Last year, I ran this same race at the end of a tough season that had really taken a toll on me. Surprisingly, I ended up taking third in my age group, but didn’t even realize it until I was back in California. This year, since I had recently been doing a lot of speed work for shorter distances, I just extended that training over the last few weeks to get ready to race this event again with the hopes of (A) running a PR for the course and (B) placing in my age group again. What I was unable to rain for, however, was the 21 degree race-day temperature. Warming up was pretty much out of the question, so about thirty seconds after the start, everything tightened up and the cold dry air made my lungs hurt the whole way. The first mile is all uphill and I had a 6:16 split which boded well for a course PR, but the second mile has a lot of steep ups and downs and took me 6:26, which negated any banked time from that first mile. By this time I couldn’t feel my fingers at all and I tasted something metallic like blood. Fortunately, the last mile is all downhill and I ran it in 5:50, picking up the pace even more for that last tenth of a mile.
My lungs have never hurt so bad as at the end of that race. Every time I coughed and spit I expected to see blood (just some nice chunky phlegm later in the day though). But, it was worth it because I beat my time last year by about 3 seconds and took third in my age group again. Considering that it was twenty degrees colder than last year, I moved up to an arguably tougher age group, and there were 25% more runners, this was no small feat for me. Looking at rankings as a percentage, I did better this year than last as well.
I took a “victory lap” by running the 6.7 miles back to my parents’ place, after sticking around to collect my medal this time. When I got back, I checked the local newspaper’s website and saw my picture in an article about the race. I think I also set a PR for getting sick – never has a chest and head cold come on so quickly!
So, that makes three 5Ks I’ve run in NY now, and in all three I’ve placed. Maybe there’s something to that.
Time: 0:19:10 chip (0:19:13 gun) Pace: 6:11 chip (6:12 gun)
Place: 32/2512 Overall, 31/1107 Men, 3/99 M35-39
Age Graded: 69%
Just thing how sick you would have been without the lumberjack beard and hat.
That’s an excellent point, detective.
Next time we race, let’s make it in a warmer area – or at least a warmer time of year. In all likelihood though, it will probably be the same race next year, huh?
Supposedly I will have a lot of free time next year, so I was planning on training hard in fall/winter for marathon distance races in the spring, maybe even a full Tri. Interviews go down in Winter, so hopefully I’ll be interviewing at places near you and I could stay an extra day for a race. That would be great!
You’re on!