Saturday the 4th was race day for my 5 mile run. I have done a handful of 5k races (3.1 miles), but this was my first race of a longer distance, and it was not necessarily going to be my easiest course that I had done either.
Virtually the first half of the race was all up hill, a total climb of 378 feet. Once again not a ton for people that are used to running in the trails, but considering it was a longer distance than I had raced before, I was not exactly sure on how to pace myself.
I knew on a flat course, I could do 9:30min/mile pace for well over an hour without running into problems, but this is a race in my own town and I had run parts of this course a few times before. The main hill I had never done faster than a 12:00-12:30min/mile pace, albeit I had never raced it before.
What I had decided to do with my plan was to take the first mile and its incline at around a 9:40-10:00min/mile pace (trying to find somewhere comfortable so I did not burn myself out), and then I was going to try the big hill and the second mile at a 10:30min/mile pace. My hope was going to be that I reached the 2 mile mark at around 20-21 minutes. From there it would be 3 miles to the end or a 5k race that would be for the most part down hill. I was going to just cut loose on the downhill parts, run as fast as my legs would let me go while I regained my breath from the hills. I was hoping to run the last 3 miles in around 30 minutes and was aiming for a 50 minute time for the entire course.
The fastest that I had run this course before was a little under 1 hour, when just running it at a casual pace on my own so I felt 50 minutes was entirely within my grasp...
I ran a quick 1/2 mile to warm up and then it was race time!
As normally happens on these races, at the start everyone bolts out running super fast in the easy initial straight away. I usually fall guilty of that myself, and found this time I was running along at a 8:40 pace to start. I quickly reigned that in before I blew up my entire plan and I found a good group of people running at the pace that I wanted. I pretty much just fell in with them and made it to the first mile marker at 9:40. Everything so far was going according to plan, but the tough part was about to start.
The second mile was entirely up hill, a climb of 155 feet with no rest at all. I had an idea of what I would run it pace wise, but didn't focus any on my watch and instead tried to just run with the same effort that I had been using. I wanted to make sure that I was not worn out at the top of the hill. I started passing a few people on the hill as they started walking, and then passed a whole bunch more people that stopped at a water station that was about 1/10th of a mile from the top of the hill. I normally do not drink water during my runs as it has not been hot enough yet to need it on such a short distance. I didn't stop for this one either, honestly didn't feel that I needed it. I made it to the top of the hill and the second mile marker at 20:05, pretty much exactly where I was hoping that I would be in best case. I ran my second mile in a 10:20 pace and felt home free at this point. I was on pace for roughly a 49 minute finish but had some easy segments coming up.
The third mile was mostly flat, there was a little downhill followed by a small up hill in the center of town. This is when I settled in on my normal race pace of about 9 min/mile. I felt good even after the hills and still felt fresh. My two days off helped my legs tremendously and I was enjoying the run tremendously. Running through the center of town uphill, I passed quite a few more people including one guy who talked with me as we ran for 20 seconds or so. He asked me how much more uphill was left and i pointed and told him almost done until the very end. He then said thanks I'm going to take a break and stopped right there to catch his breath
I got through the third mile at 29:08, I ran that mile in a 9:05min/mile pace and was just now getting to the fast part of the course.
The fourth mile was pretty much 200 feet downhill the entire time. It required absolutely zero effort from my breathing and I ran as fast as my legs would let me. I found there were alot of people in this part that were just afraid to run fast and I passed many of them. I felt like a real runner at this point, everyone always says that races are much more fun when you start out conservatively and then pass people the entire race and they are right. It is not as much fun running out of steam and being the one being passed, so this felt really good. I hit the 4th mile marker at just under 37 minutes, I had run at a 8:01min/mile pace in that mile and at this point would have to break a leg or something to not make my goal time of 50 minutes.
The final mile had some small up and downhills during it. Nothing as large as the first few miles, but after the downhill I was starting to feel my legs a little bit. The fifth mile was probably the toughest one for me in the entire race. I think it started being more a psychological thing more than a physical one. I knew that I had been doing well and my body was trying to let off the gas a little bit. I looked down at my watch at one point and saw that I was up to a 10:00min/mile pace and willed my legs to start moving faster again. The last 2-3/10ths of a mile were all uphill though and at that point my heart rate had worked itself up into zone 4-5 but the race was almost done. I pushed and pushed and saw the finish line. I saw my mother on the side with my kids there watching and I flashed them a sign and smiled for them and then booked to the finish!
Going to see if I can embed the finish video here: