I felt really good after last Saturdays race. I've been progressing nicely and I'm nearing my previous best fitness level. Usually when you have back to back weekend races one race goes extremely well and the other you fall a little flat on. Today's weather and a hip issue that started after the race last weekend made this race feel flat. I say 'feel' because looking at my results from last week I'd say they are about the same. It just felt harder today.You could see the humidity in the air this morning. What I thought was a storm rolling was just the sun bouncing off the humidity creating a dark looking sky to the west.
I had a lot of friends racing with me today. I always enjoy having my friends around it makes the day fun. One of those friends was, Paul, a friend since early childhood and this was his first 5K. I was excited for him as I have been following his training since January. He's lost a good deal of weight and has been running on a treadmill very early in the morning. I was looking forward to seeing him run a good race I figured he'd likely finish in the 25 minute range. Also in that friend group was my "Rival" Jason. If you are unfamiliar with this rivalry check my August 2012 blog called "The Rivalry". As you can imagine this put the race on a level a little bit higher than a casual race. It was a "gotta work hard this race to make sure I win" race.
Standing at the start waiting for the gun. National anthem - check, Prayer - check, I'm watching my heart rate monitor as they say 10 seconds to go and it suddenly jumps up. I went from 103 to 143 in a few seconds and I haven't even started running yet. BANG! Gun goes off and we fly out of the gate. Two younger kids maybe freshmen in high school really turn on the burners and I look at my buddy Brian and tell him to go run with them. Brian is a bit faster than me, so he's one guy I'm not worried about beating he's 150 pounds and 23. I don't stand a chance. Jason, on the other hand, had started out a little behind me. Though I didn't pay much attention because Paul was running shoulder to shoulder with me. I look at my watch and we are keeping a 5:45 min/mile pace. Too fast for me and I figure way too fast for Paul. All I could think was "poor guy is going to be hurting by the half mile mark".
Just before that half mile I settled into a fairly comfortable 7:20 pace as I watched Paul continue to pull ahead I figured he was running about a 7:10 pace. Jason, at this point, wasn't even a blip on my radar. I figured he hadn't done any training and was cruising 15 to 20 seconds behind Paul and I. With the mile mark within site I was just concerned about Paul. I thought for sure he would stop to walk or slow down a bunch just after the mile mark, maybe stop for a drink at the water table. In my arrogant, elitist head I could not comprehend not being able to keep up with him. I checked my watch to see how my pace and heart rate was. I looked because I figured maybe I was going slow. Unfortunately my pace was decent and my heart rate was already up in the upper 170's which meant I couldn't kick up the pace without paying for it before the end of the race. The humidity was taking it toll early.
It was a smaller race so by this point the runners had really thinned out. I was in that all too familiar spot of no one near enough to chase down or run with just to keep pushing the pace. All I had was Paul a good distance in front of me and he was not showing any signs of slowing down as we hit the halfway point. He looked smooth and comfortable. I battled on just trying not to lose any more ground on him. I figured maybe in the last quarter mile I could kick it up and take him, but it wasn't looking promising.
So there I am running thinking "good for him he's really killing this run" really exceeding my expectations and I'm all like "whoa is me", what's wrong with me. All this hard training and this is all I have to show for it. I can't even keep up with this noob? It's hard to be happy for someone when your own world isn't going so well. I tried though. I really thought a lot about how hard he worked to get here and that he gets up super early every morning and goes to the gym before going to work. Running on that boring human hamster wheel. I come to realize he puts in a harder effort than me. He earned this. Truly I am happy for him. I'm just not happy with myself, but why do I have to be so concerned about me? Good grief I need a shrink!
While I'm still trying to work through these issues in my head I catch up to one of the kids that sprinted out of the gate at full speed. Poor kid hit the wall just before mile 2, he was spent. I shouldered up with him and he ran with me for a ways before finally falling off. I too was gearing down a bit trying to lower my heart rate and recover a little before pushing into the final mile. I thought maybe I can get comfortable enough to push in the last half mile. It was about this time that I heard the clomp, clomp, clomp and heavy breathing of Jason. I knew it, I knew it before I even turned around to verify it. I know the foot falls and I know the breathing anywhere. The turd must have been riding my shoulder the whole time. keeping me in arms reach and now as I slow up just a little he makes his move. I can't go with him now. I need to recover or it's over.
We hit a small downhill that leads to the 2 mile mark and I figure I'll take advantage of the downhill to pick up some speed without pushing the heart rate up. Jason comes with. We were chugging along at about a 6:50 pace and making up ground on Paul. I think to myself "this is good and bad". Good because as a group we can really push each other. Bad because we have a mile left and I'm hurting and my heart rate is approaching the 180's. I can't sustain 185 for very long once I hit it. We caught Paul and I clapped him on the shoulder to let him know he was doing a great job. That was enough to give him a boost of adrenaline help him run with us and sure enough he did as we hit Addelman St. We ran shoulder to shoulder to shoulder for a good three and a half minutes. Then Paul fell off pace and Jason picked it up. I wanted to fall off pace too. I was hurting. Now I traded Paul for Jason in front of me. Can't I catch a break?!. I would rather lose to Paul.
Jason did a great job gaping me. He had a good 8 second lead on me as we turned on to Harris dr. with a little less than a half mile to go. I could hear the first runners being announced as they crossed the finish line. It was encouraging to hear the pain was almost over. I didn't know if I could make up the 8 seconds on Jason before the end. I had to hope that he would have to walk. Then I had to hope he wouldn't start running again just as I caught up. Then I hoped I would just die because I knew the last quarter mile was going to be all push and pain. I passed him and shortly after I could hear him pick it up again. We turned down the last street and I decided then and there that if he wanted to catch me he was going to have to work hard to do it. I picked it up to a 6:48 pace and pushed. My heart rate was 187 and I hoped that I could maintain for this last quarter mile. At mile three we make a slight turn to run up the driveway with a tenth of a mile left before we hit the finish line. I took the opportunity to peak over and see what kind of gap I had. As I feared there wasn't much of one and Paul was right behind him. I looked at my watch and prayed my heart wouldn't explode pushing 190 bpm. I started to sprint dipping into the 5 min miles and eventually 4:58 by the finish and peaking at 194 bpm. I had held him off, won today's battle without my heart exploding. Next rivalry race will be the Minooka 5K in June.
nice!
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