A Meaningful Race

I just got back last night from a Thanksgiving break of sorts. It was five glorious work-free days spending time with all of my favorite people in the world: my family. In this midst of this break, I ran a race and it turned out to be perhaps one of the most memorable races I will ever run. My brother, sister-in-law and I decided, somewhat on a whim, to run a Thanksgiving Day race. We were looking for something longer than a 5K but shorter than a half-marathon and we ended up choosing a small race in Chisago City, MN called the "Dash 'n Dine Race"; a 5-mile race.

Temperatures on race-morning were PERFECT. Mid-to-upper-40s, mostly cloudy and only a slight breeze. My brother (Tony) and I decided to do a couple of warm-up miles and when we finished those, we realized that we had gone out too early because there was still 30 minutes until the start. After twiddling our thumbs for the next 1/2 hour with nervous stretching and pacing, it was finally time.

I didn't really know to expect as far as a goal-time. I had never run the 5-mile/8K distance and my training over the past month hasn't really been all that focused, I've been concentrating more on weights and injury-prevention than I have on speed or mileage. That said, I had it in my mind that I wanted to come in around 33-33:30 which would have been a 6:36-6:42 mile split. I felt confident that I could achieve that goal.

The race started as all races do: too fast. Through the first mile I was focusing on slowing down to a hold-able pace. There were only a handful a people in front of me through Mile 1 and my brother was way ahead of me by then with another guy running right next to him. About mid-way through Mile 2, I saw the 2nd place guy stop and put his hands on his knees. I thought to myself, "huh, maybe he just started to fast (?) and ran out of gas?" As I drew closer to where he was though, I realized that he was clutching his ankle area and as I approached him I yelled, "hey are you ok?" and he said that his Achilles had popped. I felt bad for him, but only for a second. At that point it was my brother in 1st place and only one person between he and I.

At that point I realized that I had a unique opportunity before me. Tony and I don't get to run too many races together - we've managed to run 3 races this year, but typically it's been about one race per year. We've never had the chance to go 1st and 2nd in any race before and I realized we had that chance in this race. "It might be the only chance we ever get" I thought to myself. Tony had a stranglehold on 1st place so it was up to me...

Around Mile 2 or shortly after the mile 2 mark, I overtook 2nd place. I felt good, but oddly enough it was at that point that I started to doubt whether I could hold the pace I had established. I'm sure this happens to everyone in races; you get to that point there it starts to hurt, but you're only about half-way. This was where it really helped to know that I had a chance to finish 2nd to my brother. I decided that I was going to be damned if I gave up 2nd place, no matter how much it hurt. I shortened up my stride and put my head down. As we hit the mile 4 mark there was a 90 degree turn and so I peeked to see how far ahead I was - my best guess was that I had about a 20-30 second lead on 3rd place. For the last 1/2 mile, the courses for the 5K and 5Mile races joined so I was having to yell to get people to move out of the way. I saw Tony a few hundred yards from the finish and he gave me a high-five and a "Go Adam!". I crossed the finish-line in 31:24 - 2nd place out of 72 finishers in the 5-Mile race.

I suppose there is one caveat to be made. My Garmin measured the course at 4.90 miles, which is within the potential error range for it to have been 5 miles, but more than likely it was closer to the 8K distance of 4.97 miles. Regardless - I consider it an 8K and/or 5M PR, close enough right? Either way, I'm very happy with the time, it absolutely crushed my expectations. Tony got a PR in the race, 29:00 to take home the turkey (literally). It was a pretty disorganized little race, but fun nonetheless. Tony's wife MJ also set a PR in the race and finished in 11th place (2nd overall female). It was a great day all around and a race I will always remember fondly.

Race Report: The Run's For Jack 5K

When I think of an ideal race day I think of the following: mid-to-upper 40s, cloudy or sunny, doesn't really matter and no wind. When I woke up on Sunday morning, it was 46 degrees and raining. I wasn't thrilled about the rain, but I was hopeful it would stop by race-time, which it pretty much did. We had picked up our race packets on Saturday afternoon, so we didn't have any need to get there super early and since it was a short 10 minutes from our house, we didn't have to leave all that early.

It was a little difficult to warm up in the rain, I purposely had worn a different pair of shoes to the race in hopes of keeping my race shoes as dry as I could, but it was almost impossible because I didn't want to wait until the last second to check my gear. At any rate, my legs were feeling fantastic pre-race. I had taken Saturday off, I had pretty much only run slower, longer miles for the past week and my legs were feeling like race horses in the starting gate.

Mile 1:
Because we had run the course earlier in the week, I knew that immediately after mile marker 1, there was a long, somewhat steep hill. In trying to figure on how to best attack this race, I decided that a fast start was the best way to go and I was able to follow form, running a 6:00 mile through mile marker 1. My thinking was that if I ran the first mile a little fast, I would buy some extra time to take it a little slower on the hill which allowed me to conserve my energy a little bit for the 2nd half of the race. It worked. As soon as I hit the hill, I geared down a bit and then resumed pace at the top. The water station at mile 1.5 was a god-send because even despite the slower pace I was still breathing pretty hard.

Mile 2:
Mile 2 was a series of rolling hills. I couldn't really tell if this was detrimental to speed or not because for every small uphill, there was a small downhill so I figure it probably evened itself out. I knew something was wrong though then I passed the mile 2 marker at 10:45. In order for that to have been true I would have had to have just completed a 4:45 mile on a very hilly section of the course and well...that couldn't be right, I've never run a 4:45 mile in my life! A few of us started saying out loud that it must be wrong and we were all in agreement, but kept plugging along.

Mile 3:
The course evened out a bit over mile 3 which had me actually feeling good going into the final stretch. In a 5K, it always feels like the 1st half is so hard and then your body adapts and gets used to working really hard and then just when you start to feel good, it's over. In this race I happened to know where the finish line was and I kept looking at my watch thinking, "I'm gonna blow my PR out of the water!" I crossed the finish line at 18:03 fist pumping and the whole bit (would have been a PR by over 2 minutes). Then I started to think about it. I remember thinking that we had made a premature turn somewhere before mile marker 2. Then I heard a few people talking about a "2.9 mile PR". I noticed that the female winner of the race who had finished just behind me had been wearing a Garmin GPS watch so I asked her how far it was...2.88 miles. I found out later from the men's winner that the lead-bikers had made a wrong turn...slightly before mile 2...that ended up shaving about 0.20.

I don't think I've yet overcome the disappointment I feel that the race wasn't the full distance. It's not often that you get PERFECT racing conditions and my body has never felt that good leading up to a race...so it's disappointing to me that I didn't even had a chance to run my first-ever sub-20:00 5K. I take a little solace in knowing that I was on-pace for it and likely would have done it had the race been the full distance, but I can't say that "without a doubt" I would have done it. Having said that, I'm still very pleased with my time. My 6:16 pace through 2.9 miles was easily the fastest I've ever run in a race and my 6:00 Mile 1 was the fastest mile I've run since high school. This race removed any lingering doubts I have had about my ability to run a 5K under 20:00 so I am grateful for that.

My wife, Leslie (her race report here), also ran in the race and set a 2.9 mile PR and I was very proud of her. Only a few weeks removed from having her wisdom teeth taken out and other medical ordeals, she is almost back to where she was and is looking to make massive leaps forward in the next year or so. She thinks that she is going to have to get used to not PRing every race, but I think she will continue to improve race after race for awhile. We're both looking forward to our next race which will be Nov. 12th in Villa Park.