Pearson Runway 5k Race Report 2009

Did 5k race this morning and i'm pretty sure i can say that i will NEVER like 5k's. I finished in 21:24 when I was aiming for 20:00. I was on pace until the 3km mark and then somewhere during the 4km mark, I just lost the will to continue on. It's funny, I'm more than willing to endure an hour or more of pain during the marathon, but for this, with a measly 6 or so minutes to go, that period seemed like an eternity.

Let me start off by saying that the organization for this thing was not the greatest. Now i'm sure for almost everyone else, it was fine, but for me it left a bad taste in my mouth. I arrived with plenty of time to pick up my bib, when I go to pick it up, they tell me they can't find my bib and chip. Ok, so they tell me I've to go get re-registered which I do. Apparently, they accidently gave my bib and chip to someone else who ended up running the 5k in 38:41. That's right. someone ran under my name and managed 12.5 minute/mile pace over 5k. Great. My slowest full marathon was done at 9.5 min/mile pace and here is someone tainting my good name with a 5k time done almost 3 min/mile slower. Oh well.

So the race is at the local international airport and is on one of the runways. Kinda neat. They made us wait in this hangar of sorts for what seemed like forever. It wouldn't have been too bad except, they had the big hangar doors opened and it acted like a wind tunnel. Quite windy and cool. After a while, they walked us to the start line. There seemed to be quite a few fast people so i ended up starting a little ways back. I had decided to leave the HR monitor at home and run with the garmin. I seemed to have problems pacing the 5k and thought it might help me maintain pace.

The course is a bit weird in that it starts in the middle of the runway, runs down to one end, does a U-turn, runs down to the other end, another U-turn and then back to the middle where the start/finish line is. So race starts and we motor off down the runway at what I think is a comfortable pace, look down at the garmin and it's reporting 3:35 pace or so. Whoops. Start to slow down, but hit the first km marker at 3:51 when it should have been 4:00 flat. Keep motoring along and the garmin is settling down at around 4:00 pace which is good. Hit the 2nd km mark at 4:02 and I seem to be in a bit of a rythym. There are a few people around me at this time and I try and latch on to some of them. So we run down to the other end of the runway and turnaround and pass the 3km mark with a 3:58 and it's starting to hurt a bit and my throat is starting to burn due to the heavy breathing. Now I get about half way through km number 4 when I glance down at the garmin and its reporting 4:10 pace or so. I'm not sure why, but this just kind of mentally defeated me. In hindsight, I would still have been on pace due to the fast first km, but i'm panting pretty bad and just decided at this point to mail it in. No, HTFU today. I was trying to justify it by saying there was a headwind, but being at the airport, those damn wind socks were mocking me by indicating that it was almost a perfect cross-wind. So i trudge along and hit 4km with a split of 4:34. Not too bad, i realize I just might be able to squeak in a PR if I can do a sub 4min last km, but I just couldn't bump up the pace as a side stitch was beginning to bother me. Last km is done at just under 5 minutes with a final time of 21:24.

21:24 is not too bad of a time, but is not anywhere close to where I wanted it to be. You can see the garmin connect race course here.

Splits are:
3:51
4:02
3:58
4:34
4:59
Total:21:24

So I'm going to get this sub-20 this spring before i start marathon training. I was thinking of doing another 5k tomorrow, but my throat is pretty scratchy and i don't think i'll be recovered. I'll probably be trying another 5k next Saturday though and if not next week than there's another 5k the week after. Eventually...