15:11--New PR, 3rd place overall
This
was a big day for me. I'm very excited and grateful for the way that
this turned out. I've been chasing the possibility of setting a new PR in
the 5K for years always with a certain amount of doubt that it would
ever happen. While I'm grateful for the experiences I had in 2013,
it was the first year since I really got serious about my training that I
didn't break a single record at any distance from the 5K to the marathon.
There were times when I wondered if the best years were behind me. I
recognize that this is an inevitable reality, but I really struggled with that
possibility. I am not ready to admit that I can't run faster than I once
did.
One
of the beautiful things about running is its absolute simplicity--not a lot of
factors outside of me that can influence the outcome of a race. However,
I continue to learn that what takes place inside of me is huge. How I
think, how I speak, how I treat my body in workouts and recovery, how I eat,
and how I feel about myself and my "competition" is everything.
I've learned that how we do anything is a mirror for how we do
everything--running is a great mirror into what is taking place inside a
person. As this running community knows it has a lot more to it
than what time a person runs or where they finish in the race.
Although these may be small indicators, the biggest insights come from
the energy with which we engage in the activity. What perspective do
we choose to see? Do we exhibit courage or fear? Faith or doubt? How do
we work with or against our competition? Does the strong performance of
another inspire us to do better or leave us feeling inferior? The beauty
of this is it's always our choice.
Today
I finally beat my 5K PR! I'm grateful for the inspiring, strong group of
runners that showed up to assist me with this. When guys like Riley Cook
and Jason Holt take off at sub 4:40 pace, it can either scare the heebee
jeebees out of your or it can fuel the flames. On this day it fueled the
flames.
I
have not had a lot of passion for racing since the St. George Marathon--the
fact that this is the last time I synced my Garmin is evidence of this. I
decided that today I would simply run as hard as I could while feeling
confident that I was running the right pace for me and not give much attention
to my watch.
I
was surprised to find myself in 3rd place within the first .25 miles--there
were a lot of fast runners in this race. Rather than freak out about this
I simply did a quick internal check in and realized that I felt great.
Stephen Shepard passed me before the mile mark and Bryant had moved up to
run stride for stride with me. We came through the mile mark at 4:51.
I felt really good and knew that today could be a special day for me.
In
the next mile, Bryant and I passed Stephen and were starting to close the gap a
bit on Jason--Riley seemed to open up the gap a bit more. Mile 2 was the
slowest, which is no surprise with the hairpin turn. Split 4:55 (I didn't
even see look at this during the race.)
Right
after passing the 2nd mile marker, Bryant and I passed Jason. I assumed
that he was done for the race. Bryant made a move to shake me early into
mile 3, but I went with him. I was definitely starting to feel the
wonderful pain of the 5K, but I could tell that I wasn't in any worse shape
than Bryant. As we reach approximately the 2.6 mark, Jason Holt went
flying passed us. I was so surprised to see him. His move inspired
another down shift and I worked to keep up. The race to the finish was
on. The three of us were really going after it and were slowly gaing
ground on Riley--for a moment I considered really busting out and going for
Riley, but the heavy arms and lightheadedness were indicators that I was pretty
much at maximum threshold--I was just excited to be so close. Mile 3 split
was 4:50.
Jason
managed to hold me off--it looked pretty effortless and smooth. Bryant
finished just behind me. My last .1+ was 34 seconds.
When
I hit stop on my watch and looked down at the time, I experienced that
beautiful mix of satisfaction and pure exhaustion.
I
am very grateful for this experience and definitely couldn't have done this
without the assistance of a great group of fast runners. I appreciated
Matt Poulsen's company as always. He made a last-minute decision to race
after spending the previous day packing a huge elk around the mountains.
For those of you that know Matt, you know that he radiates nothing but
courage and positivity. I enjoyed a short cool down with Jake, Riley,
Jason, Matt, Dave, and Stephen after the race. Apparently, I missed the
post-race 200m sessions that Jake had some of the other participate in--maybe
next time :-)
Interesting
side note: The average pace of this 5K was exactly the pace I've been
running in my fartlek workouts--perhaps there's a correlation???
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