Moonlight Margarita 5k run race report
This was entropyman's fault. He started running again, and apparently this event intrigued him, so he asked if we wanted to go do it with him. I've been wanting to do a 5k for a while now, just because it's been so long. The last one I did was one of the 5k legs of the Silicon Labs marathon relay last 4th of July (2006). That was my 5k PR at 27:50 (roughly 8:59/mile). And frankly I've been afraid to do another 5k. 8:59s sound faster than I can run in general, so I wasn't sure how I'd pulled that off. And I was afraid if I went out and did a 5k now, I'd end up doing a 36 minute 5k, which is how fast I ran my first ever 5k event, in 2003.
So I decided I'd kinda do this 5k as a time trial, and see where I stood. I wanted a PR, but I wasn't sure it was going to happen. I've been endurance training, not speed training, for.. a couple years now. I've been focusing on Ironman training for months. After Ironman training, I'd taken time off, or just been doing stuff for fun. The event is at 8:25ish in the evening, and it's hard to figure out nutrition for racing that late at night. The event is in August, which is hot and humid (though we got really lucky on the Hot part, if not the Humid). It's a "fun run", which means there's a lot of people who line themselves up too close to the front and meander about drunkenly on the course, making it hard to really get where you want to go quickly.
BUT.. I suckered Robyn into entering this adventure with me. I didn't mention to many people I was doing it. My master plan was.. if I really bombed out there, I'd claim I was just doing it for fun, and nobody would ever be the wiser. I came up with all sorts of excuses, most of which are listed above. Also, Robyn couldn't find her hat that she normally runs in, which means we were lacking the power of Speed Hat.
Anyway.. we did a ~20 minute warmup, then got into the start chute and shoved our way up way closer to the front than I've ever gotten. We didn't want start-line congestion to be our biggest failing point. Our master plan was to aim for a roughly 9 minute first mile, then negative split from there, and run the last mile as fast as we could.
We started, and ran comfortably hard for the first mile. I went from comfortably hard to uncomfortable fairly quickly, but it was really humid, so it was hard to judge effort. Trevor passed us almost immediately, and while he stayed in view for a while, I could never catch up to him, and eventually lost him completely. Matt Hawk also passed us, and we managed to keep him in sight the whole time, but again couldn't catch him.
I didn't feel all that strong, and as we approached the mile 1 marker, I was sure we were way off pace. I was expecting to split and see a 9:30 or so. Instead, it was roughly 8:22. Oops. Way faster than we should have been going. Welcome to Going Out Too Fast, even when we tried not to. Our plan was then to just try and hold on for the next 2 miles.
There were more hills in mile 2, and we came in at 8:26 for that one. Positive split, but I certainly wasn't disappointed by the time. After we passed the mile 2 marker, I kinda fell apart a little bit. Almost immediately after I split, I started to feel like I wanted to vomit. It was REALLY humid, and hard to breathe. Robyn was starting to pull ahead of me at times, and I'd try to keep up with her, but I just didn't have much left in me, and she'd fall back to match my pace again. I don't know that it actually smelled like they'd had horses out there, but I could swear I smelled horses, and the smell was making me feel even pukier. I was trying to focus on getting a full breath, and making sure I didn't get any more light-headed than I was. I could see myself needing to sit and let the world stop spinning. I could also see if the horse smell got any worse, or if I saw someone ELSE vomit, or if .. any number of other things happened, I'd definitely immediately throw up. Just.. tried.. to.. hold.. on. Focused on turnover. Knew I had less than a mile left. I tried to concentrate on the fact that, given our first two miles, even a 10 minute mile for mile 3 would be a PR.
Eventually we made it back in sight of the finish line. I split at mile 3, but it was too dark to see my watch, and I was beyond caring at that point anyway. I know now that it was an 8:31. Again a positive split, but again faster than I even thought I could run.
We passed Matt and Dave cheering near the finish line, and telling us to pick it up and kick it in. I simply had nothing left. I tried, and I may have managed to pick it up some, but I was spent. I told Robyn to go ahead, and she said that she was stickin' with me, so we crossed the finish line together. I glanced at my watch and saw it was just over 26:0somethin', and hi-fived Robyn. Mission accomplished!
Previous PR: 27:50 (8:59/mile)
New PR: 26:07 (8:22/mile)
Very happy. I never thought I'd average 8:22s for anything, even a single mile. And I'm not sure I ever need to do another 5k again.
So I decided I'd kinda do this 5k as a time trial, and see where I stood. I wanted a PR, but I wasn't sure it was going to happen. I've been endurance training, not speed training, for.. a couple years now. I've been focusing on Ironman training for months. After Ironman training, I'd taken time off, or just been doing stuff for fun. The event is at 8:25ish in the evening, and it's hard to figure out nutrition for racing that late at night. The event is in August, which is hot and humid (though we got really lucky on the Hot part, if not the Humid). It's a "fun run", which means there's a lot of people who line themselves up too close to the front and meander about drunkenly on the course, making it hard to really get where you want to go quickly.
BUT.. I suckered Robyn into entering this adventure with me. I didn't mention to many people I was doing it. My master plan was.. if I really bombed out there, I'd claim I was just doing it for fun, and nobody would ever be the wiser. I came up with all sorts of excuses, most of which are listed above. Also, Robyn couldn't find her hat that she normally runs in, which means we were lacking the power of Speed Hat.
Anyway.. we did a ~20 minute warmup, then got into the start chute and shoved our way up way closer to the front than I've ever gotten. We didn't want start-line congestion to be our biggest failing point. Our master plan was to aim for a roughly 9 minute first mile, then negative split from there, and run the last mile as fast as we could.
We started, and ran comfortably hard for the first mile. I went from comfortably hard to uncomfortable fairly quickly, but it was really humid, so it was hard to judge effort. Trevor passed us almost immediately, and while he stayed in view for a while, I could never catch up to him, and eventually lost him completely. Matt Hawk also passed us, and we managed to keep him in sight the whole time, but again couldn't catch him.
I didn't feel all that strong, and as we approached the mile 1 marker, I was sure we were way off pace. I was expecting to split and see a 9:30 or so. Instead, it was roughly 8:22. Oops. Way faster than we should have been going. Welcome to Going Out Too Fast, even when we tried not to. Our plan was then to just try and hold on for the next 2 miles.
There were more hills in mile 2, and we came in at 8:26 for that one. Positive split, but I certainly wasn't disappointed by the time. After we passed the mile 2 marker, I kinda fell apart a little bit. Almost immediately after I split, I started to feel like I wanted to vomit. It was REALLY humid, and hard to breathe. Robyn was starting to pull ahead of me at times, and I'd try to keep up with her, but I just didn't have much left in me, and she'd fall back to match my pace again. I don't know that it actually smelled like they'd had horses out there, but I could swear I smelled horses, and the smell was making me feel even pukier. I was trying to focus on getting a full breath, and making sure I didn't get any more light-headed than I was. I could see myself needing to sit and let the world stop spinning. I could also see if the horse smell got any worse, or if I saw someone ELSE vomit, or if .. any number of other things happened, I'd definitely immediately throw up. Just.. tried.. to.. hold.. on. Focused on turnover. Knew I had less than a mile left. I tried to concentrate on the fact that, given our first two miles, even a 10 minute mile for mile 3 would be a PR.
Eventually we made it back in sight of the finish line. I split at mile 3, but it was too dark to see my watch, and I was beyond caring at that point anyway. I know now that it was an 8:31. Again a positive split, but again faster than I even thought I could run.
We passed Matt and Dave cheering near the finish line, and telling us to pick it up and kick it in. I simply had nothing left. I tried, and I may have managed to pick it up some, but I was spent. I told Robyn to go ahead, and she said that she was stickin' with me, so we crossed the finish line together. I glanced at my watch and saw it was just over 26:0somethin', and hi-fived Robyn. Mission accomplished!
Previous PR: 27:50 (8:59/mile)
New PR: 26:07 (8:22/mile)
Very happy. I never thought I'd average 8:22s for anything, even a single mile. And I'm not sure I ever need to do another 5k again.