Thanks
for Norm for driving to the event, I was able to sleep till 5:30 AM. As I
mentioned in my previous blog, that racing season was over for me for this
great year, with Boston Qualifying times in August; I was not expecting much. I
was injured twice, while trying to get back quickly after the Marathon.
After
first mile, I was thinking why I was running this race, I was not even trained
well, no intervals (I do not count tempo intervals as intervals); and doing
tempo runs only in last two weeks, weight was up, and this was not fun, I was
winded, how could I do another 2 miles, let me stop; after 2 miles more of
these negative thoughts - this was not fun. What was I thinking when I
registered just a day before the race! It was hard to remember, but now in
retrospect, it was to put a quality run in, watch world class runners in one of
the biggest Turkey Trot event in the country and get another nice full sleeve
race shirt (Shirt is for Promila - beautiful purple color - you can see Norm wearing it well !).
I was afraid to see
the watch, and did not see it till end. When just 300 yards from finish line
and I was dying to stop to take a breather, I looked at the watch to see if I
needed to sprint; while telling myself - 'how can you even think of sprint -
when you are already dying'. Watch showed my 17:53. Then after some more
pushing, I could see the clock on finish line, at 18:52 - no air to suck in -
there was no way to beat 19 minutes, but still tried - not sure where the
energy came and ran as fast as I could (watch was showing 5 min pace for last
0.11 mile). I did not think I beat the clock, but probably very close to 19
minutes.
Official results
came, and I was at 18:57, 2nd in my age category. This is almost two
and half minutes faster than my last year Turkey Trot; and another PR for 5 K
this year.
Watched elite women
race - first mile was sub 5 for almost everybody though it seems that they were
jogging. Kim Connelly from Santa Rosa won and set up new course record - she was nowhere in first 3-4 runners for first
3 laps; and only came in last lap, but she was clear winner. Then saw men
event, Alan Webb was there. Torrance (Diego) set up the course record, and he
did a cool down lap (1200 m) and came back ahead of some runners who were
finishing up, and cheered them. I think he was 13:28. Some runners who came 3rd
or 4th place were really pushing at finish - great to see the
mixture of pain, effort and desire to keep going. Intensity on last lap was
inspirational. I was telling myself, you thought you were in pain, that was
nothing compare to what you saw here. Some of the runners were running like
hell in the last two laps; one was holding his chest.
It was great to see
that runners who were really good, seemed relaxed, no jerking motion, or big
effort/push. There were some runners who seemed trying very hard, but they were
no way closer to top runners. Winners had easy strides, seemed like enjoying
it.
Met Ken and his wife
(she was taking photographs). Ken did 38.XX; he was not happy; and admitted
probably training too much. He talked to me about my logs, and said that he was
watching them and thought that I was doing good to stick with 2 mile intervals
instead of shorter intervals. He did tell me this before too, to stick with
them; and I thanked him for his advice as I think it had been true for me. And
till I have 3 months of longer interval, I should not be thinking about shorter
intervals, as they are more demanding. He thought that even for him any
intervals of less than 1 mile were not doing any good. He was as surprised as I
was when he came to know that I had my PR. I ran in brand new LunaRacer (yes -
I bought another pair for racing); did not feel any pain or leg tiredness;
which I was experiencing in last couple of days. While I was doing my strides
during 3 miles warm up, I was taken aback when my strides were coming around
6:10 pace; thought that I would be lucky to break 20 this time - more negative
thoughts - why can't I train properly before running the race - there are so
many races always.
I am still sticking to
Jim’s training method of more mileage and less emphasis on faster intervals, as
it has been still giving me results. I know there are some talented club
runners who are faster than me and run only 25-30 mpw. Well, it was just not Jim,
while reading Tim Noakes, Daniels and Lydiard; it confirms more mileage first,
then strides, then tempo and finally intervals/mechanics, if one survive and
not injured earlier.
