The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Wow, let me put it out there that today was one of the most jam packed (and best) days I've had in a long time.
I haven't written a running update to anyone (Mitch included) in a long time. Not because I've been particularly lazy but because, up until now, there hasn't been too much of interest. Here's a weekly summary: 33 miles, 53 miles, 57 miles, 67 miles. That's really all you need to know. All mileage was at a steady effort and I've just been getting back into the grind and plugging away like I did last (northern hemisphere) summer. The difference? I'm 100% healthy! I'm hoping to keep it that way by focusing on the new calf/glut routine, yet keeping with past ankle/flexibility/drills that I found useful under Mitch's watchful eye. So now that you're caught up in under 5 sentances, let me narrate the result of that work.
1st ever "WTF am I doing" steeple clearance
I'd been looking forward to today's 2k XC race (steeples included) for some time now. Not just because I love racing, but because I was going to get an experience I hadn't before and may never have again: International XC! Man we're a bunch of wimps in the States, running around on manicured golf courses and calling it rugged XC. Today however, I got a dose of kiwi XC and "Hey Mikey, I think he likes it."
Lead up: Yesterday, I meant to only do 45min to freshen up for this race. That plan was confounded when I hit the restroom mid run. I only realized the significance of said event when I returned to the door of my apartment and realized my keys were no longer in my possession. Thus began the second half of my run, a 40 minute out and back, with 20 of those minutes in earnest prayer the keys had not been noticed and nabbed. Fortunately, they were sitting right where I absently placed them and 85min after it began, I finished my Friday "shakeout" jog.
So today I was once again in the "Screw it" mood, happy to just bake in the sun and enjoy the scenery. Man, this is real New Zealand. I haven't realized how much time I've been spending in the city! It's been 3 months since I saw the grassy hills and dells of the rest of the island, but today, our race was enveloped by rolling hills of cow-studded farmland (I've never seen cattle so fit, not even on Stone Hill). I jogged the course with a smile on my face. Well, that is until I saw the course. There were 6 hurdles total (the last of which was a meter high and at the top of a ridiculously steep climb) and 1 murky stream. I was in for some fun alright, but would I survive this "fun"?
Eventually, I donned my borrowed Scottish club singlet and took my place on the line next to the Kiwi 1500m champ, Hamish Carson. My goal was always to stick with him and push him through the line. However, when the horn sounded, and we leapt off the line, I saw my hope run away from me as fast as the long-haired fellow I sought to push. So 400 flat meters in I found myself in no man's land, 20m in front of the peloton but 20m back of my opponent. However, I felt a flicker of ambition again as I realized Carson was no longer pulling away from me. Soon after awkwardly clearing my first two ever steeple barriers, the competition ceased to matter. The course is what captured a majority of my thought and 800m in, 4 steeples down, it was just me against the course. This might be why I was surprised to come up on Hamish and gave little thought to passing him as we began our first gradual incline. The move I thought stupid at the time (why would I lead on a course I'd never run before?) turned out to be the right one as I discovered Hamish was practically gasping for air at this halfway point in the race. I suppose that's what you get for burning rubber out of the blocks buddy. To his credit, he was going for the course record, and neither of us would have run as fast if he didn't take the chance.
After the gradual incline, we pulled a U-ey and headed right back down... towards the stream. Now, about 4 steps from the water, it occurred to me I had made a mistake during my earlier warmup scouting expedition, and was now lacking a crucial bit of intel -- Water depth. Not that I think any of the spectators minded. I'm sure it was an entertaining sight when I took the leap of faith and landed 6 inches earlier than my best guess of knee height. Fortunately for the rest of the world, a camera was on scene to capture the event in stop-motion.
The course got really interesting for the remaining half mile and, for this reason, kept my mind off of the burning in my legs. Then, quite suddenly, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself 100m from the line and I dashed home to tag off the next leg in the relay (oh yeah, this was an XC relay with 6 members to a team). It finally donned on me what I had accomplished and several other bits of information brought a new smile to my face. Not only did I have the fastest time on the day, but one of the fastest ever, and in fact running the race faster than even Nick Willis had done in his lifetime! I'm going to take this as a really good sign of where my training is headed.
I ran a significant 40min cooldown, taking advantage of the fact I was once again in the beautiful hills and trails of backwater NZ. I finished the meet with some small talk and a nice juicy sausage hot off the "barbee".
The rest of the day was spent visiting a friend in the area, playing a little 2 on 2 basketball, and organizing an "American-style" party with Cary, jointly for his birthday and my farewell.
Well that was the "Good". The "Bad" and the "Ugly" are what happened that night and the next morning, but I'm not going to elaborate on that...
Suckers!
Hi mom 
Kiwi Nationals Day 1
In Debriefing...
That first post was meant to be put up prior to the event so I could cement my mindset. However, lack of internet stifled my ambition. Since then, I've been tying up a ton of loose ends, emails, little requests and other whatnot, and at the same time, trying to minimize the amount of time I sit in this chair (possible cause of fatigue). So I apologize for the tardiness of this entry.
I actually booked my flight with Alex Wallace for Friday morning knowing that I would get to the city, move into my room (planned on the colorful GO Hotel), and scamper off to the track for my 800 heat. Luck would have it that Awal was being picked up in a Wellington-sponsored van from the airport so I tagged along to get closer to the city. Upon reaching his destination: the impressive Camelot motel, I slid open the van door and jumped out.
No sooner had my feet hit the ground than I heard a familiar voice, "Mack Daddy!" - JVD
Camelot
The van had dropped us right at the doorstep of room 744, home to the Scottish ringleaders (Scottish being one of the Welly running clubs). "Where you staying, mate?"
"Haven't booked a room yet. Thinking about ..."
"Oi, I reckon we have an extra bed, eh Josh." Fano was way ahead of me.
"Uh, nope."
"Noooo, it's you, Japes, and Scotty downstairs so just me a Luke up."
"Yip, and there's only 2 beds upstairs..."
"Nooo, there's three beds you idiot."
"Nope, I remember. There was only two."
"I sleep up there you <beep> retard."
"Shall I check? I'm gonna check."
2 seconds later from the balcony, "Aw, yup. K," to me, "You should stay."
Love to. I immediately cut a deal: I would pay for the room's groceries as my part of the cost and we would live like kings! The next three days really reminded me of spring break a bit. Just chillin' with a bunch of runners, trying to relax between sessions, eating food, watching tele, sipping beers. Great times. Great times!
After an hour of catching up we all headed off to the track for day 1 of competition. For me it was just an 800 heat.
Now I was thinking about running in my Piranha flats prior to getting to the track, but once there I had a very pleasant surprise. Turns out, one Nicholas Willis had scratched from the 800m, choosing instead to head back to the States to focus on his training and nurse his knee a bit (I completely understand). Not only that but 1:49 runner Tim Hawks was still feeling worn out and would not be running. Between the two of them and a Canadian with a 1:48 under his belt, I think a lot of Kiwis were scared into the 1500m for their chance at a national title. So now the 800m was suddenly wide open! I was pretty confident about making the final and if I couldn't do it in the flats, I really didn't have any business racing anyways. So in 24 degree heat (no more conversions for lazy Americans) our two heats went off.
I was in the second heat and I smiled a bit as the first went through in 60. Sweet. They finished up in 1:55 and I was all but in to the final. My race goes and I tag along in back at what was probably a 56.
Nope -- 58.
The heat+flats scared me with a lap to go, which was a good thing because I finished in 1:56 after straining down the home stretch. I would have been more worried about how hard that 1:56 felt except that everyone else was panting after their equivalent times as well.
Grabbed a light calf massage (more of a rub) from the Wellington masseuse (the second mooch off the Wellington squad. I owe them big time), and tried to relax with a beer in the hot tub back at the Camelot. Tomorrow, big day! (And don't worry, I hydrated well after the beer...)
ITM
The International Track Meet. Now there's a pretty intimidating title for an event (and like all formal titles, only the acronym was whispered in conversation). Indeed, ITM was advertised as one of the best meets to grace NZ since the '95 Commonwealth Games. In fact, on paper, the directors were lauding the best 800m field in 20 years. With Willis, Risley, and and a couple more sub-1:47 guys, you could only expect fireworks in the race.
I had been targeting this meet since January, when I first worked out my racing schedule for NZ. However, in the month of February I kinda struggled, working on my stride and rehabing some withered calf muscles. During that time I let that meet slip from my mind. Then, two weeks ago, everything started clicking. My new stride felt bouncy and fresh, and I was ripping up my tempos. The week culminated in a fall in an 800m race around the 600m mark. I was through in 1:25 and feeling explosive. I didn't even bother writing it up but, I'm certain I was going to be close to my PR of 1:52. "Ah well." I thought, "I'm gonna kill these next 2 weeks and dominate ITM." Immediately I phoned up the meet director and weasled my way into the meet, citing my workouts of late and promising a near-PR performance in the mid 3:40s.
However, since that magical week things have been less than stellar... I had to take a few days easy after the 800 because my calves were just one big knot. And since then, I've just been struggling with general fatigue. I've never had such a rapid turnaround in general energy level week to week. So leading up to ITM, I was more than a little nervous and it caused me to put top priority on just feeling fresh again. I only ran 15 miles in the 4 days leading up to the meet and only one easy workout, 6x200m. It had the desired effect. My fatigue broke on the day of the meet. For the first time in 2 weeks I didn't whimper at the thought of bounding upstairs or jumping over a bench.
QEII
The QEII stadium environment was a lot more impressive this time than when I ran a local 5k back in December; there were cameras and tents all over the place and almost 2000 people in the stands. Warming up, I was grateful to feel my strides flow crisply and not tire my legs. It allowed me to actually think about the race and not my conditioning. That said, the gameplan going into the race was always the same. The pacemaker was instructed to push 2:27 through 1000m, a pace I have no business running right now and so the plan was to hang on the back of the pack. Draft and stay out of trouble for 1200m and see what happens in the last 300. Try and pick off as many stragglers as possible.
With a simple gameplan, a long stride, and some confidence that I wouldn't embarrass myself, I toed the line. Gun went off and I was immediately blown away! I think every racer got out to a 14s 200m and I nestled down second to last.
Lap 1 - 60
Lap 2 - 62
Lap 3 - 61.5
I was DFL entering the last lap and the time to move to put myself in the race had come and gone. The upside of running like such a wimp was that I was able to call another gear for the back stretch of the last lap, taking down 3 people (who had presumably raced harder in the early stages) in the process. On the home stretch, I wasn't able to get high on my toes and my kick floundered in the last 50m, just like it always does. However, I had closed in 43 and put myself through the line in 3:48.3, a time that has given me some confidence that I can compete on the elite level again. The kick will come with more calf rehab and future plyometrics. I'm just grateful to have spared myself embarrassment. Not the mindset I want to have very much, but this was definitely a race that was tailored towards the southern runners that are peaking at the end of a season, aka not me.
Looking ahead, I'll float for the next week before NZ nationals before getting back into the grind. At that point, all eyes on June in the States and hopefully some new PRs.
Twice the Usual
Before I get down to business. I must mention one good thing has come from my blackberry debacle. Let's start with this:
Quick, say 7 digits out loud!
.
.
Creepy Over-Zealous Guy
Well whatever you came up with, it probably had a sequence in there. And if you're a hot brunette trying to quickly ditch a over-zealous creepy guy (see right), you may be left saying something like, "Oh, my number? Why it's... 123... 1.. 34.. 7! Can't wait to hear from you!" And cackle all the way back to telling your girl friends how cute you are.
The number that I received for my Vodafone cell is... 123.1347. And as you've guessed by now, I have received a couple mysterious and sometimes funny txts. I then proceed to add to contacts as Poor Bloke1, Poor Bloke2, etc... I do that in the event that they call (and they have). At which point I let them down easy via txt. Anyways, it's Saturday night and I just sent this fellow a txt after he called. He responded, "Ouh. I'm S0ry." Drunk at 9:30? Standard...
So now the race of twice the usual distance, 3000m. I ran 53min yesterday to prep for it. Felt a bit fatigued but got this surge of adrenaline thinking that NCAAs would be the next day (today). That got me fantasizing about running 8:19 and just keep going to 5k. Hah! Anyways... who starts a race writeup talking about the day before? Oh yeah, I felt a bit fatigued.
So I woke up this morning and did my standard calf exercises but no morning run. Sat around passing the time 'til 10AM: Division III Indoor Champs kickoff with the mile. Connor was in the first heat and ran solid, qualifying onward. As the day progressed I started flipping between DI and DIII. Over the next 3 hours I got the chills watching the races and was incredibly pumped for mine!
Got to the track and warmed up for 15min followed by leg swings and drills and strides. I still felt a bit fatigued but I've felt the same before sooo many races. The good thing was my calves weren't knotted anymore (slowly working themselves out over the past few days). So I put on the victories and waited for the gun.
You'll have to excuse me, this writeup may be a bit scatterbrained as I'm watching the Phoenix vs. Sydney soccer game right now. So a bit distracted...
The gun goes off and immediately our pacer (Josh Van Dalen) went to the front. The target: 67s.
First lap: 66.high. Awesome.
Second lap 2:14. Nice. For these first two I was riding right on his shoulder, feeling strong and really expecting a harder time dealing with the paces. Made me get a bit close to him at times, each time forcing me to mentally relax, chop my stride, and stop tailgating so hard.
The 3rd lap felt perfect and we came through the 1k in 2:48 and the 1200 in 3:22. Unfortunately, this is where Josh pulled out with a "Sorry mate." I think his calf must have been bothering him a bit. Well I got the lead at that point and while Stefan had offered to try and take 400m after Josh pulled out, he was a step behind and I didn't want to fall off the pace at all so I took it at that point.
I don't know any other splits except 2k -- 5:36. So perfect 2:48 - 2:48. I had planned to start dropping the hammer here pre-race and maybe that was a bad thing because I went from feeling average with 1200 left, to feeling awful with 800m to go. I really felt like I should be kicking at that point. It was horrible. The result: I basically hung on to my stride for 600m and then couldn't muster the mental or physical effort (or both) to get on my toes and close hard. Plus I came through to the bell lap in 7:20 so I knew I wasn't going to hit my mental goal of 8:19. Anyways, I closed out the last lap in 70......... Hardly elite closing speed... For all you arts and humanities students out there: that's an 8:29.
Post-race I walked around for 12 minutes trying to stop my sides from aching before finally getting jogging. And I emphasize jogging. I was supposed to do a bit of a 45min tempo after the race but 10min in to cooldown I knew that wasn't in the cards. So 13min easy cooldown followed by 20min chat. Then 10min light jog home to watch the D1 DMRs.
About 30min later though, with some recoop food/lactate drain, I got back out and finished the session. 40min starting 6:30, finishing ~5:40 by best estimate. Done.
Thoughts afterwards are mixed. I certainly would like to be a bit faster on my own but... with the sun, and wind, and fatigue from the week, and leading over a mile... I'm not suicidal. New goal is to just break 3:50 at ITM though.
Later mates.
Three point Seven-Five Laps
I ran a race last saturday, and I'm sorry but for the life of me I can't come up with an interesting writeup. So boring race, boring writeup, but here's how it went down for you die-hards.
I was feeling a little flat (understandable as I'm doing calf exercises twice a day for achilles rehab... though I skipped the Fri-night and Sat-morn sessions) when I went to the track at 2:00PM today. For the first time in a long time I thought and sweated over the race enough for my body to actually go into race mode (got a little chilly in the morning and needed to hit the stalls a ridiculous number of times leading up to the race. I was sweating not for any reason than I wanted to run well. Amazing the amount of pressure you can dump on yourself.
"Work!" - Mitchell Baker's instructions for the race.
I blatantly wanted to hit 3:52 going 62-63-62-45 but admitted to myself I would be happy with anything under 3:55.
So when the gun went off. Things got boring real fast. It was me vs myself vs time vs a slight breeze.
The result was 62-64-64-46 = 3:56... bleh. Its not bad enough for me to be frustrated, just annoyed. Good news is I did win, led the whole race, and had a slight breeze (calm for Wellington) to slow me. Best news is I felt like I could race again 45min later. So the recovery is there, and, as expected, the speed isn't, but I was hoping there was a little more natural talent in these ol' legs.
Anyways, better than the 4:19 start indoors at MIT last year, but slower than the 4:10 I ran this same weekend in 2009. So yeah, nothing too remarkable one way or the other. Like I said: boring.
And no pictures/video. Enjoy your black and white report.
Return to Mondo
(Ah nuts, I thought I posted this a while ago... guess I just saved a draft)
Well its been a grizzly 6 weeks since I last raced, and I have a grizzled beard to show for it. The time since Jan 1st has been full of pain and stiffness from the work I'm doing fixing my stride (still no sickness though, woohoo!). It's not up to Coe/Bekele standards but so much better already. On the injury front, good news is my Achilles are officially back to 100% and my cardio is solid. It turns out that what I believed to be a nagging achilles has actually been a posterior impingement that I suffered sprinting down the backside of Pine Cobble 5-6 months ago. The injury happened because I was acting all gazelle-like, leaping and bounding over rocks. My legs couldn't keep up with my fantasy and I ended up clipping one of the boulders with my heel, causing massive shock to the ankle. Anyways, long story short, it's been cramping my style for 6 months. The only pain is a slight dull ache when I plantar-flex my foot, but that slight pain has lead to my body compensating by not flexing as hard (not pushing off). Slowly, it's also tried to maintain balance by not pushing off with the other foot either. The result is a stride that literally doesn't use the calf muscles. No speed. No power. I might as well have prosthetics (insensitive? meh). So since learning about my state of being 3 weeks ago, I've been on a nice little rehab plan for my calves, as well as correcting several other peripheral issues with my stride in general. The problems and the correction strategy:
- Mean crossover. To fix this is just a mental focus process. I can look at my legs and force the feet out a bit as I run. This will also cause less movement in my ankle leading to less... (next item)
- Over-pronation. Caused by crossover and... (next item)
- Over striding. I've been heel striking waaay out in front of my body. I also maintain contact with my heel for waaay too long. And don't push off.
- Glamor Hips (copyright). As I run, my hips sag a lot (especially when running slow) much like a model at the end of a runway, hand on the hip. Hence my coining -- glamor hips.
If I fix these issues I should have significantly more power. I'm certain I used my calves more before but the other issues still existed and I'm hopeful this will give me more efficiency as well as... dare I hope: a withering kick. Mwahaha!
Post Race Trimming to Goatee
Back to present reality, and the beard. I promised when I couldn't race Willis in the NZ 3000m champs (and started all this rehab stuff) that I wouldn't shave until I raced again. Well, a Chaffee's words are stone (not matter how depressed and loopy he is when he says it... except maybe when it comes to moderation on Friday nights...) and I persevered through to this saturday, intending to run a little 4x1500 relay at 6PM. On the day of the race, i woke up at 8:30AM and was immediately told, "Plans changed, 800 at 9:45..." Needless to say, there's a downside to the chilled Kiwi lifestyle. Anyways, the reason I mention the beard is because it played a pivotal role in my decision to actually race. You see, beards suck. They are fun to talk about and compare, but when it comes down to it, I don't think I could ever live with a beard. One reason: scratchy. Ugh, so annoying to sleep on. No wonder bearded men snore, they have to lie on their back just to fall asleep... Anyways, so yes, having not run a sub-60 quarter since July, I jumped into an 800m (oh, and while I try sometimes, when I fall back into my fundamental personality, I'm NOT a morning person). The race was pretty standard, here's the video.
Moral of the story: 28s are FAST! I basically was just recovering speed throughout the race. Haha, we started and I was dropped pretty much immediately. Also, video footage shows .06s between most ppl starting, and me starting. Gotta improve that a little... Final time: 1:55.99. Not the way most guys start a season, but at least I broke 1:56. All things weighed and considered -- I'm happy. Looking forward to a 1500 this next weekend.
2010 Debut
Woke up today feeling unrealistically good at 9AM, bade farewell to our fantastic New Years hosts (I failed to mention earlier that we crashed for the night in an incredibly conveniently located flat owned by an (ex?) runner named Clive. Interesting note: his gf is from NYC and they're going strong after 9 months and amazingly they find time to get together every 2 months or so. Good news for a couple love birds I know... This is pushing the limits of parens...), and started to shuffle around the once again thriving beach town.
So at this point, only thing on my plate is the 3k Cary and I have been planning to run. Obviously, race prep up to this point hasn't been ideal, and we continued to have no regard for our bodies as we basked out in the sun (still in jeans) while we waited for Ian to come pick us up. It wasn't until 2PM we made the connection (I'm guessing Ian's new year celebration was pretty epic as well. He's saying 3AM bedtime for himself. Understandably took him a little while to get going the next morning), so I'm talking a good amount of sun too. However, we did get a shower and a good 3 hour nap before rising at 5:30PM for our date with the track.
Once we got to the track I began to feel like a runner again for the first time in a while. Honestly, I haven't really felt the fire of competition on a track since last spring. But this was a legit meet with all regular events and a couple hundred fans in the stands. I actually didn't know how legit it was until I got there, and once there I was a bit repentant for the abuse my body had suffered in the previous 24 hours. That said, I didn't actually feel that bad and I had hydrated pretty well for the last 3 hours, so I was hopeful for a decent performance.
The 3k had a bunch of good runners in it, including a few fellows from the 5k in Christchurch, and some Ramblers with good PBs ( = PRs). Oh and of course Nick Willis. He ran the 800m about 45min earlier in a sit a pretty even split 1:52 (57,55). I did a good 12 minute warm up with a minute tempo toward the end of it. Legs felt pretty fresh after the day off. Abbreviated stretching routine and 1 set of strides. The short warm up was once again due to the fact that there was no woman's 3k beforehand. I don't really understand why they split up the schedule like that. Maybe fans can't handle two LD events in a row? Anyways, toed the line with about 25 other guys (packed) and interestingly enough we weren't assigned any order on the line. "Fast people in front." and I just took position 7ish on the line.
Gun went off and we were into it. I fell really nicely into 2nd place and was amazingly given breathing room as well. I think a lot of other people enjoyed New Years to at least the extent we did because the race ran a cautious 71 and 2:22 for the first 800. Cary took over at that point and dropped 69 69 69, leading me around for another 1200m. It was really fun to have us American's 1-2, that is until 1000m to go when Willis decided to disrespect us. He took over aggresively with a great move going into the back turn. Forcing me to wait until the end of the turn to get around Cary. I took off after him staying about 7-10m behind for much of the next 600m. With a lap to go Nick put it into casual overdrive and started on what I bet was about a 61. It would have been quite optimistic to assume I could have stayed with him, and I had promised Mitch I would take it easy with a 90% effort. So I cruised in maintaining 65 pace for what I believe was about a 8:31. I know I was 7:59 at the 200m-to-go mark and I'd like to think I maintained pace. We'll see if we ever get results. We're 30 hours out from the meet and for a $15 entrance fee, you'd expect a little faster service. Oh well.
I don't usually put my competition on a pedestal (other than Peter Kosgei), but it was an honor to warm down with an Olympic silver medalist. Hope to be equals someday.
I went on to run 5x200m in 30,31,30,29,29 (last two with Cary). I was just trying to maintain form at speed. Felt pretty easy and I like today as an overall effort. Cary also ran well, running 8:39.55 by his own watch. He also took 5th in the race.
I did some drills and stretched a whole lot before coming back home and icing the achilles.
Ian spoiled us once again with a Chaffee family reunion favorite of corn on the cob. He soaked it in butter and Cary and I each had 2 ears. What a day.
Race Day: NBx-mas Classic 5k in Christchurch
Here we go. Race day. And not just any race day. It's my southern hemisphere debut race day. (Actually, the anticipation of the race was way beyond what ended up being the scope of the race).
Some of the sights Cary saw
The meet turned out to be a pretty intimate affair. You might have guessed that since everything else in the Land of the Kiwis is relaxed, their meets would be pretty laid back as well. Well, you would be right. In fact, it honestly felt kind of like a fun run, even though some of the best 5kers on the island were there.
Leading up to the race Cary and I separated in the hostel and just chilled doing our own thing. His lead-up involved a morning run and a little time exploring Christchurch. For me, I was more comfortable watching Balls of Fury, and some other equally mindless movie while catching up on world (Tiger) affairs. Zing!
Only productive part of the day was writing several postcards. Chance of them getting to their recipients by Christmas? Zero.
The great part about this race is that there is the video, so I'll just focus more on what I was thinking. I did a low-key 1 mile warmup as it was quite hot out (compared to what we've been experiencing. About 24 degrees. Celcius. Deal with it). The race actually went off a bit earlier than I thought it would and I did an abbreviated stretching routine. Cary actually almost missed the race, sprinting over and tying spikes on the line. I don't blame him, it seemed to me like we should have had about 5 more minutes, I only made it because I saw a lot of people gathering in the 5k vicinity looking intimidating. Anyways, the strat going in was simple. Run 70s. Stay in touch. Hope to deal with a pickup after 3k.
The first part of the race was perfect. I fell in with the lead pack, didn't get clipped too much, and felt really solid for the first mile doing exactly 70s (nice pacing List). I think my big problem that whole time was I was hyper-sensitive to how my body is feeling. I just don't know what else to think about. It's so damn boring. Anyways, I was happy to be breathing smoothly and striding well at the 1 mile mark. Unfortunately, that's really not too far into a 5k. Just like my first 5k 8 months ago, I began to feel my legs get weary at the halfway mark. No one took off at that point, and as I expected, the move was subtly made when the leader started dropping to 69s with 1600 to go. Me and my little running buddy (Mark Bailey), on the other hand, started pulling 71s. I knew the right move would be to get around at the 2 mile mark but I was just too tired, and, come on, I still have a MILE to go! The urge to move around kept hitting me, and with 600 to go I felt like I should be going anaeobic. But there was just too much distance left. As it was, I began kicking with 300 to go and it was still too early. I just couldn't muster any strength that last 2k. The whole time, I was just holding on. Holding on. Really kind of frustrating. Mostly because you just have sooo long to berate yourself.
So yup, I still hate the 5k. On the plus side, a race that consists of just 4 silly laps around the track sounds too good to be true.
I finished 4th at 14:37 (results). Despite the boredom and then pain I just put myself through, I'm actually reasonably happy with the result. Don't get me wrong. I hate that I lost, and that I'm weak, and that I was thinking about giving up for about half the race. But 14:37 is a good time for me and here's why:
- I've only been back in the saddle for 4 weeks.
- I'm coming off of 3 weeks of straight traveling.
- My achilles isn't terribly strong right now, purhaps affecting my stride.
- I'm not used to the heat (though, judging by today's times compared to previous years, everyone was affected).
- And last, I just haven't run very many 5ks. The result being that I don't feel comfortable feeling like jello with so much race left.
Above all else, it's great to have a solid indicator of exactly where my fitness lies. Up til now, it's been all guesses, comparisons, and speculation. I'm going to talk to Mitch soon and hope to come up with the 2010 gameplan.
Big 3 mile cool down with the fellas. Talked a lot to the other international, a fellow from Sweden. 7 miles
Beyond the race, this meet was awesome, everyone knows everyone else and the atmosphere is so stress free. I would specifically like to thank the meet director (Craig?) for burying me in NB gear (I think he pitied me running in a T-shirt). But even beyond the incredible material generosity, everyone was remarkably friendly in a way you would never get in the states. Yes, I'm hating on the States. However, I will say, the friendliness is kind of born out of necessity. If you alianated your competition here, you'd have like 2 friends. The US can afford to fragment into competitive little groups, whereas the running community here is just not big enough to support major factions. Plus, here, for some reason, everybody's just so like-minded anyways. Its not like some runners are Californians or Texans or New Englanders. No, here you're just Kiwi. Cary and I were invited and attended an amazing BBQ that night at the house of one Gus Taylor, where we ate and drank with almost everyone in the race. Things were fun and funny there through midnight at which point we ended up hitting the impressive Christchurch nightlife scene.
Bed at 3AM with a long run looming in the morning.
The Author
I'm a runner who's managed to escape the NE winter for a NZ summer. This is a chronicle of my travels.
Cheers!
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