I went to bed at 11:45 the night of the race to get up at 4 to head over to South Beach to register for the race. With not enough sleep, not enough good food over the last week, and no speed training, I once again was going into a race totally unprepared. Hopefully this will not be the theme of this year.
I started doing some light jogging and buildups about 30 min before race time after waiting in the long lines for the bathroom with all the half marathoners. I tried to work out the tightness in my hamstrings with some striders as the half marathoners headed south, and I was about as ready as I was going to get when the starting line cleared and the 5kers began to toe the start line heading north.
I entered the starting coral after most of the other runners had already packed in, so I had to try to snake my way up towards the front. I figured a respectable time would probably put me in the top 5 based on last year’s finishing times, and there would probably be a big group that surged and died at the start, so I was content when I got to four deep from the start line and watched the Karhu bear pose for photos at the front of the group – any one to beat the bear would be getting a free pair of Karhu shoes. I’m not sure if Karhu intended on giving away 100 pairs of shoes as the bear finished the day in the first aid tent…
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| Karhu Sisu warming up at the starting line. |
When the gun went off I had my eyes on my feet as I tried to pick my way through the runners already trotting too close to walking speed for my taste. After about 40 yards I found some space and looked up to find myself already out in front. Not good. I had figured I’d be chasing the lead pack for the race – letting them drag me through this speed workout, and had no intention of rabbiting for anyone.
Another 200 yards of taking it easy, watching my peripherals waiting for the real runners to take over the race. No one. Fine, I picked up to what I figured would be close to race pace – a year and a half of no races had me a little rusty on pacing. Breathing easy, staying lose, expecting the lead pack to catch me at any moment. At about ¾ of a mile I started hearing comments from the crowd – “why is he so far in front?”. Not good. I was following the lead car (which the cops tried to get off the course several times not realizing it was part of the race) so I had to be going the right way…
I breezed through the first mile at 5:23, not too bad, especially with how easy it was feeling. Grabbed a quick sip of Gatorade (practice) and continued to keep the pace feeling easy. The half way turn around was the first chance I had to look back to see what was going on in the race. I had about 20-30 seconds on the girl in second and she had a sizable lead on the next runner. So much for competition. For the next few minutes I decided just to enjoy the run and started cheering for runners still heading towards the turn around as I was heading back.
I eased up my pace and just kept the breathing easy. “As long as I don’t let anyone catch me there isn't much reason to really push myself.” NOT what I wanted to be thinking and I very much regret it now. Second mile 5:33, still pretty good pace, but I was easing up and slowing down.
As I took the final switch back and headed back down the beach towards the finish I could see no one was going to challenge me today. Third mile 5:49, way too comfortable. At that point I just focused on finishing looking strong – no kick for the last .2 miles, but a decent tempo pace. Some of my GPS splits must have been off because there was no way I coasted home at 7:40 pace… 17:33 finish time, 30 seconds before the next runner.
The men’s race ended up not being competitive at all with next guy crossing at 18:53. The women’s side was a bit more competitive with the first two women finishing in 18:03 and 18:09.
It’s a little bit embarrassing winning a race with a time like this when the corresponding half marathon was not much slower. More evidence that half of winning is showing up for the race. Not exactly the solid workout I was hoping for since I never felt like I really pushed myself, but it certainly was a confidence builder. Perhaps with a little speed & lactic threshold work and pushing myself a little more I have some easy sub 17’s in me – the foot speed is still there, a good sign for my marathon training…
After the race I headed home, grabbed some food and headed to Oleta for some mountain bike trail running with Veronica. 8 miles on the trails ended up being much more of a workout and I ended up sore the rest of the day. Not a bad day of running really.
http://www.131marathon.com/13_1_Miami_Beach.htm
FUN FINISHING NOTE:
Here’s the blog from the first female finisher – she works for Karhu… Guess they expected about 15-20 people to beat the bear, not 97… http://greenlightningrunning.blogspot.com/2011/03/131-miami-beach-5k.html
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