What had initially been planned as a local 5k at a track with friends since we weren’t able to make it to DC for our 10th annual race (thanks, baby) turned out to not actually be missing the race thanks to COVID; it was made virtual! So the streak continues. The only difference was I wasn’t able to run with help, which I really could have used.

If you’ve kept up over the years, I pretty much quit running in 2009 after trashing my hamstrings with marathon, tried to recover for a few years and more or less gave up, taking up cycling in 2014. I still continue put in a few miles a week, and throw together some speed training for the few months leading up to this event, but at ~10 miles per week over two runs for a few months a year it’s really negligible. The rest of the year the focus is entirely on cycling. Somehow, I keep getting faster. If my legs would hold up and allow me to put in a solid year or so of training, I may even set lifetime bests (I was quick in high school). Alas, it may not happen and that’s okay.

2013 – 18:13
2014 – 18:54
2015 – 18:50
2016 – Injured, walked
2017 – 18:28
2018 – 18:13
2019 – 18:05
2020 – ?

Training this year was a mixed bag. I wasn’t hitting the times of previous years, but the volume of my
speed work was nearly doubled; previous years had shown I had the speed do reach the sub-18:00 goal, but lacked the endurance to hold it. Endurance I did have tons of, but not fast endurance. I battled a pretty terrible knee pain through the entire first part of the year and had thoughts of calling it all off. I must have lightly sprained my old skiing injury? For two months I was walking every day with a limp, but it seemed to have gotten better with a few weeks to go. I took a day or two easy in there, but for the most part didn’t miss much training. Regardless, I need to have it looked at when doctors open back up. Might be time to fix it right.

So the race… Luckily, baby girl decided to stay put and allow me to focus on myself for one final time in my life. The track nearest our house is “open,” but gated to prevent crowds; Rebecca would not be hopping the fence as I do every week for my workout. Instead, we had to take a chance and drive 15 minutes (she needs to pee every 10) to the next nearest high school, which was open, and allowed her to be my timer and cheering squad (she’d admit she did neither ?). Weather was rough the day before and we had pockets of rain, but as if Mom knew what needed to happen, the skies cleared, the sun came out, the breeze died down, and aside from a wet track, I had no excuses in terms of conditions.

Before we get into the actual run, I should be clear that not all 5ks are created equally. Whether you run on a road or a track, you’re always running more than 5000 meters. Some races are significantly longer, but that’s no reason I shouldn’t get a proper 5k time out of it, right? To account for that, and for the fact I have no good way to pace myself other than my GPS watch, I count my time as what my uploaded time for 5000 measured GPS meters comes out to; for this “race,” it would be a dozen or two meters short of 12.5 official laps.

86 second quarter miles equate to 5:46 miles, which equate to a 17:55 race time. Nice, even, and gives me a small buffer to work with. 40 opening 200 (to get us to twelve 400 splits remaining). A bit fast, but I’m excited. 82 – oops still a little fast, but feels fine. 87, that’s alright maybe compensated too much. 85, 85, 87, 85, 86, 87, 87 I don’t have much more in me and I can feel the pace leaving, but less than a mile to go. PUSH. 88, 88 shit, did I ruin it? Everything for this last one. 83. Total? 17:50. Sub-18 achieved. I would have loved to run the full 12.5 laps rather than relying on the GPS time, but I kind of feel like I did what I’ve been hoping to do for so many years.

On the other hand, this is going to nag me until I do it in a full race sooooo…. Next year, DC, with competition, but maybe not too much so I have a shot at winning the race. I’m also due for new racing flats so maybe I can get some of those that promise to make you faster?