mixed bag - yeti chase 5k race report
The quick scoop
No PR. :( BUT I did finish 1st the 50-59 AG. There were 20 in my AG and I finished 22nd out of 226 within gender with a disappointing time of 26:19. Not quite the time I was hoping for but it's my 3rd race and first win...
The Plan
I was excited to race the Yeti Chase 5k. It was billed as a "fast and flat loop" - so I thought it would be perfect to test myself against my first race back in 10/29/11 and a PR of 25:50. I've been running for 4.5 months and have been feeling pretty good putting in 25+ miles a week for the 4 weeks so I was ready to go.
Here's Racing Underground's definition of flat - call me crazy but that doesn't exactly look flat to me...glad I didn't know this ahead of time - or maybe I would have paced myself better if I had know the elevation profile.
The Race
It was a cloudy, slightly windy, and chilly 28 degrees. brrr.... I wasn't nervous - I wasn't super rested (tsb of -.03*) but I didn't feel fatigued. The hope was to average 8:10s. The plan was to hit an ~8 minute first mile and if I slowed down any not lose too much time until the finish. I didn't take any music because I wanted to be able to focus on my breathing and form.
Off we went @ 10am. I tried to settle into my race pace. Turns out the 1st mile was mostly downhill and after a couple of minutes I looked at my pace and it said 7:32 (yikes!). I backed it off and the first mile clicked by at 7:46. Around the middle of mile 1 I saw Jill (i only know of her through her blog) pass me - I figured it was her because she had raced the Carlsbad Marathon last weekend and she was wearing her Carlsbad shirt. She was running strong - esp considering she had raced a marathon last week. I was impressed. I know she's a good runner and my goal for the rest of race to try to keep her in sight. I was also keeping a lady in black & teal about 10 seconds ahead of me as a marker. I kept trying to gain on her but the distance always stayed the same.
The 2nd mile seemed really hard - a bit windy and uphill(?). I noticed as I tried to charge up the hill that my HR was only 168. My race HR is usually in the 172-175 range. I tried to push harder and my HR didn't budge and my pace was slow. Every time I looked at my pace I saw a ~9 minute miles. ?? I was a bit discouraged. My only consolation the distance between me and Jill and the lady in black/teal seemed to stay the same. Mile 2 clicked by at 8:46 - yowza! that was bad. I slowed down by a whole minute! boo!
Mile 3 seemed to level out some and here is where I focused on form with a slight lean forward from the ankles. I kept trying to push harder but the ole HR wouldn't budge any higher than 168. It was still a little bit windy and mile 3 seemed to be rolling hills. Mile 3 was 8:32.
My split for the last .16 was 7:44.
Here's the info from my garmin - 26:19:22, 3.16, 8:19mi, 193 calories.
I sure was happy when I crossed the finish line.
Aftermath and results
I talked to the lady in black/teal and told her that she kept me motivated and I kept trying to catch her but never could. We both thought that it was a tough course. I introduced myself to Jill and we had the same discussion.
Jill and I checked the results - I finished 3 people after her. She finished 4th in her AG out of 52 and I saw that I finished 1st out of 20 in my AG. I'm super impressed with Jill's race - it's crazy to think she ran a marathon last week and ran so well today. big kudos to her!
Thoughts about competition
I feel kinda weird about 1st place in my AG. I certainly didn't set any speed records and I was disappointed with my time so for some reason I feel a bit guilty about the result.
When I compete I'm usually competing against myself to see I can keep my cool under pressure, not panic and be smart while competing. In my pool playing days some of my best memories/matches were NOT the matches I won but the matches where I overcame self doubt and performed way above my ability.
So that's what I'm looking for when running. Can I keep my cool? Can I push myself above my known abilities? Can I leave it all out of the course? I feel like I didn't do that this race and hence I'm left with a feeling of disappointment and embarrassment.
I talked with a high level runner (holds some CO State records that have held up for over 10 years)later today at All Sports while we were sitting in the recovery boots. I asked her 'have you ever felt bad even tho you had a good result because you didn't perform at your best?' She laughed and me and said 'No - I never feel that way. I'm always happy to be on the podium even if my time/performance wasn't as good as I hoped.' hmm...food for fodder.
*By the numbers
warning - boring geek stuff...probably a subject for another blog post.
No PR. :( BUT I did finish 1st the 50-59 AG. There were 20 in my AG and I finished 22nd out of 226 within gender with a disappointing time of 26:19. Not quite the time I was hoping for but it's my 3rd race and first win...
The Plan
I was excited to race the Yeti Chase 5k. It was billed as a "fast and flat loop" - so I thought it would be perfect to test myself against my first race back in 10/29/11 and a PR of 25:50. I've been running for 4.5 months and have been feeling pretty good putting in 25+ miles a week for the 4 weeks so I was ready to go.
Here's Racing Underground's definition of flat - call me crazy but that doesn't exactly look flat to me...glad I didn't know this ahead of time - or maybe I would have paced myself better if I had know the elevation profile.
It was a cloudy, slightly windy, and chilly 28 degrees. brrr.... I wasn't nervous - I wasn't super rested (tsb of -.03*) but I didn't feel fatigued. The hope was to average 8:10s. The plan was to hit an ~8 minute first mile and if I slowed down any not lose too much time until the finish. I didn't take any music because I wanted to be able to focus on my breathing and form.
Off we went @ 10am. I tried to settle into my race pace. Turns out the 1st mile was mostly downhill and after a couple of minutes I looked at my pace and it said 7:32 (yikes!). I backed it off and the first mile clicked by at 7:46. Around the middle of mile 1 I saw Jill (i only know of her through her blog) pass me - I figured it was her because she had raced the Carlsbad Marathon last weekend and she was wearing her Carlsbad shirt. She was running strong - esp considering she had raced a marathon last week. I was impressed. I know she's a good runner and my goal for the rest of race to try to keep her in sight. I was also keeping a lady in black & teal about 10 seconds ahead of me as a marker. I kept trying to gain on her but the distance always stayed the same.
The 2nd mile seemed really hard - a bit windy and uphill(?). I noticed as I tried to charge up the hill that my HR was only 168. My race HR is usually in the 172-175 range. I tried to push harder and my HR didn't budge and my pace was slow. Every time I looked at my pace I saw a ~9 minute miles. ?? I was a bit discouraged. My only consolation the distance between me and Jill and the lady in black/teal seemed to stay the same. Mile 2 clicked by at 8:46 - yowza! that was bad. I slowed down by a whole minute! boo!
Mile 3 seemed to level out some and here is where I focused on form with a slight lean forward from the ankles. I kept trying to push harder but the ole HR wouldn't budge any higher than 168. It was still a little bit windy and mile 3 seemed to be rolling hills. Mile 3 was 8:32.
My split for the last .16 was 7:44.
Here's the info from my garmin - 26:19:22, 3.16, 8:19mi, 193 calories.
I sure was happy when I crossed the finish line.
Aftermath and results
I talked to the lady in black/teal and told her that she kept me motivated and I kept trying to catch her but never could. We both thought that it was a tough course. I introduced myself to Jill and we had the same discussion.
Jill and I checked the results - I finished 3 people after her. She finished 4th in her AG out of 52 and I saw that I finished 1st out of 20 in my AG. I'm super impressed with Jill's race - it's crazy to think she ran a marathon last week and ran so well today. big kudos to her!
 |
| 1st place swag and cute tech shirt |
Thoughts about competition
I feel kinda weird about 1st place in my AG. I certainly didn't set any speed records and I was disappointed with my time so for some reason I feel a bit guilty about the result.
When I compete I'm usually competing against myself to see I can keep my cool under pressure, not panic and be smart while competing. In my pool playing days some of my best memories/matches were NOT the matches I won but the matches where I overcame self doubt and performed way above my ability.
So that's what I'm looking for when running. Can I keep my cool? Can I push myself above my known abilities? Can I leave it all out of the course? I feel like I didn't do that this race and hence I'm left with a feeling of disappointment and embarrassment.
I talked with a high level runner (holds some CO State records that have held up for over 10 years)later today at All Sports while we were sitting in the recovery boots. I asked her 'have you ever felt bad even tho you had a good result because you didn't perform at your best?' She laughed and me and said 'No - I never feel that way. I'm always happy to be on the podium even if my time/performance wasn't as good as I hoped.' hmm...food for fodder.
*By the numbers
warning - boring geek stuff...probably a subject for another blog post.
 |
| I am happy that my de-coupled rate was less than 5% |
 | ||
| optimal TSB should be between 10-20...so at -0.3 it was a little low. |
Comments
Jill is an animal. She's hard on herself, too. I hope she was happy with her result.
And yeah....that's...not so flat.
Anyway...
Was absolutely great to meet you! When you first told me who you were, I wasn't computing the blog thing...I was running this for the Boulder Running Group and thought that you were one of the fellow runners. Took me a couple minutes then it dawned on me :).
I think it's hard to compare one race with another as far as a time - weather and hills were certainly a contributor to that race. As for ag placement...gosh, you just never know who's going to show up for a race - and who won't. I have run the Georgetown to Idaho Springs about a million times ;) and I can vary in placement with almost the exact same time. Just never know. So heck, run with your 1st place and enjoy the victory :). Did you win anything for your AG? A RR gift certificate?
I certainly hope you weren't trying to mimic my crap-a-tola pacing techniques, we were almost identical! Tell Terzah that my time was ridiculous, but considering my legs were pretty trashed still from the marathon, it's "okay". (I know it's going to eat at me for awhile though - ha). Thanks for your very kind words!
Congratulations! Hope to see you soon at the races!
Why is it so when we place in a race we feel the need to qualify it and feel guilty about it? On the off chance that it ever happens to me again I'm going to just enjoy.