Today I ran a 5k, and man, did I get crushed. Here’s me at the start:
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| Look, I'm winning! Surely this lead will hold up... |
And here’s the finish. In this picture, I am not visible, because I am 30 seconds behind:
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| Maybe I'm a speck back there? Let's get the CSI people to blow this sucker up, I'm sure I'm in there somewhere |
Since nothing really went right for me today, I’ve decided to search for the mythical silver lining in the cloud that is my apparent inability to run a 5k within a minute of my PR. So here we go. Also, it should be noted that I arbitrarily decided this list would have five items before I started writing, so if it looks like I either stretched some material thin to get to five (or smashed eight different thoughts together to limit the number) I apologize. But I’m sure as hell not going back and changing the title or editing anything. Psh, that's for quitters.
1. Never being afraid to race is a good thing. But it doesn’t make you invincible.
There are some runners out there who have a deep-seated fear of putting up a sub-par performance with their name next to it. And maybe that’s not a terrible thing, but it often leads to a crippling inability to race well when things haven’t gone EXACTLY perfect. These are the people who, when asked what they’re training for, will say the 2015 Boston Marathon, or the 2020 Olympic Trials. Anything sooner would require a frightening commitment to actually racing, which inherently means exposing yourself to judgement, shame, and the pitiless numbers on the clock when you cross the finish line.
I take pride in not being one of those people. I make a conscious effort to occasionally race on a whim, to just throw down and see what happens. And I always have this voice, deep in my brain, telling me “you never know, you could do something AWESOME!” Well that’s all fine and good, but today was most definitely NOT that day. I raced like a guy who ran a marathon three weeks ago and has been doing waaaaaay more beer drinking than training since then. And honestly, that’s okay with me. I like resting and relaxing for a few weeks. If you accept that sometimes you’ll surprise yourself with an unexpectedly great performance, you also have to accept that sometimes basic logic will prevail and you’ll race crappy. Because you’re woefully unprepared. Which brings me to item #2:
2. Marathon training is excellent for your long-term development. But specificity of training is, well, kind of important.
Quick, pop quiz, when was the last time I run under 5 minute mile pace for more than a minute at a time? I genuinely don’t know, but I’m going to look it up. And the verdict is.... the Rice 10k on March 23rd, 2012. Three and a half months. And that’s fine, in that stretch I ran a couple of 10k’s in the 32-33 minute range and a 2:27 marathon. I owned 5:30-5:40 pace. But 20 mile tempos do not a good 5k runner make. Two distances that are that far apart stress entirely different energy systems, and I am now wonderful empirical evidence of this fact.
3. Maybe it’s better to start the next training cycle feeling humble and hungry.
It seems stupid considering I got my butt kicked by a whopping 23 guys at Grandma’s Marathon, but with that many people ahead of you it doesn’t really hit home as much. And I achieved my time goal, which was always the main reason to seek out a cooler weather marathon rather than gambling with San Antonio’s awesomely fickle November temps. Now I don’t think I’m a super badass by any stretch, but maybe that 2:27 did get my head a little larger than it should be. Well now it’s back down to normal size, and I know that I’m going to have to pull out all the stops to keep moving that time down.
4. It is inspiring to see people doing something really, really well. Enthusiasm is awesome.
I’ve now done two races this year put on by IAAP’s Ceci Iniguez. Both have been almost comically well thought out - hand carved wooden statues for awards, themed shirts, costumed volunteers at water stops, complicated courses that somehow manage to be easy to follow, live music, personalized race bibs, and on and on and on. Today, there was even prize money for the winners of the race (pretty cool), paid with an oversized novelty check (beyond cool). I think, in a sense well outside of the narrow scope of running, that it’s just nice to see someone in their zone, excelling at something they obviously have a talent for. Even after my crappy race, I ended up having a GREAT time hanging out at the race, watching the Frida lookalike contest, and having more than a couple free Alamo beers. I have, over the years, been to too many horribly organized races to count, so seeing it done right makes me happy.
5. Yep, ran out of things. So let’s talk beer.
I’m going to start buying some Alamo beer when I go to the grocery store. The only time I ever have it is after races, and I always think, “hey, this is pretty good”, but I never buy any. While I admit I don’t know much about the economics of putting on a race, I assume that since I almost always see Alamo beer out at local races, they’re really going out of their way to be a part of these events. And the guys they have handing out the beer are always really cool when I talk to them. So it’s time to reward them. Thanks for the roughly 10,000 free beers you’ve given me over the last 5 years Alamo beer! I will now actually give you some revenue instead of just freeloading at races.
That's all I've got. Happy trails, SA, and if you're looking for a hot June 5k next year, this is a good one.
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