Women’s Distance Festival 5k

Posted by Steve ()

June 9, 2007

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Tonight’s race wasn’t one of my best. Actually I can’t remember the last time I ran this slow for a 5k - I’ll have to check my race results archive over the weekend. To blame the heat would be unfair, even if it was over 90°F and 50% humidity. I’d probably have to put the relatively poor performance down to lack of overall fitness, lack of speedwork and low weekly mileage. The 2 mile short tempo effort on Wednesday evening was probably a mistake too.

Without further ado, let’s talk about the race. The nice thing about the Women’s Distance Festival is that the ladies get to run their own race before the guys - a rare chance to just compete each other and have the men cheer them on for a change. For me it was a rare chance to watch and encourage my wife who is also an enthusiastic runner. I also took this opportunity to run my typical warm up of 2 easy miles before a 5k race. My wife Allyson finished well although she suffered a bit from a side stitch - probably caused by drinking too many fluids throughout the day.

The men’s race started promptly at 7:00pm, 30 minutes after the women’s race. You’d think it would have cooled down a bit by now, but it was still over 90°F and very humid. I was already drenched in sweat from my warm up, but at least this was a sign I was well hydrated. The horn sounded for the start and I settled in to a nice early pace, not going off too fast as I usually do. My heart rate at the half mile was in the low 160’s, which was a good sign that I wasn’t working too hard and still had “plenty in the tank”. However, by the one mile mark, I was starting to struggle a bit. The odd thing was I couldn’t pinpoint what the problem was. My legs felt ok, my heart wasn’t beating too fast and my breathing wasn’t laboured - it was just tough I guess.

I knew there would be a water stop to look forward to before the 2nd mile, so that was my next focus - stay as relaxed as possible until I could take a drink which hopefully would revive me slightly. The heat was intense but no unbearable. Even though I’m from Wales, I love to run in the summer months in Virginia where temperatures are typically pretty hot. My throat was unusually dry however, so maybe I wasn’t as well prepared as I first thought I was.

The water stop did help slightly. One cup hurriedly aimed at my mouth and one tipped over my head to cool me down. Now it was a question of getting to the 2 mile mark and then staying strong to the finish. My second mile split was a disappointing 6:14 (I had hoped to get faster as the race progressed), but maybe I could still salvage something in the last mile?

I think the answer to that question came in the next hundred steps. Severe fatigue had kicked in and was here to stay. It felt like I was treading water and in one of those dreams where someone’s chasing you and you can’t get away. My heart rate barely rose over 170bpm and there was nothing I could do to raise it closer to it’s maximum - a sure sign that tonight wasn’t my night.

Surprisingly the finish line was soon in site. I must have zoned out for a while as I suppose and just kept plodding on to the end. My finish time of 19 minutes 14 seconds isn’t anywhere near my best and I’m just happy to put this one behind me and look to improve at the next one. Preparation is the key to success and on reflection there were several things I could have done better:

Reduced my pre-race warm up to maybe a mile.
Scheduled my 2 mile short tempo workout earlier in the week.
Lowered my expectation of what I could achieve at this race.

I just remembered something else actually. I ate too close to the race start time and probably didn’t give myself the full 2 or 3 hours required for it to be digested. This would partly cause some of the sluggish feeling as my body was probably using a fraction of it’s resources to process the food, rather than help me race a 5k!

Oh well, lesson learned. Tomorrow (actually, today) is another day. Time to move on and get better for the next one