It’s been quite a while since my last blog post. Busy season was, predictably, busy -- but it’s
over now.
I’ve been trying to come up with a list of the races I’ve
run so far this year. I started out the
year with the Resolution Run Half Marathon, and then did another half at the
Famously Hot Half-Marathon in Columbia in March. There was the Green Valley Road Race 8k in
February. It seems like there was
another 5k or 10k or two in there prior to last weekend, but it might be that
the others were in 2011. I’m just not
sure. But I think there was at least a
5k somewhere.
5k races have always been just kind of throw-away events for
me. I mean, they’re a good time, but it’s
just not a distance I’ve ever taken seriously.
I’m not terribly fast, so I suppose that’s led me to focus on the
endurance aspect of running rather than what I’ve considered the more
speed-oriented shorter distances.
Even though I have strayed from strictly following the
schedules therein, my training has largely been based on Coach Roy Benson’s Heart Rate Training, which has
consistently served to slow me down. By
running slower over the last year, I have built up my aerobic capacity and am
able to do longer distances. Really, in
all the races I have run, I find myself finishing the race with lots of energy
left in my tank. When I finished the
Columbia half, I had to go run an extra mile just to burn off some of the
reserves that I had been unable to exhaust in the 13.1-mile race. Every race I’ve run, I end up flying past
people for the last half mile or so.
Every race, that is, until last weekend.
April 21st was Greenville’s RunWalkAdopt 5k. Again, it wasn’t something that I was
particularly excited about, but it was to be the first race after busy season,
and might be a good chance to blow off some steam. The course itself was moderately difficult,
running along hilly parking lots and foot paths rather than roads. Anyway, no big deal of a run. Approaching the end of the race, I decided to
turn it up a notch, as I typically do.
Pass this couple, pass this guy, then approach a short girl and start to
pass her. Have to turn up the gas to
pass her. I start to overtake her, but
she doesn’t want to be passed. I dig in,
kick it up a notch. So does she. I put my pedal to the metal. She doesn’t want to give in. As we approach the finish line, people are
cheering us on. “C’mon! You can beat him!,” they yell to her. I thought I had a step on her, but no luck --
she’s right at my side. In the end, I
beat her by a fraction of a step. The
race website has us both finishing with the same time, but it’s only reporting
to the second. The final difference
between our finish times must have been within a couple of hundredths of a
second.
I had never been too interested in my pace, using it instead
as a broad guide to make sure I am in a good rhythm halfway through a long
race. But this time, I was anxious to go
home to upload my GPS data to my computer to see just what happened at the end
of the race. As it turns out, there was
no illusion. We really did keep getting
faster & faster for the last half mile.
We finished the race at a 5:17 pace, or 11.36 miles per hour. It is probably the fastest that I have ever
run in my life.
This has been a game changer for me. What if I decided to start taking 5k races more
seriously? Would I end up finishing with
more competitive runners? Would I find
more people who will bring out the best in me?
I’ve been to the mountaintop, and I want to go back.
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