Yeah, yeah, I know I only seem to post here when it’s to report on a race that went well, but let’s be honest, those are the most fun to read, right? So let’s fast forward right from that December 10K to the first installment of the 2015 Al Goldstein Speed Series on May 20.
I wasn’t sure what kind of fitness I’d bring to this weeknight 5K; I didn’t think I was in PR shape and agreed to try to pace Gabby to break her own PR, even though I wasn’t entirely sure I even had that in me after no interval work in months. Then the day of the race arrived and I felt off/nauseated for most of it. I wavered between skipping the race entirely, fun running it, or still gutting it out. I ultimately told Gabby I was still going to try to run “fast” (whatever that meant) and see how long I could hold it without having to potentially pull over and throw up. I had nothing to lose, right? (Except my dignity, I guess).
This year’s course has almost completely reverted to the original one, meaning the main uphill comes in the first half mile. I liked that: over and done with before the race has even begun. The horn went off and away we went. I snuck a few peeks at my watch before the hill and saw the pace bounce between 7:10 and 7:30. Yikes. We somehow trucked up the hill at a faster pace than when I ran the Al Gordon 4-miler in February (granted, it was 18 degrees that morning and there was no feeling in my feet). Mile 1 clicked off in 7:36. Decent, I thought, and then, I feel disgusting right now. I told Gabby I thought I might puke at any second, so she should keep going if I couldn’t stay with her. My watch got messed up at this point and reflected an 8:30 pace, and I willed myself to keep up the same effort level to get this thing over with no matter what pace I saw. No crawling to the end; the faster we run, the faster we’re done.
Just before mile 2, another teammate, Kristen, caught up to me. We choked out some encouragement and lamented about going out too fast, hoping we wouldn’t lose it at the bottom of the downhill we were currently cruising through. Mile 2: 7:37. How did I hold on to even splits? I wondered. I could still see Gabby ahead, but I knew there was no closing the gap as long as this was still about survival. Still sure that the slowdown would come on the flats, I didn’t think anything of the 7:00 pace flashing on my watch at the bottom of the hill. Kristen and I traded our leads every few seconds, and when we got to mile 2.5 I looked down and saw the 7:33 average on my watch—my PR pace. I knew if I could just hang on, I could do it: break down the three-year-old PR I’d set on this very course, even if only by a second. Math beyond calculating an 8:00 pace was not happening at that moment, so I gave myself rough overestimates: at 800 meters to go, four more minutes; at 400, two more, and at 200, come on, you can do anything for just one minute, leave it all out here! Mile 3 was over in 7:23. I saw 23:20 when the finish clock came into view and knew it would be close. I crossed the finish and told Gabby to move over and make room where she was sprawled across the pavement next to the chute (she’d finished a few seconds before). I looked at my watch and was happy with all four numbers:
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The third-place age-group award didn’t hurt, either!
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PRs all around for Gabby, Hilary, and me!
My official result was 23:26, so only a personal best by two seconds, but a PR is a PR. I’m happy with this for a couple of reasons. For starters, I did not go into this feeling 100% (try maybe 25%). I knew going into this that I’d have something faster in me than whatever I ran, whether the pace was 7:30 or 9:30. Therefore, I now know I surely have a faster PR in me (sub-23, anyone?). Second, I haven’t done a lick of speedwork since the NYC Half more than two months ago. I’ve kept up with a decent weekly mileage of ~28–30 mpw, but those have been almost exclusively easy-pace miles. It was undoubtedly a much-needed off-season after half-marathon training for nearly a year, but in recent weeks I’d been seriously doubting what kind of fitness (or lack thereof) I’d be bringing when it came time to kick off Chicago Marathon training in June. I didn’t think I’d be at the same level of being in the best shape of my life when I ran my previous PR in 2012, so I’m elated to think I might even have an edge on that for this go around. More on that when it’s officially underway!
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