Leading into this race I had a very good week of training, coming off of a colossal disaster at the Fleet Feet Monte Sano 15km where I walked off the course just before the 5 mile mark, having averaged just under 5:45 pace to that point. I have been battling some personal issues and they got the better of me that day. This week I was able to put together a good VO2max session on Tuesday, totaling 5.8km of speed at 5:16 pace. After a trail/hill workout on Wednesday, I rolled through a great tempo run on Thursday on the Panorama loop. Instead of the normal 10 miler, I dropped further down closed Bankhead, making it a full mile climb to the top. I averaged 6:24 pace for 11 miles, after an easy 7:15 first warm up mile. All in all I was feeling confident again.
After running two loops of the course on race morning for 10km of warm up, I went through some pre-race strides, high knees and butt kicks to loosen up. The weather was perfect with temperatures in the lower 50's and despite this course having some difficult climbs and 15 turns, I was feeling that today was my day. Standing at the starting line talking to Nike Fleet Feet Racing Team mate Donald Bowman, he said that after the race last week, I was probably ready to have a very good run; that would yet to be seen. The competition was stout as always with dozens of top runners across the line.
The first mile of this race is a mix of a fast start across 5 lanes of Lowe Avenue before making right-left-right-left set of turns, climbing to the city square and dropping back down from the square. I wanted to be around 5:20 for the first mile, hoping to put some time in the bank before the hills of the final mile. After the pack thinned out, I found myself running in the top 10 aside Brandon York and Brad Schroeder; Brad typically starts slow and picks up the pace as the race goes on and that was Brandon's strategy as well. Together we split the first mile in about 5:20 and I was feeling very good. The speedwork I have been doing at just faster than this pace with minimal recovery made this pace not as strenuous as it has been in the past.
Brandon and Brad began to pull away as we turned onto Holmes, but I knew that I was not competing against them anyway, so I honestly lost track mentally of where they were and just tried to focus on my form, including my arm swing and stride rate. The second mile is climbing the entire mile along Holmes, Walker and White Streets, gaining about 30' in elevation; while this is not the hardest climb, when you are running at this pace it can be difficult. My second mile split was about 5:25 as the clock at the 2-mile mark was showing 10:45. I knew that in order to break 17 minutes, my splits needed to be 5:28, 10:56 and 16:24, so I was ahead of schedule with the difficult hills of the course ahead.
I got a slight mental lift coming down Randolph as I ran past my Boss, who today was blowing a vuvuzuela as part of his crazy race antics. I was also slightly closing in on the two runners ahead of me which was an amazing feeling. We made the turn onto Greene, which is about a 25' steep climb before it flattens out. Normally I would be gasping for air trying to run race pace up this hill, but based on my conditioning I was able to hold strong and close even more on 6th place. The final climb along Williams was another short climb of 30' and it was a mirror image of Greene Street as I was able to close even more and feeling the rush of adrenaline. I knew that if I had a chance to move up, it had to be on the hills, as the final stretch would be tough as most top notch runners would be able to hold it coming home.
Making the final turn onto Adams begins the best finishing stretch of any race in this area. The road drops about 55' over a quarter mile before a flat finish atop fresh blacktop which makes for spring-like surface. I took about a half dozen strides to catch my breath from the hill climb and now was running wide open. I glanced at my watch several times enroute to the finish and each time the instantaneous pace was under 5 minute miles each time. I didn't have time to think about it which was probably a good thing as I was just running by feel. Brandon Mader was proving his fitness level by running faster than that and slowly pulling away from me. I was trying to stay with him, but now realized that it was about the clock and trying to post a personal best time.
There was not a split at the 3-mile mark, but I could start to see the clock as we crossed Lowe Ave and it was in the low 16's. The side of the streets were lined with hundreds of people cheering and screaming and I let them carry me through the finish line. The final 1.1 miles was run in 5:50, meaning my final mile split was probably about 5:15. I normally save the fist pump for very special races or performances, like the Boston Marathon, but on this day it was totally justified as I finished in 16:36. Looking back just a few months ago I thought that I would never see the under side of 17 minutes for a 5km, let alone anything below my previous best of 16:42, set in December of 2008 but I would be proved wrong on this day. I would manage a 7th place overall finish and 1st in my age group of M30-34 of 677 runners. I love a race where the top 8 are under 17 minutes and the top 2 are under 16 minutes for the sake of pure competition.
After another of the course with friends, I then jumped into the women's race and paced along friend and team mate Lisa Rawlings. I knew that she had the potential to post a fast time, but was always afraid to push through the pain. She tried to look at a her watch a few times and I told her that she should just run how she felt; something that I had just proved to be valid. She ran a great race and cut 40 seconds off of her personal best to run 20:51 for 5th overall.
In the hours before the race, I was looking for some motivation and I turned to my favorite quote by Steve Prefontaine.
"A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more. Nobody is going to win a 5,000 meter race after running an easy 2 miles. Not with me. If I lose forcing the pace all the way, well, at least I can live with myself." - Steve Prefontaine
It was my goal today to push the pace, and when I didn't think that I had any more, to push even harder and that is what I did. Thanks Steve, I think you would be proud today.
