So I got a call on Wednesday from my coach and he said, "Sean, I just finished certifying a course up in Mill Creek and I think it's a PR course. It's flat and fast." So I decided to run it. Then my wife reminded me she had an early morning committment on Saturday so it wasn't going to work. So I ran 11 miles on Friday and lifted weights...something I wouldn't have done had I been racing the next day. When I got back from my run and weightlifting on Friday, my wife said her meeting got cancelled so we could go run the race.
When I got there an hour before the race, I learned that they had run out of bibs. This is a race that was 700 in size last year and this year they had run out of all 1500 bibs. Fortunately, I had been in contact with the race director in the days prior so I found him and he hooked me up with one.
The whole bib mess meant my normal two-mile warmup became a 1/2 mile warm up with a few strides. Oh well.
I toed the line with three of the female Olympic Trials qualifiers from the area and one of the other two males from the state of Washington, Mike Sayenko. Mike is a good friend and we train together from time to time. He had a great race at the Trials and I believe he was the youngest finisher in that race. He has a great future.
Anyway, I led out for the first mile with Mike right on my tail. The first mile was anything but flat. There weren't any steep hills per say, but it just kept going up. The first 1/4 mile was in a very slow 77 seconds. Yikes. I was hoping for 73-74. After the quarter the inclines kept coming. We finally crested at about the 1 mile mark and my split was well off of what I had hoped for 5:08. Ugh. To make things worse, I felt like I had run the 4:55 I was shooting for but had only a 5:08 to show for it. The first half of the second mile was pretty flat. The second half had quite of few quick downhill bursts along the bike path. It was at this point Mike passed me. Knowing how fast he is and not knowing how far behind the pack was, I didn't go with him. More on that later. Mile 2 came in at 4:56. More like it but it was a net downhill mile. I was pretty tired. At this point, it was pretty clear I woudn't catch Mike so I was focused on maintaining pace so I could preserve 2nd place which was worth $300 and a free pair of shoes.
Mile 3 was in 5:00. Mile 3 was mostly flat except for a hill at the end. The bigger challenge with Mile 3 was it was along a bike path that had some pretty sharp turns. Finishing time was 15:44, 9 seconds slower than my PR from two weeks ago. It's funny with these shorter races. Nine seconds in a marathon is nothing, but nine seconds in a 5k is a lot.
So I have this problem. I feel like I'm a four gear car in a five gear world. In two consecutive races, I've let the eventual winner pass me and I haven't been able to go with them. I think part of it is a mental barrier. I'm in the marathon mindset which has me thinking..."be patient, the race is long. Don't do anything stupid." Part of it is also physical. I think I need to do some more training that is focused on quickness...whether those be 200 or 400 repeats or simply adding some strides to several of my regular runs. I need that fifth gear badly.
Overall, I loved the course even though it wasn't really a PR course per se. It was beautiful and well supported and the prizes were great. | 