I had December 31st off work, so decided to spend the last day of the year running the Run Your Ice Off, Hardcore 5K. The last few weeks here in Central Illinois have been unseasonably warm, but the running Gods decided to step in and drop the temp to 29F with a good strong wind to make sure the race lived up to its name.
I arrived at noon for the 1 o'clock race. Packet pickup and registration where inside the Flemish American Club which turned out to be a great venue... plenty of parking and plenty of space to warm up and stay warm before and after the race. After quickly getting my number and chip properly placed on my body, I headed out to warm up and survey the course.
As advertised, the course was a simple "fairly flat, out and back", which pretty much lived up to it description. I walked/jogged down to the first mile mark which was straight down a road. At the 1 mile mark there was a 90 degree turn and then a ~1/2 mile to the turnaround point. I skipped the 2nd mile, and jogged back to the start. At this point I had 20 minutes left which was ample time for some final dynamic stretching inside the Flemish American Club.
At 12:55 we headed out to the start line and I did one final jog of 200m up and down the block, and then returned to the starting area and lined up right at the front with my toe on the line. The race director gave a few quick words and then went to fire the gun... but the gun did not go off... A few people "false started" and had to reset... he fiddled with the gun for a few more seconds and then successfully fired a round and we were off.
I took off, feeling pretty good and just trying to stay relaxed. Within 400 meters the typical quick starting pre-teens fell off pace and I gobbled them up and then continued on. For the first mile there was some jockeying for position. One kid, who was clomping along pretty loudly, passed me... Around my I heard several people gasping for air... I wasn't even breathing that hard so I figured I was good, but at the same time for some reason the other runners were very distracting to me and I wasn't really finding my rhythm.
I hit the 1 mile mark at 6:02 pace, my fastest mile to date. I passed clomper and continued along. At this point my lungs were feeling okay but my legs were quickly failing as the lactic acid built. I kept going as fast as my legs would carry me, on to the turnaround. I opted for a full stop pivot to changed direction and then headed back.
At this point I was dying. My legs felt like rocks and just wouldn't respond. I continued past all the runners behind me who were still heading towards the turn around, hoping they couldn't sense my weakness. I got passed by at least one person. Honestly, it was all a blur as I was just bearing down and suffering.
There was a big hill right before the 2 mile mark... barely phased me I was in such a stupor already. I just continued running and tried to hold on. I hit the 2 mile mark at about 12:48 (6:46 second mile). Made the turn back towards the start line and had 1 mile to go. The wind was blasting right into me at this point but I barely noticed. I continued to slow down as my legs just wouldn't got any faster. I couldn't tell how fast I was running at this point... It felt like a jog but I couldn't go faster. It could have been 9 min miles for all I could tell.
With 1000m left I got passed by a guy. I let him go. With 800m I got passed by a kid. I decided I'd try to hold on and stay with him til the next stop sign... I made it, and then started to let him go but he didn't get far. Then I heard heavy breathing behind me. I decided I wasn't going to go out like a punk and instead elected to push it to the end, no matter what. With maybe 150m to go I started to kick. I passed the kid and charged forward. I felt like I went a little early but I just kept pumping my arms and pushing to the finish line. I started counting to 10 in my head as I ran... When I got to 10 I was almost to the end... I finally hit the finish line and I was absolutely dead. 3rd mile was 7:14 pace... final sprint was 5:28 pace. According to my watch my HR was at 186 as I finished.
Final time according to my watch 21:04 (6:47 pace).
I had planned on going straight to my car for an additional layer of clothing, shoe change, and then cooling down for a couple miles. As I got in the car I tilted the seat back and just laid there for at least a minute. I did not want to get up. The final kick was definitely the hardest I've pushed myself in years... Hitting max HR put me was an ethereal experience! I finally coaxed myself back up and walked back into the lodge to relax... no cooldown today.
I had been wearing a Hamm's Beer shirt during the race that got some positive comments so I headed to the bar to see if they had Hamm's. Unfortunately they did not so I grabbed a Budweiser instead. Normally I don't go for beer after races (I don't normally go for Budweiser or Hamm's either for that matter) but this one tasted great!
I hung around for the awards. They served pulled pork and chili which hit the spot after a cold run. I wound up 15th overall and 3rd place in the 40-44 division which resulted in a nice plaque (great swag). Overall it was a well managed race with a good turn out (200 participants), good venue, good food, and good swag. Running in the bitter cold was fun too. I'd do it again!
After the race I wasn't too pleased with my time. I was really hoping to break 20 minutes after training for 500+ miles since my last 5K and I couldn't even break 21. In retrospect, I'm not sure if my time was a result of going out way too fast or was the fact that I've been running almost all my runs easy to medium-easy pace and not really pushing workouts... Also, I ran more miles in December (156.32) than previously and ran 8 medium-hard miles on Sunday so maybe I was still adapting and not fully rested... no matter what, strategically it was the worst run I've had in a long while and definitely something to learn from... I'll chock it up as a learning experience.
Anyway, lots of excuses but what can I do but shake it off and move on. Looking at the positives I did get some new achievements:
Fastest mile: 6:02
Fastest 1K: 3:42
Highest HR: 186
Plus I showed good resolve and mental fortitude with my strong finish.
Checking the results later it said my final time was 21:18. Pretty sure this is wrong. My guess is that the chip timing started with the false gun start which means that everyone's time was off by about 15 seconds. Based on my performance it didn't much matter. Would have been a bit more distraught if I had run a PR that didn't get documented correctly.
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