2 different races today with 1 hour of each other. The first was a 5k and then a 10k, so not a 15k all at once. My plan was to go hard on the 5k and use the 10k as a cooldown tempo effort. However, I felt great during the 10k and set a new PR! (I dont usually race 10k). Got up early at 4:30 and took the 5:55 train to get to the race by 8:45. Warmed up and was ready to go for the 9:45 start for the 5k. This was called the "Einsteigerlauf" which means beginner lauf, but I wanted to run a 5k and the last years' times have been competitive. This year, there was no competition. It was basically a solo time trail from the gone and I led coast to coast. I still tried to make it an honest effort, but with no tactical racing, I really hit a hard rhythm and stayed there. Competition really does help times. Splits (In km's): 1-3:10.5 short 2- 3:32.2 long 3- 3:24.0 accurate 4- 3:20.8 5- 3:20.2 Finish time: 16:47, 5:23 pace. I won by over 2:10 and nearly a half-mile. Nonetheless, it was very cool to get to do a victory lap around the stadium (as the race finished with a 300 on the local track. They announced "ya-cob flawwws" kind of cool. Got done and had 2 reporters come talk to me (they said they'd mail me the paper when it comes out. Kind of unexpected. They quickly found out my German isn't flawless, but they switched to english for me. They were shocked to find I came from the USA and that I was also running the 10k. They joked over the loud speaker I had done this as a "warm-up". I really felt like it was a good effort though. Interesting fact for this race is the evenness of pace. Assuming the 1 and 2 markers were off, if you slice the race in half I ran 8:24 for the first 2.5k and 8:23 for the 2nd 2.5k, a 1 second negative split. Just goes with my theory that I was in shape to run quite a ways better with some competition. I was happy with that time though. Got done with the race about 10:00, got a 1.5 mile cooldown/stay warm run in, kind of a weird place to be in. Thankfully, I didn't have any major GI issues like I do sometimes after shorter fast efforts. Must have been somewhat hydrated. At 11 sharp the 10k took off: I started a few rows deep as I wanted to not go out fast. I really did plan on using this as a moderate 37:30ish effort. Here were my splits and they tell the tale better than I can: 1- 3:40.8 2- 3:39.4 3- 3:34.6 4- 3:32.0 5- 3:29.1 (17:56 here at the first 5k, the trend was slowly negatively splitting. At about 3k I took a GU as I was a little taxed from the initial 5k and didnt wanna upset my stomach between races. This actually was one of the smartest things I did all day as that boosted me bigtime the last 5k by the time it kicked in) Also of note, at this point, I was within eyesight of the leaders and was visually gaining on them. I kept getting this crazy notion that I was gonna pull the double victory, but I tried to reign myself in and slowly pick people off , which I was doing in droves 6- 3:38.2 into stiff 15mph headwind, not a fun mile, but I pushed through it 7- 3:32, wind at our backs for the home stretch 8- 3:37.0, 28:44 for 8k, a pace I'm more than happy with
9- 3:31.3 sniffing 3rd place, almost ran the guy down but never did 10- 3:34.5, no victory, but a 4th place finish around the track (2nd 5k split -17:54, a 2 second negative split)
Finish time-- 35:49, 5:45 pace a new PR! Pretty cool to enter the stadium for a final lap and have people telling me "Go Jacob" when I am in a foreign land. The announcer really played up the "yahh-cob" thing which is how they say it here, and I was clearly the only American in the field. Overall thoughts: Very happy with these efforts. I was amazed to have run a PR just an hour after one of my better 5ks to date. Makes me wonder how fast I'd of gone on fresh legs for the 10k. I'd of battled for the win no doubt. The people at the event were awesome, and I even made some friends. Overall, an awesome day of running! One I certainly will not forget! Funny story to finish. After I got done, I was chatting to a German guy who spoke good english. And he asked me "what was that racing strategy you did. You started so slow and then by 3k you passed me and everyone else." I had to have a good laugh as I explained to him was negative-splitting means and how this is a smart way to run. He had never heard of it before! Pretty interesting stuff.
15.43 total miles
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