Back in November 2012, when I ran Turkey Trot 5 K, I was
pleasantly surprised by 21:25 result, as this was the first time I broke 7
minutes pace for this distance. Most of my training is at 8:40 pace and even
intervals were at 7:15 pace, at the time. After that race, I started focusing on
bringing the weekly mileage up to 50 miles.
Needless to say with over 80% of mileage at 8:40 pace, and
few races and intervals at over 7:15 min pace, for another 2 months, helped
somehow in making me race faster for distances between 5 K and HM. So on race
day, there would always be a surprise for me in store. In Feb end, this good
string of runs ended, when I got a thigh strain, and could not run under 8 min
pace. I blamed it on uneven wearing off of my shoes from outside due to
supination. This means that I had to monitor my shoes wear and tear, and most
likely switch them every 6-12 weeks.
However, I could still keep running EZ pace of 9 min/mile.
This kept going for another 6 weeks, where I could not do a single fast run,
but kept the weekly mileage around 40 miles. Thigh strain was still there
somewhat, so I decided to test it with a small club race; and was again surprised
to finish 2.75 miles (April 13), somewhat hilly, at 6:26 pace. Somehow all
these weekly slow mileage were still making me faster than before.
With few more club races after that, I went with Jim and ran
Saratoga-The Great Race (April 28) of 4 miles, at 6:38 pace; not as fast as the
earlier club races indicated, but enough to count them towards turnaround in
training. All this time, while increasing my slow mileage to over 50, I did not
have many long runs of over 12 miles. The absence of long runs showed its
impact when I decided to run, last minute, in Avenue of Vines Half Marathon
(May 19). Based on my paces on last few races, I thought I should be able to
break my PR of 1:35:00 on flat course; I could not. However, I still had a good
race, finished at 1:35:04; and I was able to run following day without any
problems.
Now more or less recovered from strain, and changed my shoe
to somewhat low to ground, flexible, no support and very light (compare to
earlier); I had to ask myself about what were the goals (and there were many) which
I should focus on. My club races were small and fun, and were giving me lot of
encouragement; I thought it would be great to run 5 K under 20 minutes. I was never training for 5 K, idea was to
build a good base of mileage and string of months behind me and then run a good
Marathon where I was not crying for last 6 -10 miles. Based on couple of Runner’s
World articles and chatting with friends, it seemed that breaking 20 minutes
for 5 K is an admirable goal.
So I talked to Jim, my running guide. He told me that it was
too soft a goal for me to train for. He definitely had more faith in me than I
did in myself! On further pressing he just told me to go out and run couple of
5 K races, without worrying about changing training. Well, I had recovered for
almost a month now, and 5 K was shorter distance, where it was harder to get
hurt if one went all out. However, I still want to have string of 4-6 weeks of
good interval training before officially running the race, somewhere in July.
Well that was the plan at least, till I got an email saying
that there was 5 K run on coming weekend, June 2, in Hellyer County Park on
Coyote Creek trail. I had done few runs on this trail earlier and it was very
near; hard opportunity to pass. Downside was that I just had one good long run,
and if I count my HM from earlier week, there were only two good weeks of
training, where I had long runs and some interval training. I decided not to
run this one, and wait till July. When Jim came to know about it, and since 10
K and HM were offered too, besides he ran on this trail 100 of times, he could
not let it pass. I did not want to sacrifice a good long run for small 5 K
race, so it was dilemma. 5 K start time was 50 minutes after HM start time. I
thought, I might do some long warm up and race couple of miles with Jim, this
way I could do over 12 miles and not miss on long run. So I finally registered.
With 6.5 miles of warm up before the race (generally I do around
3 miles of warm up); couple of miles running with Jim during start of his HM race;
it was not ideal preparation for 5 K; or at least that I was saying to myself; that
I would get some fast miles and long run on this day; and should not worry too
much about breaking 20 minutes. There was some chaos at start of the race when
announcer said that runners who expected to finish the race between 30-35
minutes, should come forward. I tried to correct them that this was 5 K and not
10 K; however, they kept repeating it. It made sense after race finished, as
there were a lot of walkers in the race.
I looked around me and asked who was thinking of breaking 20,
there were 3 runners who volunteered. I asked them to lead the pack, which they
gracefully accepted. After the chaos at
start, I tried to keep behind these 3 runners, and soon after first mile, I
passed two of them, was pacing at 6:15. As expected, I could not keep up that
pace throughout, but effort was more or less consistent. I had to keep asking
lot of walkers who were walking and covering the whole trail, to stay on their
right. The leader had disappeared from sight after 2 miles, and I was able to
finish 2nd overall behind him, with 19:44 at 6:21 pace. I was first
in my age category; needless to say that field did not have many great runners,
and I enjoyed receiving two medals in the end; one for category and another
overall 2nd. I went back to find Jim and ran another mile with him,
as expected, he finished first in his category, just under 8 min pace for whole
HM. This probably would be the only race where he and I finished first in our respective
categories. We took couple of pictures to capture this rare moment.
Free South Indian food was provided after the race; we hung
around for some more time. In the end, a very satisfying day, I did get over 13
miles for the day, broke 20 minutes and as a side bonus came first in my
category.
