Take That, Monkey!
Back in September I wrote about how in most of my races a monkey comes out of nowhere and sits on my back, causing me to underperform. Yesterday I threw him off, though I'm sure he'll reappear at some point down the road.
I decided during the week that I was going to do the Bellaire Trolly Run after all. I had been targeting the Dulles Dash 5K on April 19 for my next 5K but found out a week ago that they had moved it to Lost Creek Park, which is a course I don't care for and isn't conducive to PRs. Also, my wife and I had been planning to have a garage sale next Saturday, the 12th, but had to move it to the 19th because my son has a school function next Saturday morning. That takes care of the 12th and the 19th, and I'm doing the Bayou Bash Relay on the 26th, so now we're into May. On May 3rd I'm volunteering at Pamela's Race out in Orchard, so it became obvious that if I wanted to take a stab at a PR I'd have to do the Bellaire Trolly Run, or at least some 5K somewhere yesterday. Given that I've heard the course is fast, the competition would be strong, and the weather was going to be in the 50s (probably the last time until October), I recognized an aligning of the stars for a good race and a shot at a PR.
Brian King and I took a separate car from our other training buddy, Steve Schroeder, and got there yesterday morning with plenty of time for warming up, stretching, bathroom, etc. Finally 8 AM rolled around and I lined up near the front, ready to go. Looking around I noticed that it was like a Who's Who of Houston running. I can think of only one or two master runners who are faster than me who weren't there. It wasn't looking like a hardware day, but that was secondary to my PR attempt anyway.
The "gun" fired and we were off. I ran alongside Stephen Mayor through mile one and he told me about halfway through that mile that we were on pace for a 5:30. We must have both recognized on our own that that was too fast because we both backed off a bit and came through mile one at 5:43. I was on the edge of red-lining but not over the edge. I knew how important mile two was going to be to a PR effort so I tried to maintain, although I recognized that there would inevitably be a minor drop-off. It certainly helped that we had the breeze to our backs for nearly all of mile two. That got me to mile two with a 5:48 and 11:31 overall. Somewhere shortly before mile two I passed my two training partners but didn't expect them to fade much. They were both holding up strong and the training is there, although Brian is coming back from an injury.
Shortly into mile three I passed Steve's brother Doug whom I've never beaten at any distance other than a marathon. Passing Doug this deep into a 5K was nice but I wasn't sure it would last. Finally we made our way out onto the final straightaway that would take us to the finish. I was getting pretty whipped but did my darndest to hang on to pace. With about a quarter mile to go Doug came blasting by me with authority. That was fine. He had his race to run and I had mine. I knew my 18:11 PR was going down when I hit mile three in 5:47 and 17:18 overall. Time to hammer the final 10th and pray that it would be enough to prevent anyone from passing me in the final 100 feet or so. No one did.
I went through the finish at 17:53 chip time. A new PR was in hand, as was the first sub-18 5K of our training group (Steve/Brian/me). The second sub-18 of our group came through four seconds later, as Steve Schroeder posted an outstanding 17:57. We both had shaved 18 seconds off our PR and both agreed that we'd run about as best as we possibly could. Brian came through just a few seconds off his PR of 18:09, but had turned in a nice number even though he's just a step off his A game.
My mile splits of 5:43, 5:48 and 5:47 were about as flat a pace as I'm ever going to see and I think now that may be the best 5K race strategy, as opposed to blasting the first mile and hanging on. However, if you'd have told me prior to the race that my first mile would be 5:43 I would have assumed that I'd be pursuing the blast the first mile and hang on strategy with a number like that. Who knew I'd be able to hold on to sub 5:50 pace.
I'll need more training and speedwork to improve upon this number, if I ever do. We'll see. That monkey could come back at any time.
I decided during the week that I was going to do the Bellaire Trolly Run after all. I had been targeting the Dulles Dash 5K on April 19 for my next 5K but found out a week ago that they had moved it to Lost Creek Park, which is a course I don't care for and isn't conducive to PRs. Also, my wife and I had been planning to have a garage sale next Saturday, the 12th, but had to move it to the 19th because my son has a school function next Saturday morning. That takes care of the 12th and the 19th, and I'm doing the Bayou Bash Relay on the 26th, so now we're into May. On May 3rd I'm volunteering at Pamela's Race out in Orchard, so it became obvious that if I wanted to take a stab at a PR I'd have to do the Bellaire Trolly Run, or at least some 5K somewhere yesterday. Given that I've heard the course is fast, the competition would be strong, and the weather was going to be in the 50s (probably the last time until October), I recognized an aligning of the stars for a good race and a shot at a PR.
Brian King and I took a separate car from our other training buddy, Steve Schroeder, and got there yesterday morning with plenty of time for warming up, stretching, bathroom, etc. Finally 8 AM rolled around and I lined up near the front, ready to go. Looking around I noticed that it was like a Who's Who of Houston running. I can think of only one or two master runners who are faster than me who weren't there. It wasn't looking like a hardware day, but that was secondary to my PR attempt anyway.
The "gun" fired and we were off. I ran alongside Stephen Mayor through mile one and he told me about halfway through that mile that we were on pace for a 5:30. We must have both recognized on our own that that was too fast because we both backed off a bit and came through mile one at 5:43. I was on the edge of red-lining but not over the edge. I knew how important mile two was going to be to a PR effort so I tried to maintain, although I recognized that there would inevitably be a minor drop-off. It certainly helped that we had the breeze to our backs for nearly all of mile two. That got me to mile two with a 5:48 and 11:31 overall. Somewhere shortly before mile two I passed my two training partners but didn't expect them to fade much. They were both holding up strong and the training is there, although Brian is coming back from an injury.
Shortly into mile three I passed Steve's brother Doug whom I've never beaten at any distance other than a marathon. Passing Doug this deep into a 5K was nice but I wasn't sure it would last. Finally we made our way out onto the final straightaway that would take us to the finish. I was getting pretty whipped but did my darndest to hang on to pace. With about a quarter mile to go Doug came blasting by me with authority. That was fine. He had his race to run and I had mine. I knew my 18:11 PR was going down when I hit mile three in 5:47 and 17:18 overall. Time to hammer the final 10th and pray that it would be enough to prevent anyone from passing me in the final 100 feet or so. No one did.
I went through the finish at 17:53 chip time. A new PR was in hand, as was the first sub-18 5K of our training group (Steve/Brian/me). The second sub-18 of our group came through four seconds later, as Steve Schroeder posted an outstanding 17:57. We both had shaved 18 seconds off our PR and both agreed that we'd run about as best as we possibly could. Brian came through just a few seconds off his PR of 18:09, but had turned in a nice number even though he's just a step off his A game.
My mile splits of 5:43, 5:48 and 5:47 were about as flat a pace as I'm ever going to see and I think now that may be the best 5K race strategy, as opposed to blasting the first mile and hanging on. However, if you'd have told me prior to the race that my first mile would be 5:43 I would have assumed that I'd be pursuing the blast the first mile and hang on strategy with a number like that. Who knew I'd be able to hold on to sub 5:50 pace.
I'll need more training and speedwork to improve upon this number, if I ever do. We'll see. That monkey could come back at any time.
posted by Lance Collins at 7:33 AM
7 Comments:
Congratulations to you, Steve, and Brian on a great race. Sometimes all the conditions must be right for a PR performance and yesterday was such a day. Cool morning, flat & fast course (7 turns vs the usual 9 or 10 in previous years, athough last year was also 7 but w/ 3 hairpins), and fast runners to keep your focus the entire race. Besides you & Steve, I know at least 3 other runners PRed as well (Riley 15:50, John Hill 16:55, & Mike Crowley 17:26), not to mention those who came w/in seconds of their PRs. I think the monkey is definitely gone for good; all the hard works you & your group have done are now paying off.
As for starting out slow in a race, I do think 5K is an exception, especially w/ yesterday's conditions. You got tailwind in the second mile so if you get out fast in the first mile you could kind of coast in the second mile and save your legs for the last mile coming in. But for 5Ks, I guess you just have to go hard for 2 and endure that last mile.:-)
Hey Tuan,
Brett ran a 15:42 at the Friends for Scleroderma 5k in 2004. Doesn't take away from all your sage observations, but that race had all of the right conditions as well and Brett took full advantage.
Great race Lance, and congrats on the PR. The conditions and the course were very condusive to fast times. Great to see two of yall make the most of it.
Sam
Steve,
Thanks for the correction. I must have misremembered that part of my conversation w/ Brett during our morning run yesterday. I didn't mean to shortchange Brett on his PR. OTOH, what's a few seconds in a 5K?:-))
lance AWESOME JOB!!!
was great to see you too!!
Excellent race! I think those spilts show you ran an ideal race for the conditions.
Well done Lance - the last time I ran that fast I was 18 years old (30 years ago)
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