Every Race is an Adventure!

Similar to Saturday, because of the holiday weekend I didn't have anyone to run with and no real plans. I finally settled on running the water tank road and ended up leaving at about 7:00am.

It took me most of the mile from home to the base of the water tank road to loosen up. I decided to push the series of five hills pretty hard, focusing on keeping my legs turning over at around the 180/min rate I've mentioned in recent blogs. I felt pretty strong all the way to the top and ran the 1.42 miles uphill in 15:55 (11:15/mi). I feel good whenever I can do it under 17 minutes, so today was a good effort.

Rather than coming back down the hill like we normally do, I decided to drop down the trail that eventually leads down to the mouth of Provo Canyon. I've never been down this way before, and took a couple of wrong turns, but eventually worked my way down to the new homes just east of the golf course. I stopped a couple of times to enjoy the view. I couldn't enjoy it while I was running because I had to watch my footing.

After coming off the hillside, I ran a little over 1.5 miles at an easy pace, around 8:55/mi. At 1200N/800E I decided to step up the pace and averaged 7:33/mi for the last 1.5 miles home. It was very warm this morning, and I was hot when I finished, but otherwise felt pretty good.

Larry didn't show this morning (probably sleeping trying to recover from the holiday weekend). I didn't feel like doing a regular route, so I decided to (more or less) run the Lindon loop backwards and add the big hill up 2000 N on the end for a couple of extra miles.

I was jealous of Kerry averaging an 8:02 pace for his long run on Saturday while I only averaged 8:55, so I decided to start out a little quicker. I ran the first three miles in 8:02, 7:50, and 7:55.

That looks pretty good, except there was some downhill mixed in that I had to pay back with some steady uphill during the next 0.9 miles (9:42/mi).

For the next 1.71 miles (8:18/mi) I ran upstream (slight steady uphill) on the canal road.

I then turned and headed up the big hill on 2000 N for 1.0 mile (10:29/mi). The last 0.25 miles at the top level out a bit. I think my pace for the steep 0.75 miles was about 10:56/mi. I ran the top 0.25 back down at 8:10/mi, followed by 6:55/mi for the steep 0.75 miles down. I wanted to go faster, but my legs were pretty heavy from the hill climbing. I couldn't turn them over as quickly as I'd like and I didn't want to risk falling flat on my face.

I ran the last 0.5 mile down Main St. and back home at 7:11/mi.

My overall pace was 8:25/mi for the 8.15 miles. This is still a little slower than Kerry's average on Saturday, but I mixed in some good hill work so I still feel good about the workout.

I ran alone again this morning. This time I picked the flatter Orem route. It was a little chilly this morning with a cool breeze. I opted for the vest and gloves for the first time in a while.

I think the hard runs of the past couple of days caught up with me. I had a real hard time getting going this morning. I ran 6.4 miles at an easy pace (8:49/mi), but it sure didn't feel easy. A positive was that I got faster as I went along.

As I was running back home the thought struck me that this might be similar to how I'm going to feel on the 3rd leg of the Wasatch Back relay. I ran hard yesterday and the day before, and was feeling sluggish today. My 3rd leg (leg 25 - Hard) is a 4.8 mile run up a 1.8% average grade. I highly doubt I'm going to be feeling much zip in my legs at that point.

I ran the water tank hills with Larry and Wayne this morning. It was nice not running alone again. The pace was a little slower than when I pushed hard solo on Monday, but with a 5K race on Saturday I didn't want to push too hard. We still maintained a steady push up the hills.

My bad knee acted up a little at the beginning of the run, but I don't think it's anything unusual. I don't plan to run on Friday as I taper for the 5K.

I still plan to try once again to break the 20 minute barrier at the 5K, but after riding the course on Tuesday on my motorcycle I can see it's not going to be easy. That first mile looks pretty challenging with the big hill into Mapleton.

I think I'll just try to hang onto Tom for the first mile or two and then try to step on the gas until the tank runs dry as we head back down to the high school and around the track. It's going to require some star alignment for me to reach my goal, but I'm counting on drawing energy from the other runners to hopefully get me over the hump.

Dang! I just remembered a quote Larry shared with me recently from Steve Prefontaine. I googled and found it, and another quote, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Prefontaine.

"The only good race pace is suicide pace, and today looks like a good day to die."

"A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more. Nobody is going to win a 5,000 meter race after running an easy 2 miles. Not with me. If I lose forcing the pace all the way, well, at least I can live with myself."

So now I'm faced with my original plan to hold back a little that first uphill mile, or live on the edge, force the pace all the way, and push (and risk reaching too soon) my mental and physical limits. Strangely, I feel myself being drawn to the latter right now. How can you be sure where the limits are if you never push them? I hope I come to my senses before the gun fires on Saturday morning.

I finished the Nestle Art City Days 5K in 19:53, and finally met my goal of breaking 20 minutes. My splits were 6:37, 6:19, 6:23, and 0:35. (The official results have my time as 19:28...I wish...but their results are suspect.)

I saw Tom as I was picking up my packet and we warmed up for a mile or so. He had warmed up earlier so he turned back and I went a little farther. I made a bathroom stop, warmed up a little more jogging over to and around the track to check out the finish, and then met up with Tom again a little before the start.

Things were a little congested at the start, but as I was able to open up I locked into what I hoped was about a 6:30 pace. It felt a little fast, but I decided to go for it. I noticed one of Tom's buddies just ahead of me. He finished in exactly 20:00 last year, so I figured I needed to stay with him. I felt pretty strong as I pushed up the big hill and was pleased to hear them call out my first mile split at 6:37.

I knew I needed to keep up my effort to run a sub-6:30 pace for the rest of the race. I focused, as I had in the first mile, on keeping my legs turning over at or above 180 steps/min. I was slowly passing a few people, and no one was passing me, and I felt pretty good.

As I began the third mile I was beginning to feel the effects of pushing the first two. It took a lot of mental effort to focus on keeping my legs moving, even though it was mostly downhill. I was struggling a bit, and a few runners passed me (mostly high school kids I think), but I was keeping up with most of the other runners so I was still optimistic.

As I entered the parking lot and then the track I was confident I could hold on. As I passed the 3 mile marker on the track I quickly glanced at my watch and thought I saw 19:1x. I figured I still had 40 to 50 seconds to go half a lap and was going to make it. I then saw a runner a little in front of me that I thought might be in my age division. I decided to play it safe and just pass him, which I did rather easily and finished pretty strongly.

It's good I started and stopped my watch correctly, or I wouldn't know my time. The official results were way off. They showed my time about 30 seconds faster than what I ran. A lot of other runners were saying the same thing. Tom didn't even show up in the results. It turns out anyone who registered this morning before the race were not included in the results, but their times were. They awarded me a plaque for 5th place in my division. Tom's time would have earned 5th in his division as well, but we'll have to wait until they rework and post the results to see the actual results.

The prizes in the raffle were amazing, and nearly all 2000+ entrants stayed for the drawing. Of course, it doesn't matter how great the prizes are if you don't win any of them, which I didn't. It was still an awesome race. I really enjoyed it.