5k – Valentine’s Day Dash – Love’em or Leave’em
First race of 2016. My fitness wasn’t that great yet, but good enough to race a 5k.
Compared to previous years I am 10-15lbs heavier, which I knew would affect my race. I didn’t have much data to go by, but was planning on not starting too fast and then build. I was thinking I should be able to run a 6:20min/mile but that was just a guess.
When the race started, I started way too fast but once I noticed, I slowed down a bit. About 1/2 mile in lots of people were passing me. Since I felt great I decided to go faster. Big mistake. I covered the first mile in 6:04 and was suffering there after. I questioned why I was doing this and was just outright miserable.
I was running behind a guy and just told myself to stick with him and out-sprint him at the end. While I might not have had the fitness, I still have the will to push hard based on my racing experience. With about 1/2 mile to go I increased the pace. To my surprise and luck the other guy didn’t come along. Shortly there after I started to suffer. I was just barely holding. I finished in 19:09 which is 2min slower then my PR. Considering my weight that is actually pretty competitive and only 20-30sec slow.
Unfortunately, my HR monitor didn’t work properly so I didn’t even get good data from this race.
13.1 – St. Paddy’s day run
As prep for Boston I planned to do at least one half marathon. Somehow I managed to put it the wrong way in my calendar. I got up on Sunday morning, did race day breakfast, and did the 40min drive to arrive in a “dead” city. No sign of other runners. But there were countless porta potties. Well I soon figured out that the race was on Saturday. I made the best out of it: Took advantage of the porta potties and then went for my long run in a new city 🙂
No result or medal… and to make things worse 3 days after the race the picture company wanted me to buy their pictures and were telling me what a great race I did 🙂
10k – Go Long 520 Bridge 10k
Before Boston I wanted to get at least one race in to see where I stand. I was secretly also hoping it would feel better then the 5k in anticipation that I soon would have to run a little longer.
My training was going well and I just finished 3 weeks of overload. However, I’m still at the same weight carrying around a little extra. Based on my 5k time and volume I should be able to run a 6:30min/mile. However, I knew I was in better shape and was aiming for a 6:20min/mile.
I lined up with Mark (Amy’s coach) and we had the same goal of going sub 40min. We also both said we don’t want to start too fast and were aiming for a 6:30-6:40min/mile.
The race starts and we are off, I’m trying to hold back a little but clearly failed. After starting at a sub 6min/mile, we eased off a little but with a downhill onto the highway we still did the first mile in 6:04. After that we settled in around a 6:25min/mile. I felt great. Mark, I and some other runners were joking a little about the race and the pace and that we had to run on the old bridge before going onto the new one.
Mark and I with about 50yards to go.
The first hill onto the new bridge was a little wake up call that I didn’t have that much spare energy. Since there was a headwind I talked with Mark that I would lead the first half over the bridge and he the 2nd half. We executed that as planned averaging a 6:20min/mile. After the turn around Mark clearly felt strong and lowered the pace to 6:15min/mil. At times I struggled to stay with him and had a little tunnel vision but I felt in control. Since both of us were wearing the TN keep, people recognized us and cheered us on. To the point where a runner behind us commented “Everybody seems to know you guys!”
With about 2miles to go we had to go over the hill again. I was hurting and had to work hard to stay with Mark. The crowds running towards us (out and back race) had taken up our side of the road too and there was only a very narrow channel (2-3 feet) on the right we could run on. At times people would run towards us even in that channel. Mark had to yell several times for people to make space and I bumped arm/shoulders with a few people.
With about 1mile to go the road cleared and the people coming towards us started to thin out. I felt decent and the tunnel vision was gone but apparently Mark was now struggling. So I took the lead for a while. One last hill which really hurt and then the finish straight which Mark and I finished together.
Finish time 38:38 which means a 6:14min/mile. We took 53 and 54 place with him being in front of me despite us having the same time. Age before beauty? 🙂
After math:
Great race and definitely a moral boost for Boston. This race again was 2min off my PR. Considering the rule of thumb for excess weight I actually did a better race then my 10k PR.
While I wasn’t excited for Boston before… now I am. My form changed drastically and I think I can have a decent time in Boston without suffering too much 🙂
HR and Pace (Note: I stopped the watch about 1min late)
Average HR: 182bpm, with Max HR: 189bpm
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