2009 Survivor Outback 5k
Sheffield, AL
July 25, 2009
Official Results
The question of the day is 'How bad do you want it?' Today I refused to settle for a certain position and when the hurt had long since set in, I pushed even harder.
In our annual assault on the 5k road racing scene, Joey Butler and I made the trip over to Sheffield, AL from Huntsville this morning in chase of the infamous boomerang that comes with a top spot in the Survivor Outback 5k. Last year I was out lasted at the end by Jason Reneau by a mere 3 seconds. Jason was off running the San Francisco Marathon today, so I knew that he would not be there, but that there were plenty of fast Shoals runners to make this a competitive event.
After our warm up, Joey and I spotted Dennis Eaton, Heath White and Hirbo Hirbo from the Shoals and Lucas Sieb from Scottsboro. On any day, these guys were all capable of winning this race and running sub 17. The Survivor course features an out and back around a cone, then drops down toward the river in the fastest first mile and a half of any 5k around. Then after running through a church parking lot, the course loops back on itself and climbs back up to the Outback Steakhouse.
From the gun, Lucas and Hirbo were off very fast. They were followed by Dennis Eaton and then me and Heath. I had no intention of holding back in this race so the fact that the first 1/2 mile went by in 2:33 (5:06 pace) did not scare me. I could not stay with the top two but if I could hold a fast pace down the hill, I'd have a fighting chance to out climb the rest of the field.
Dennis stayed ahead of me through the mile split (5:15) but as we ran down the hill, he was either coming back to me or I was closing the gap on him. Heath was very close as I could hear him breathing right behind me. We eased back a little to just under 5:30 pace by the base of the hill before the short, but very steep climb up into the church parking lot. It felt like we were crawling up this hill to make the loop around the aid station. As we were making the loop, Hirbo, followed by Lucas, came back out and headed back. They were running together so like the rest of us, the hill climb would be the deciding factor. I grabbed some water for a quick sip and splash on my head that really ended up not hitting my head at all.
As we started the climb, what I thought would be be strength, turned out to be my weakness. I don't think that he surged at all, but as I slowed, Heath passed me by and quickly put 10 meters on me. I stayed with him though to not let the gap get too big.
It was just then that out of no where, Dennis slowed to a walk and grabbed his side. I am not sure what happened, but I can only imagine that it was a side cramp. Like a miracle, I had gone from 5th into 4th overall. That was just the lift that I needed, mentally. We rolled through the 2 mile mark at just under 11 minutes.
I decided that instead of settling for 4th place I was going to dig hard and try to go for 3rd. What I decided to do was to throw in calculated surges to close the gap. From 2 miles to 2.5 miles I would push hard for 20 right strides and then back down to my starting pace for 20 strides. The point would be to close the gap, leaving enough time to pull ahead at the top of the hill. I was already running as hard as I could, so the 20 hard strides really was exhausting, but just as planned, I pulled even as we crested the hill.
From there, I decided that since we were running into a head wind, that I would tuck in head Heath and let him do the work for awhile. I employed the same strategy the week before at Twilight and I was able to save enough energy to pull ahead at the the end, so I tried it here. I stayed stride for stride behind him until we were at the 2.75 mile mark. At this point I knew that it was now or never. I slide out, and gave a 40 stride push and created a gap. I rested slightly into the 3 mile mark, but then pushed again for 20 more strides to the last turn around corner. I glanced back for the first time and saw that these last two pushes were enough to seal the deal on 3rd place.
I made the turn and coasted into the finish at 17:27 and 7 seconds ahead of Heath for 3rd place overall.
I refused to settle for 4th and I was willing to hurt in order to make the top 3. I ran smarter in the last mile than I did in any other race in quite some time, knowing my competition and with calculated surges, was able to pull even and then safely ahead at the end.
So the answer to the question of 'How bad do you want it?' is that I wanted it and I was willing to hurt to get it; but I wouldn't have been able to do it, had I not felt that kind of hurt in training before. Do today what the other guy won't, so that you can do later, what the other guy can't - that's my motto.
Hirbo held Lucas off in the end for the overall win. I commend those two and Heath for the great competition on this day.
Fleet Feet Racing Huntsville took 3rd OA (Eric), 5th OA & 1st M35-39 (Shane) and 20th OA & 3rd M40-44 (Joey).
# Name Age Time
1 Hirbo Hirbo, 23 16:10
2 Lucas Sieb, 16 16:22
3 Eric Charette, 33 17:27
4 Heath White, 26 17:34
5 Shane O'Neill, 37 18:14