Today I ran the only real competitive annual 5k that exists in Vegas. The winner from the previous 4 years was back again (currently runs for the University of Oklahoma), plus a kid who is a 4:10 miler was going to be there, and hopefully a couple other fast guys, so I knew that there would be a decent amount of competition. I warmed up by running the course, and I knew that it would be super slow, as there was a fair amount of rolling terrain, and the race was mostly on sand and uneven gravel (with a bit of pavement and grass mixed in). To give an example of how slow the course is, this is the state championship course for cross country (when the championship is held in Southern Nevada) and the course record is only 16:04 (set last year by Nick Hartle, the 4:10 miler). To top it off, it was fairly hot outside (forecast called for 84 degrees at the start of the race, and it was probably correct), and since the race didn't start until 7:30am, the sun was already out... the sun is the real killer; I'll take 95-100 degrees in the dark over 84 in the sun any day. On the plus side, it wasn't windy out, as I have come to find that the nasty wind that plagues Vegas during the fall, winter and spring is really fairly mild during the summer. We all lined up on the giant start line just before 7:30 (it is a cross country race, so you have to have a giant extended line followed by a bottleneck about a 100m after the start), and after some introductions the gun went off and... I got smoked. Jeremy Sudbury (the returning champion) put 20 seconds on me in the first mile, and was followed closely by his former high school nemesis, Solomon Bennett who was ahead of me by 17 seconds at the mile. I came through in 5:02, and it felt like I had run a 4:45. My legs never felt in this race, as even prior to the start I felt tired. Less than 800m into the race I felt the way I normally do after 2 miles. I think that the mileage from this week, and the brutal tempo run I did last Saturday just sucked the power out of my legs and I had nothing. I ran the second mile in 5:22 (Sudbury is now gone, but the gap between me and Bennett has held fairly even). This was the slowest mile of the race as it contained the most sand. Nick Hartle, the 4:10 miler, had stayed in front of me for the majority of the first mile, but just prior to the mile mark I passed him and it felt like he just fell off the face of the planet as I ended up beating him by 52 seconds. This meant that for the majority of the race I was running alone, too far behind second place to really have a chance at beating him, and far enough in front of fourth place that there was no one to push me. I closed the final 1.1 miles in 5:12 pace to finish in 16:10. Sudbury won the race in 15:17, with Bennett finishing in 15:40 or 15:50 (official time was 15:40, but Mike Schramm thought he saw him finish in about 15:50 which I think is more accurate, as at 15:54 on my watch he appeared to have just finished). Hartle was fourth in 17:02. So, all in all I don't think it was my best performance, but I decided early on in the week that putting in a solid week of mileage was more important than running well today. As it is, I have heard that Sudbury has a sub 14:00 track 5k pr, so losing to him by 53 seconds isn't as bad as it would seem. I think that tapered I could have finished with Bennett, or maybe beaten him, but who knows. Bennett lives here in town, so I may start training with him soon if my schedule allows for it. After the race I ran the course one more time as a cool-down, and a couple hours after I got home I ended up making it out to finish off my mileage for the day by running 10.5 miles more in 1:06:25. I ran a 4 mile tempo in 100+ degree heat on the way home in 21:31 (5:26, 5:20, 5:27, 5:18).
| 