St. Albert Viking Dash 5K

Goal: 7 min/mile pace, i.e. 21:46. Secondary goal: 7:15 pace, i.e. 22:33.

These goals look conservative, because I haven't raced for ever, because K didn't really do any specific training, because even my non-specific training was inconsistent, and because it was 91 degrees with 46% humidity.

The race was at 7pm (one reason of the hot weather), and I was there very early. Probably around 5pm. This was catholic church picnic, which has a great tradition in Louisville. Despite not being religious, I like the vibe. Good food, music, nice people.

We ran the course as warmup with my group - they were a little too fast for a warmup for me, so I slowed to my barely-faster-than-9-minute-pace. Two guys, Craig and Nick were nice enough to stay with me.

The race was off on time. Just before the race, I was talking to Mac from the running group, who said he was going to go out at a 6:50 pace. I should have learned not to listen to these guys... but I hadn't. So I tried to pace off of him. I did feel a bit fast, but not so much different from my distant memory of past 5K's I ran.

After about 0.7 miles, I realized he was doing a 6:30 pace, so I carefully slowed a bit and let him go. Mile 1 was slightly downhill, but barely enough to affect the pace.

Mile 1: 6:46

Yes, too fast. I decided to slowly ease my pace until my average falls to 7 min/mile. Then I would try to maintain it. I was running in 10th place from about mile 0.2, when I passed the kids who started to sprint this 5K. After that, nobody passed me, and I passed nobody. Oh, except I did pass Robert Boston, who treated the race as a workout, and did some walking intervals. So the race had a bit of a time trial feel, especially after passing Robert, because I haven't seen a single runner afterwards.

Mile 2: 7:01

So far so good. But then, lack of training, lack of racing, lack of fitness came over me. Pain set in, and I struggled to keep going. I also held back a bit for the last half mile. I struggled, but I tried to keep it controlled. I have no stamina - the lack of LT training showed.

Mile 3: 7:24

We hit the finish line, and as usual, I was able to faster again.

Last 0.1 in 37s, 5:49 pace

I finished with official time of 21:51, which was good enough for 10th overall and 1st in my age group at this small race (about 80 runners). So I just missed my goal, which I could have achieved with a bit of smarter racing. This is OK. About 45-46-ish VDOT, which should be fine for 3:30 marathon. I think I'll train according to that, though the specific race won't be as fast: (1) it's very hilly (2) I'll go in on lowish miles. Training starts in a little over a week.