Going Long (again) in 2024

Yuck!  I am decidedly NOT happy with my race last night in Lively.  A full minute slower than I planned.  And I can see no real reason for it.  Not a good way to launch into my full marathon training program today.

My kilometer splits were:  4:03  (6:30/mile)     4:14  (6:48/mile)     4:26   (7:07/mile)     4:19 (6:56/mile)  and  4:25 (7:07/mile).  That gave me an average overall of 4:17/km or 6:54/mile  (was aiming for sub 4:10/km or a sub 6:45/mile).  

Like my 10k the week before, this was an evening race, beginning at 7pm.  I do NOT like evening races!  It was hot and sticky all day, and there was a stiff wind which also felt hot.  The temperature was 23 C with a humidex reading of 28 C.  That's 74 F with a humidex of 83 F.  So, similar to my 10k conditions the week before.

I ate a full meal at 3:30 pm, which was fine.  A banana 75 minutes before and a gel 45 minutes before.  I warmed up by running about a mile.  Never having run a 5k event previously, I looked up strategies on the internet and found that running the 1st mile a bit faster than overall goal pace was the way to go.  So, I did that.  However, I ended up slowing down below my goal pace after that, and I just could not push my body to go faster.

The course was uncertified ... and timing was done with a stopwatch.  Pretty low tech and informal.  My GPS watch showed the course to be fairly accurate, and showed me running 37 meters further than 5k, which is normal.  My guess is they used a GPS to mark the course.

Physically, I felt fine.  I think what did me in was the heat/humidity and the hills.  Of those, there were a fair number.  The 1st km was relatively flat, but the second featured two significant climbs and one descent.  The third km had three shorter ascents, and it was here that I really began to feel the heat and the wind.  The fourth km had one long slow ascent and one significant descent.  The final km was relatively flat until the second half, which featured a slight descent for about 200 meters, and then the same ascent over the same distance to the finish line.  I do not like uphill finishes!

The 'official' results are not posted yet, so I do not know where I placed in my division.  There were about 100 runners, give or take, and I came in around 25th, I believe.  Some of those young runners posted good times.

I do know that one woman who ran just in front of me the 1st 4 km came in at around my goal time of 20:40.  She pulled ahead in the final km and I just could not keep up with that pace.  Too bad I didn't have any kick left in me.

Oh, my little sister who did the Mayhem with me 10 days ago also ran this.  It was her first road race, and she did very well - had never run faster than a 33:00 5k, and she came in at 30:00.  I'm proud of her.  Disappointed only in that they did not give out t-shirts or finisher medals.  That would have been nice for her. 

Now, some positive:  this WAS my 1st 5k event, so it's automatically a PR.  Woo Hoo!  And, I KNOW I can beat it.  I don't know when I'll run another 5k - for sure not until after my full marathon in November - but I will beat this time for sure.  I'll just have to run in cooler temperatures.

My takeaway is I'm not trained for hot weather, and I do not run hills enough (downside of living in a flat valley).  Of course, the Hamilton Marathon is not hilly (well, at least it's mostly downhill).  Still, I'm going to run my weekly tempo sessions on a hilly course - I'll just have to drive to get to it.  And I'll keep running events of significance to me in cooler temperatures.  I guess I lucked out in Cleveland, as previous years it was quite hot there.  

I have to keep reminding myself that I am better than this time showed.  I mean, the pace at my Cleveland Half for the 1st 5k was pretty much the same as it was for this race.  I know I can do better.  And that's important for me going into my marathon training, because I need to settle on a goal pace for training.  Initially, I was going to train for a 3:25:00 finish in Hamilton, but after Cleveland decided to bump that up to a 3:20:00 finish goal.  My last 2 events, on paper, would show that the 3:25 goal is more reasonable.  However, given the conditions that I believe were responsible for slowing me down, I've decided to still aim and train for the 3:20:00 finish.  It will give me a little more wiggle room in that event if the conditions are poor.  I'll just have to be extra attentive to my body during training to make sure that I'm not pushing myself too hard by overtraining.