attempt at the end of high school I've been between 20 and 21 minutes. Even as close as 20:03 once. Of course given that I only do 5k's once every 3 or 4 years I shouldn't be surprised I guess. Earlier this year I entered one at the last second with "The Phillips", but that one got cancelled due to ice storms around here. Then came the Bun Run. Up until last week I had never even thought about it, but my coach told me about it and said it would be a good "test of fitness" and "fun". I also recruited another of my friends (Mike Ray) to do it as well and with coach and friends on board I decided to take one more shot at Mr. 20 mins. Only this time he went down hard :)
The Course: Beforehand I looked at the course maps and the course was pretty flat, but it did have two small hills that would definitely slow me down. One at the beginning, but the bigger of the two at about 2.5 miles in (a tough point in the race). The day itself ended up being a little warm and humid, but the biggest factor was that it was windy and it was going to be a headwind from the 1.5 mile point to 3 miles.
Despite going for breaking 20 mins I didn't really have any expectations since I hadn't done any hardcore training in 4 weeks. So I had a goal pace of 6:20 min/miles that I was pretty sure I could keep for the first mile, but after that I really didn't know.
The Race: It was great to meet up with Jenn, Matt, Daniel, Chris and Mike before the race to do our warm-up and just generally chat and help everyone relax. Even for this 5k I was getting butterfly's and my stomach was acting weird right up until the gun went off. You'd think after all these years that would stop, but at least for me, it still happens every race, even the small ones.
The first mile I just tried to keep an easy fast pace. At Mile 1 I was at a 6:25 min/mile and knew I was off my goal already so I started pushing more. It also happened to be on a downhill which helped allow me to speed up a bit. Turns out that I did the next mile in 6:12 and decided to just try to hang on to that for the last mile. It helped that there was someone that resisted my pass on the last hill and started to try to repass me. I pushed harder and managed to keep him at bay. I found out later from Mike that this was "The Phillips" run nemesis, so Shawn, that one was for you!
The whole last 1.5 miles were painful, but coming across the last flat 1/3 of a mile I knew I had it if I could just keep it and that was the longest and most painful 2 minutes I think I've ever run. Anybody else find that bridge super long on the way back in?!
I hit the finish line in 19:24 and must have sped up at the end 'cause I ended up averaging 6:13's. It seriously took me 5 minutes of hanging on to the edge of the fence past the finishing chute to regain my breath, but after that I was all smiles. I'm still revelling in this small victory. After my last race I needed something like this to get my spirits up again and having my fastest 5k race now and being able to run faster than I did even in high school was definitely the ticket.
Now it's time to put the training hammer down and get ready for Boulder 70.3. I'm super motivated now though and ready for my next PR :)
Polar Cowboy
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