Hello Runners.
Yesterday I raced the DCRRC (Washington DC Road Runners) 10k at Fort Hunt Park in Alexandria, VA.
Big Shout Out to DCRR for putting on a race, an actual road race, during Covid. Protocols were put in place, wear a mask and go out in groups of 10 or less - each group spaced by about 30” at the start. About 50 runners total with no fanfare, but plenty of good ol’ competition.
The weather was perfect - clear sky, low 40’s, and little wind. The course is 5 loops around the park, with gradually rolling hills. About 30’ of up/down per 1.2 mile loop. I set my PR on this course last March, right before Covid shut everything down. 37:43; 6:04 pace.
At 8:00 sharp the Director said “Okay 6:00 pace and faster come on up”. I hesitated, but figured the next wave will not be 6:05 pace, but more like 6:30 or 7:00 pace - so I stepped forward with another 8 or so runners in the “first wave”.
Off we went, pulled our masks off and 4 of us quickly settled into 6:00 pace. Two younger lads and two old folks (my teammate Pete and I are both in our mid 50’s). About 2 miles in one of the younger lads dropped down to 5:55 pace or so, 3 of us held the 6:00 pace. We crossed 5k around 18:35.
This would have been a 5k PR a couple years ago, I was 5” / mile ahead of my current 10k PR pace, and I was feeling - well - comfortable.
Around mile 4 the remaining youngster dropped his pace some, so now it’s me and Pete - the old man train pushing to the end. Pete’s a little faster than I am, and I was in new territory, so I had no problem letting him pace me in.
About 5 miles in my hard but comfortable feeling turned into an all out effort. I thought Pete had picked up the pace, but looking back on our splits he was just holding pace. We passed our Coach about this point, and he yelled “If you wanna break 37 you have to go now!” This didn’t compute to me, and I have never been close to breaking 37, so I figured this was just some encouragement to keep fighting.
Just before the 6 mile mark I started my sprint (Strava says I covered the last .2 at 5:40 pace). Pete went with me, both of us trying to move our old legs as fast as they’d go. In the end, I lost the sprint by 2 seconds, but still came in with a time of 37:10! 33 second PR!! I’m feeling pretty stoked about it.
After running the indoor races last weekend, I was taking a chance by racing again 7 days later. Turns out it was a good chance to take. For those interested, twice now I’ve set big 10k PR’s after training for, and racing a 3k. After racing and training at 5:30/mile, 6:00/mile seems more “manageable”. Don’t know if this makes any sense from a training science point of view, but it’s worked for me.
I was feeling pretty beat up after the indoor races, and just ran easy miles all week, with only a few strides on Wednesday. None of it felt good. I did a lot of extra foam rolling and stretching. Saturday, the day before the race I finally felt my legs coming back. Still - I was going to pull the plug as soon as I felt any of the wrong kind of strain. Luckily, nothing ever came.
I’m still sore, but not injured. In fact, my left plantar and IT band are better than they have been, And my left hamstring and glute are holding up okay. If I could just have two right legs I’d be in business!
So now - couple weeks of easy running, then build back up for a mile race in late May. If I find a good 5k or 10 miler before then, I might jump on that too.
Onward
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