Sub 20min 5k at last!

Tuesday 21st May 2013 – 10.0km Bob Heffernan 5km.

Back into the swing of things this evening with a 5km race that comes very highly recommended by anyone I know that’s ever ran it. I was a bit apprehensive about this as I hadn’t even managed a slow recovery run since the 29km of fast running on Saturday. So it was that on my warm-up I realised just how sore and tight my quads were. This really left me half thinking about should I really run or not but given that I very rarely pull muscles I figured I should be ok for this.

I met up with Philip and a few of his Celbridge AC teammates for a warm up and to check out the final stretch before the finish. As I was wearing the Rotterdam t-shirt I felt more than a little guilty considering 3 or 4 of the lads had been there and ran great sub 3hr times whereas I had pulled out at 30km, and yet I was the one wearing the t-shirt!

Anyways, another couple of kms of warm-up and I found myself close to the start line with a few other boardsies. A quick chat with a few of them and we were then being walked 300m down the road to the start line. It was a little chaotic at this stage with a few large trucks trying to get by and 400 people waiting to start the race. And then a quietness settled among the starters. Within a brief moment we were away.

Given that my conservative start from my last parkrun resulted in a major fail I made up my mind to go out comfortably hard this evening. Realising there would be no start mat to register my chip I started my watch on the gun but then tapped it again to record my first split as I crossed the yellow line on the road. Immediately I could feel the quads were still stiff and a little sore but they didn’t appear to be limiting my speed too much. Even the large field of my fellow runners surrounding me didn’t seem to get in my way too much. For once it appeared nearly everyone started in their correct position!

For all the first kilometre I was balancing a fine line, ensuring I was holding nothing back nor pushing too hard. I was passing lots of people after the first 500m when gaps opened up and this all led to the first split of 3:43 for my opening kilometre. I was happy with this albeit a little nervous that maybe it was a little too fast. I was sure the av pace would drop over the subsequent 4km but at least this had given me a decent bank of time.

Over the course of the next 1,500m I maintained a decent pace of approx 3:50/km. This was about maintaining position in the field yet there was one or two people beginning to pass me out here and cutting through the field. I let them go and run their own race though. Around the midway point (at 2.5km) I felt the first signs of me beginning to struggle. My cough started to rear it’s head and with that a buildup of phlegm started to accumulate in my throat! This was beginning to restrict my airflow so my pace started to drop-off around this point. I struggled on however, trying to expel the blockage all the time. Unfortunately it took another few minutes of running before matters came to a head. One pretty intensive bout of coughing led to me almost throwing up mid-stride. I thought I was over the worst when a few seconds later it happened again. At this point there was quite a few going past me so when I started coughing again my only response available was to pull over to the side of the road and cough it all up! A few seconds of barking at the ground all the while trying to prevent myself from properly heaving and eventually my airways were clear again. I jumped back in with the race again but approximately 20 people must have passed me in those 5 or 6 seconds! 

Back in the race and I got back on pace fairly easily – it’s amazing how helpful it is to be able to breathe clearly while running! A quick glance down the road and I saw Alan who had taken advantage of my mid-race breakdown to pass by me (although in fairness he’s a much quicker runner at this distance than me). A look at the watch told me that the 4th km registered at 4:20/km pace. This annoyed me to say the least but I still knew a final 4:00/km split would have me very close to a sub 20 time. So, I just dug in and ran as fast as I could for the remainder of the race. My pre-race warm-up served me well and I noticed some landmarks like the 400m to go road marking and the white garden wall which told me it was time to give it everything. Another 150m and I was turning into the hotel car park and passing under the timing clock with 20:01 registering above my head.

My first reaction was taken up with trying not to throw up! A few seconds later Niall came over asking for confirmation if I was over or under. As I came round to conscious thinking I realised I was over by the gun time but what about that first split before crossing the line?? I went through the Garmin history of the run and it registered 3.5 seconds to cross the start line so taking that off my gun time of 20:01 gives a 19:58 effective chip time for me. I was definitely grabbing that, regardless of Niall’s guilt trip he was attempting to play on me! This has been long enough coming and to lose it because of no starting mat was not going to happen! (Ironically as it turns out the whole timing system seemed to malfunction so my GPS splits are the most effective timing data for my run regardless!)

After the race a large gang went for a couple of kms cool down run. It appeared everyone I spoke to registered a PB tonight with some great times. During the run I noticed how most of the soreness and tiredness had migrated from the quads to the groin muscles. I’ve noticed this in the past that when I really put a huge amount of effort in to run fast the groins pay the price. No doubt it must be down to poor form when the going gets tough but hey, for my first sub-20 5k I’ll take it!

(Also: 2.8km Warm Up and 2.2km Cool Down)

Week 21 Summary (so far):

RTW: 1 from 2 days

DTW: 10.0km

DTY: 1,642.7km