St. Matthews Street Festival 5K

Goal: 18:30, but at least sub-19

Since this race was a piggyback afterthought after the half marathon, I didn't really take it seriously. I didn't train very much at all since the half marathon, and I actually decided on the time goal on the morning of the race. I knew I wanted to destroy that old PR of mine (19:11), and that I also wanted to run sub-19 (I'm on that thread on runningahead.com), but I also knew I should be capable of more. McMillan equates my HM time with 18:02, but I knew that was unrealistic for several reasons: it was quite warm and humid, the course was not completely flat (unlike the half marathon), and I did no specific 5K training, in fact I slacked out quite a bit in the last two weeks.

So I was putting on my running gear early at dawn, when my daughter and I were standing at the window (admiring a bunny having breakfast in our backyard), and I asked her what I should aim for, and after a short discussion we agreed on 18:30. (She is 9 years old, but already a runner. She completed her first 5K last weekend in 30:41. I did run with her, but that is a different story. I will write about that later.)

I arrived to the race early enough to have plenty of time for warmup and bathroom breaks. It was 68 F (=20 C), which wouldn't be so bad if the humidity wasn't freaking 87%. Also, let me include the elevation chart of the course right here.

Not too hard, but there are a few rolling hills, and it is nasty that the first mile is the easiest and the last one is the hardest. Regardless, the pre-race preparation went very smoothly, and I actually started to worry a bit about how relaxed I was. You need some adrenaline to run well.

I lined up right behind the start line, and exactly on time the race started. I darted out as usually, but in 100 yards I had to realize that I'm not winning this one: a group of 5 young guys in their 20s went out at 5:30-ish pace, and they looked like they knew what they were doing. I settled to a pace that felt like my VO2 max, and my GPS confirmed the correct 5:40-ish pace. I'm saying correct, because with the elevation profile and the goal, I knew I had to complete the first mile well under 6 minutes. As for position, there was the initial group of 5, and one more somewhat slower (but still clearly faster than me) young guy, and I let 2 bare chested guys in their 40s pass me in the first 1/2 mile. So I was at 9th place.

Mile 1: 5:47

So far so good. Right after the mile marker it seemed like one of the initial 5 had more ambition that ability, and he slowed quite a bit. I passed him right after the mile marker. (I think he ended up running 20:04 - after a first mile that was faster than mine.) But the hills started, and the sun came down hard, and halfway through I started to feel lousy. We made a bunch of turns, and I was running in no man's land. The shirtless guys in sight, but too fast to catch, and nobody behind me that I could see. The end is too far.

Mile 2: 5:59 (technical note at the end about mile splits)

The next mile was pure struggle. It was also the hardest in terms of elevation and turns. I ran my last 5K almost a year ago, and I already forgot how much they hurt. I wasn't 100% in the game mentally, and I forgot (seriously) to use my "out of body" technique. But I did think of my forum pals, and my daughter, of course, how disappointed she would be if I slowed down. I also made sure nobody threatened my position. The shirtless guys were at constant distance of 12-14 seconds ahead of me (that's how we finished), and slowed exactly the same rate as I. One more indication that my slowing was not a result of bad race strategy, but the terrain and the natural slight positive splits that is the optimal way to run a 5K.

Mile 3: 6:07

We turned onto the finish line, and I gave everything. I saw the clock and I knew I was sub-19, but 18:30 has just slipped away. I thought of my daughter when I crossed the line at 18:32 (slightly under 6 minute pace for the kick). Well, that's approximately 18:30, isn't it.

I still think I raced this one well, nearly perfectly. I'm not sure I could have done any better than this. But on a flat course, in 50 degrees, and with proper speed training, I might be able to go below 18 minutes. I still have more than 2 years before my 40th birthday. I actually think of racing more 5Ks, with 70 mile weeks and real preparation. They do hurt, but they are pleasantly short, and very abundant. You can race one seriously every other week. And maybe, just maybe, one day, when coincidentally all the good runners stay at home, I could win an overall at a road race for the first time in my life.

The depth of the Louisville running scene is well illustrated by the fact that 18:32 was only good for 8th place at a local 5K. The winning time was 15:37. I got 2nd in my age group, which would get me an award, but I had no time to wait for the ceremony, because I promised my daughter that I would take her to the Science Center today, so I rushed home. The race was so close to our house that I got home at 8:35, when about a quarter of the participants were still on the course. I will pick up whatever I won probably today (Sunday) before I'm leaving town for a week.

*****

Technical note on mile splits: The marker for mile 1 lined up well with Garmin, but the mile 2 marker was grossly different. At the end the GPS measured the course as 3.04 miles, but I'm rather sure that it was the correct distance and the GPS was wrong. I have several reasons to believe that. 1) The organizing company was a very reputable one. I don't think they got the course certified, but I'm sure they measured it carefully. 2) When I overlay my route with a satellite picture, it diverts from the streets a lot, making me cutting corners by running through buildings. 3) When I ran the course in training, the GPS measured it to be longer. That's actually not surprising. When I run faster, the data points will be farther from each other. 4) Mile 1 was accurate, because it was mostly straight. When we started to make many turns, accuracy went dramatically down.

I knew this while running, so I wasn't too worried about my Garmin splits. And for the purpose of the report, I scaled down 2.11 miles to 2.04 (actual to measured) and divided my measured mile splits by this ratio to get more correct ones. These are the ones reported above.

I accidentally erased my training logs for the last 2-3 years. It was never meant to be permanent (this is why I write this blog; *this* is supposed to be permanent), and I did not keep the logs that I used before I converted to SportTracks, but now I feel like I lost something... At least I should have kept the data from the beginning of this year. Oh, well.

Anyway, trying to think of what I have to preserve:

To the best of my memory, my old Mizunos have ~350 miles on them, and the newer ones have ~100 miles. My Kinvaras also have ~100 miles. The pair of Asics I use for speedwork has been on borrowed time for a while, so it doesn't really matter. Let's start from here.

I ran 5.63 miles today in 42:06 in my old shoes. The weather was 86 F, sunny. Summer is here.

I am signed up for a 5K in the weekend, but I really don't feel like running. This is post goal race burnout. Nevertheless, I forced a set of intervals on myself on Sunday. Only 2 x 2000 at 7:15, 7:20 respectively. It was hard as hell. I'm not exactly sure why, because it was nice and cool, and I only ran about 40 miles on the week before (that was my post goal race week, so it was still pretty good). But then after Sunday I missed two days in a row. I did mean to rest on Monday, but Tuesday was just sheer laziness. Or post goal race burnout. Call what we want.

500 Festival Mini Marathon HM

Goal: 1:25:00. Dream goal: 1:23:00.

I decided to run this race, because after I signed up for the Derby Mini, it turned out that I'll be traveling that weekend. So I needed another half marathon in the spring, and this seemed nice. In retrospect, the fact you have to pick up the packet the day before, so I had to drive to Indianapolis twice in two days, is a bit of a pain.

Since it is a two hour drive, and the race is huge, I got up at 3:15 AM in the morning to be able to leave home at 4:00, and to get to Indy at 6:00. The race started at 7:33, but we were supposed be in our corrals at 7:00, and with 30 thousand participants in this race, I didn't want to risk parking issues. I parked the car at 6:00, and I was in the start area at 6:30. It was a bit boring to wait for the start, but with these many people, I think I made the right choice. At least I could a do a good warmup. I got into Corral A at about 7:10 and lined up at about third-fourth line. I was only a few yards from the start line. I admired a few African elites in front with their child size bodies that is capable of maintaining sub-5 minute pace for the distance of a marathon.

We had a bit of a silence for Boston. With the adrenaline pumping in me, or because I was so focused on running, I got quite emotional, especial thinking about the child victim of the bombing. Then we listened to the anthem of my adopted home country. At 7:30, we saw the wheelchairs off, and 3 minutes later we were off running.

It is always a bit surreal running a race. Somehow I just don't feel the effort the same way. Noticing my fast breathing I knew I was running hard, but subjectively it felt easy. So I did a bit of a jackrabbit start (I do this all the time), and the first mile was over in no time.

Mile 1: 6:07 (All splits are Garmin splits, and it showed 13.15 at the end)

OK, that's unquestionably too fast. I have to slow down gradually, because this is guaranteed blowup. We ran through some streets here; I don't have a lot of memory of these, except that I didn't find Indy particularly nice. Supposedly we ran by the White River, but I don't remember water. I was just too focused on running.

Mile 2: 6:13

Still too fast. I let people pass me, because I knew I had to get back to the crowd who are running at 6:20 pace. I have to say it is a bit demoralizing to let people pass you. My breathing became a bit more relaxed.

Mile 3: 6:18

Yeah, yeah, still a bit too fast. But I felt pretty good and the bands here were playing old Rock'n'Roll. It's hard to control yourself. Maybe this was the part of the race when I blew my sub-1:23 chances. The 5K mark had a clock that I passed at 19:23, and that's only 12 seconds off of my PR from 2011, the last time I ran a 5K. (It would probably be easy to run a sub-19 5K if I tried.) But it also meant that the Indiana Runners thread would know I crossed the 5K point with this time. "If I blow this, they will be so disappointed", I thought. Slow down...

Mile 4: 6:15

Too fast. Got to slow down. I let a few more people pass. I also started to feel the heat (it was 60 degrees). I took water at an aid station and poured half of it over my head.

Mile 5: 6:24

That's more like it. Now I was among people who I thought may have the same speed as me.  We entered the vicinity of the famous racetrack. I ran quite relaxed, telling myself that we still have most of the race ahead.

Mile 6: 6:31

We entered the racetrack, and I guess it was supposed to be really special,  but to me it meant essentially nothing. Except that it had a nice straight (or slightly curved) very smooth asphalt road. I saw a guy throwing up by the the track. I though: what a shame that he maintained this hard pace so far, and now his race is over.

Mile 7: 6:25

Now I was down to my 1:23 goal pace average (6:20/mile), so it was time to maintain it. I tried to pace off of people around me, but I soon realized that I wasn't the only one who went out too fast. I started to pass people back who just passed me. The track was long, windy, and boring.

Mile 8: 6:20

At this point I saw that I ran the exactly correct pace in the last mile, but it felt I was working hard, so it was a bad sign... Still, I would have blamed myself forever if I didn't try to finish the race at this pace. We left the track and I was till passing people, but I knew I wasn't fast, but instead they were slowing.

Mile 9: 6:25

I noticed that I was a few seconds off of my 1:23 pace. Still 4+ miles left, so I can't kill myself. I just tried to pace off of a guy in a red T-shirt, who seemed to maintain the right pace, but I was quite tired and he started to slip away.

Mile 10: 6:17

We ran along a long straight road, and I already imagined this to be the finish line, but of course it wasn't. I passed the 10-mile marker at 1:03:20, which is the right pace for 6:20/mile, 1:23 finish. Only 5K was left, so I decided I would give everything. Pushed hard, passed a few people. I was hurting, but my pace was still controlled.

Mile 11: 6:17


We turned onto the road by the river. The field thinned out quite a bit here, and I ran alone in the turn. I felt I was very slow. I changed to a somewhat irregular breathing, because I just needed more oxygen. I tried to do the same strategy: pushing hard, controlled pace, but I was hurting badly. I started to look at my watch just to see how long I was along within the mile. Again, I saw a guy stopped (almost collapsed) by the road.

Mile 12: 6:26

We turned onto a bridge and so we had to climb the slight incline to the bridge. It was nothing, but it killed me. Finally I understood how it feels to blow up at the end of a race. It was not in my head. I was able tell my brain to go fast, but my body just switched off the circuits. I was going as fast as I could. People now passed me.

Mile 13: 6:32

Not terrible, but I saw the finish clock turning 1:23, which was a mild disappointment. I sprinted down to the line.

Remaining: ~52 seconds, sub 6-min pace.
Final time: 1:23:28 (chip time) 143rd overall (out of 30064), 29th in age group (out of 1982).

I was very tired in the finish; a volunteer asked me multiple times if I was OK. We got our worthless medals (everybody gets one), but as a nice touch they gave a "500 club" medal to the first 500 finishers.

This is my first race in a while when I didn't achieve my dream goal, but I still did achieve my regular goal, and more. I think with proper training and ideal race conditions (60 degrees was about 10 degrees too high) I should be able to run sub-1:23, but maybe I really should focus on the queen of all races: the marathon. McMillan is now quite positive that I could break 3 hours.

Post race party was OK, but they didn't give me my free "beer" (I'm putting quotation marks here, because it was Michelob Ultra) without my ID, which I left in my car. I mean come on, I'm 37. I walked back to my car and got back to the finish area a good 1/2 hour later. The area was extremely crowded by then. The two-hour folks have just arrived.

I have to say that even though the organization was extremely efficient, and I'm sure the silly ID rule must be followed if they don't want to get in trouble, I didn't really like this race. Car racing means nothing to me, and frankly, Indianapolis is not very pretty. Besides, the race is just too big. Sure, I can start from the front, but I have to arrive 90 minutes early, I have to park a mile from the start line, and there are just too many people everywhere. The KY Derby Half instead runs through beautiful Old Louisville with its Victorian homes, Churchill Downs, and it's about half the size. Plus, I live in Louisville.

Next immediate goal is to piggyback something off of this training. Might not be anything before Bernheim HM, but that would also be nice.

Two days. Two days left until the big race. Last run today is easy 4.1 miles. Got carried away and ran it somewhat hard in 30:40. (It's all speculative though because I left my GPS at home.) 75 F, partly cloudy, new shoes. I feel tired, regular tired, taper-madness-tired.