1 year ago, the Blarney Blitz 2020 was canceled, falling as one of the first victims of the Covid 19 pandemic. This Saturday, the race returned, and I was able to run my first official 5K in about 15 months. I came into the race with a good taper and feeling fresh. Spent the whole week pretty much running easy with 5, 5, 4.5 milers on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday; All at extremely easy pace.
I woke up at 5, about 3 hours before race time which gave me plenty of time to get a little food and coffee, get my digestive system in order, and walk and stretch for a bit.
The event was in downtown Peoria, by the river, and I arrived at 7:20 for the 8:00 race start (officially 8:01 for me since they were doing 1 minute waves of 25 people due to Covid restrictions). Even at 7:20 I was one of the first people there. I parked the car in a convenient spot and then started walking the course. At around 7:30 I started running to get a warm up in. I ran the course slowly picking up the pace from 8:30 to 7:30 pace over 2 miles. It was good to see the course and visually tangents, hills, and strategies.
I was done warming up by 7:45... went to the car and swapped into my Vaporfly Next%s. Then headed towards the starting line. Groups were staggered to avoid clustering at the start line but largely the protocol were being ignored by most participants. I was one of a few people still wearing a mask. Things almost felt back to normal, which was a good feeling.
The first wave started at 8:00. I was in wave 2 and they started us at 8:00:35 after it was deemed there was ample spacing between us and the first group. My goal was to take the first mile somewhat easy at a 6:10-6:15 pace and then negative split the race. I tried to stay relaxed and felt I did an okay job executing. I caught most of the first group pretty quickly... assuming they were running 8:00 min mile pace it only takes about 400 meters to catch up with a 30 second head start.
Didn't have much problem passing most of the first wave. I got passed by a couple runners in racing singlets who started in my wave at the 800 meter mark. I briefly considered latching on but figured that I didn't know how fast they were going out and really wanted to stick to my plan for once. As I ran down the initial straightaway several bystanders clapped and cheered... I thanked them as I ran by. I really enjoy racing and always have a blast, although sometimes I wonder if I should be hurting more and sometimes I wonder if I'm wasting energy.
I got to the first mile in 5:53 according to the official chip time but in 6:03 according to my GPS watch. I'm not sure which is true. I know I probably started out fast for the first couple hundred meters but I settled in so maybe 5:53 does make sense. I still felt good at the 1 mile mark and approaching the turnaround point I passed one of the guys in racing singlets. There was a small downhill leading to turnaround and I sprinted down it. From there the course continued on a somewhat winding path by the river. I started to feel a bit of a ache in my gut for a moment but it passed quickly and I continued on at my pace. I passed the 2nd mile in 5:58 pace according to Garmin or 6:03 according to the course clock.
After mile 2, I set my sites on a woman ahead of me from wave 1. She was running pretty quickly at a 6:10 pace but was slowing down the last mile and I was speed up. Passed her with about 800 to go as we weaved through some cones and under a brick archway. They was laboring at this point and I pretty much blew past her.
After that it was pretty much a straight shot to the finish line. I ran by the camera man and started flexing and pretty much goofing off. When I got to the end near the finish line I really started sprinting and had a ton left in me. I leapt across the finish line with a 5:58 last mile (5:52 per Garmin).
Final Stats:
3.1 mile (5K)
0:18:32
5:57 pace
So I may or may not have negative split the race... or I went out a little hard but calmed quickly and ran a pretty much even pace (which is what I've did on my previous 3 mile race and 5K time trail before that). I have been using my Garmin to control the pace at least for the first mile so that seems to help. No matter what, I felt pretty great for 98% of the race and never really tired. I finished with my fastest kick in a while and felt like I could have probably ran that pace for another mile.
I never really go to the well any more in races... with the stakes low and no one to compete against it's hard to quite see the use... if anything leaving a little on the table makes me feel more confidence in my future. I came in 4th overall. One of the guys who passed me in the race singlet at the beginning came in 3rd and beat me by 12 seconds. I made up 7 seconds on him after the 2nd mile marker. I wonder if I had gone full out if I could have caught him. I also wonder how it would have played out if I went with him when he passed me. I was committed enough to my pacing strategy that I contained myself but now I'm left wondering.
My cadence for the race was 185 average which was my highest cadence I've measured. Normally I'm closer to 180 when racing so I think this is a improvement. Not something I did intentionally anyway.
Pretty excited moving forward... At this point I haven't really done hardly any race specific training so 18:32 seems great for this point in the season. Definitely plan on going sub 18 this year if I can keep putting in the miles and don't get hurt.
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