Saturday, October 24, 2009

Energy Capital Run - 15:55 1st Overall- Over 9 Miles Total

Memo to self - Alter pre-race ritual of 2 bananas before race. Need to go with something a little more conservative if you know what I mean :)

I wanted to do this race because it's a relatively flat out and back course that usually has nice cool temperatures around this time of year. This would give me the opportunity to get a fast time in. It's a pretty small race and I didn't expect any more than 1 to 2 other challengers. I was the "official winner" last year even though technically Jose Lara ran about 17 seconds faster. It was also a break through race since I had PR'ed by about 30 seconds. So I was feeling pretty good about the possibilities.

I arrived at the race and did my pre-race warm up and then scoped out the competition. There didn't seem to be anybody to challenge me except for a tall slim guy (found out his name was Dave) who I recognized from Memorial park. I really didn't know anything about his running abilities but he looked legit so I was fully prepared for him to provide a challenge.

The announcer announces the "Go" signal to start the race. And we are off. A high school kid shoots out to the front unwittingly acting as a pacer for 3 quarters of a mile. Another 30 something year old guy is also at a full sprint right beside, and then right behind me. The tall fit looking guy is nowhere in my sights. It's him who I'm watching for. After 3 quarters of a mile, it's pretty much all everyone's got and I start to build a lead with a 5:05 first mile. The first mile was more difficult than expected so I knew I wasn't on my A game.

The second mile was the hardest part of the race because I had a slight mental lapse. As we were heading down the course there was a part of the course that I hadn't remembered from the previous year. At first I suspected that the course would end up being short. But then as we passed a certain intersection I was uncertain if there would be anything that would indicate when to turn back. So I was nervous I was going to over shoot the turn around. These negative thoughts caused me to slow slightly and have to work harder than necessary. I finally hit the turn around and now everything was back on track but I had mentally and physically expended too much energy. On the turn around I noticed that I had a huge lead and this was my race to win. So this would end up being a time trial and a race against the clock. A race to break 16. I ended up hitting mile 2 at 5:09.

The third mile was all about hanging on. I was running at about 5:12-5:13 pace which could have easily become slower. But on the second half of the mile I bogged down and picked up the pace to finish at 5:10 pace.

With .1 to go the legs were obviously very fatigued and I was also working pretty hard cardio-wise as well. I put it on auto pilot for the last .1 to close in 30 seconds at 4:59 pace.

I was surprised to see a 15:55 on my Garmin. I wouldn't have been surprised to have something over 16 minutes considering how slow I ran for much of the race. I'll take the time for now considering how I shut it down for a while as far as speed is concerned. This also builds upon the 16:03 that I ran at the Komen race a few weeks ago. So it seems like I'm coming around a little bit. Throw in some speed work and I should be fine. I also didn't have a huge 10 second crater in this race. Once my splits become more even or negative then I'll know I'm back where I need to be.

3 Mile Warm Up

Jump Rope (160 each leg, 8 reps of 20)

5k Race 15:55

Mile 15:05
Mile 25:09
Mile 35:10
Last .14:59
Total Average Pace:5:08

3 Mile Cool Down

3 comments:

Sam said...

Great run, Bill. Now you're a repeat winner...going back to back ain't easy. Ask any professional athlete.

Good to see the times heading in the right direction.

Kram511 said...

Congrats on the win! Keep em coming, looks like you had a great, even-paced race!

Bill Blancett said...

Sam,

Your right, I'll take what I can get.

Mark,

Thanks, I'll take any win I get.

Bill