I seem to forget about the cold sometimes. I vowed
on February 14th, that I wouldn't do another cold raceagain. I heard about the Rover and Clover in
Hillsdale, NJ, on Friday and checked the weather before anything. It said it would be sunny and a high of 45
for the day. I'm not an idiot, I didn't
think it would be 45 degrees by 9am, but I didn't think it was going to be
23 degrees and windy. This morning felt a lot like the Cupid's Run,
but windier.
That's all for whining. The
race started right on time and the big change for me was my warmup. I know that I haven't properly warm up before
5K's. After listening to Scott Jones at Athlete on Fire talk about how
strong a warm up is needed, I decided to follow a real plan for my body's
sake. I jogged slow for 5 minutes about
15 minutes before start time. I then
walked a minute before I ran comfortably faster (just kick it up to a strong
pace you could hold for a few miles) for 3 minutes. I followed this up with 3-4
minutes walking and finished with about 5 sprints of 10-15 seconds and a few
high knee skips of 10-15 seconds.
As soon as the race started, I felt great in the legs. Even though it was freezing, I was fluid and
strong from the get go. Problem solved,
I now have my pre-game warmup.
I ran my first mile in 6:15 and knew I was kinda screwed. I am not in 6:15/mile shape for the duration
of a 5K. I am happy that my speed is
there, I just need to work some speed workouts and I will be in good
shape. I powered through mile 2 in about
6:40/mile pace feeling decent, but a little tired. Mile 3 was pretty painful until I would say
about the last quarter of a mile. For
some reason, my legs opened up well and I finished pretty strong.
I ended in 20:41 seconds. I
took 2nd in my age group and 3rd place overall out of roughly 300 finishers.
Sometimes your fastest time isn't there, but the race results are. Ask Meb about this. The dude has won the New York Marathon and
the Boston Marathon. He was no where
near his PR on either of those races.
Overall, I have to be happy with my results and it was a fun
morning with Maura and kids cheering me on and supporting me.
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