The day after the Run to Stop MS I headed up to Miami Shores with Veronica to race another local 5K. This time I felt awake after claiming a full 8 hours of sleep the night before (mainly because I’d been unable to keep my eyes open at 10PM). This time I was hopeful I could pull off a much better time.
Sitting around before the start I saw one guy I thought my give me a race today – he was wearing a Runner Depot Race Team shirt so I knew he was serious. The Runner Depot Race team always has guys placing at the top of races in Miami, taking 1-2 in the 13.1 race not long ago, but they typically represent at long distance events – maybe I could compete in a 5K.
Remembering what had happened the day before I managed to get some striders and build ups in before the race, making sure the legs were awake and feeling fast. After several delays, we finally gathered around the approximate start line (is a chalk line too hard?) and readied for the air horn start. I set myself further to the outside trying to avoid the crowd of little kids conjugating right on the line. “Ready...” POP, one of the balloons on the start/finish arch popped and the crowd surged forward. The starter, not knowing what to do, quickly blew the air horn and the unofficial start was official.
I went out hard, not wanting a slow start to kill my race like the day before, and went through the first half mile at 5 min pace. Opps, I needed to cool it just a little. As I eased down to 5:20 pace I heard the foot steps behind me. The guy from the RD race team pulled up next to me just as we hit a turn into a parking lot – where to next?? The lead bike had stop to guide the turn for the rest of the runners and we had no idea where to go. The other guy pointed out the green arrow at the end of the lot and we headed that way, the pace drastically slowed as we were trying to guess the route. After a short loop in the parking lot we were back on the main road and hitting a U turn. With no cone or marker to run around I picked the end of the paint line and headed back down the road, at this point a few strides behind the RD racer.
We went through the mile at 5:24, right where I wanted to be, but my legs were shot. The 5K plus 5.5 mile run after the day before, along with the fact that it was my highest mileage week in 7 years (as pathetic as that is with as few miles as I’m running), had left my legs with nothing left for the race.
There’s not much else to report for this race. My pace dropped to an embarrassing 6 min/mile shuffle and I finished the race at 17:33 with no closing kick. I wish that was it, but in the spirit of honesty, the course was probably about a tenth of a mile short, meaning the time was probably closer to 18 min. I was 20 seconds behind the RD racer, never having found the energy to close the gap and give him a race.
While I was having a terrible day, finally having another runner to race and not having anything in the tank to go with him, Veronica was having a great day. I was still catching my breath when I realized she was rounding the final corner neck and neck with another guy, just getting eked out at the finish and taking 4th place, first female by a good distance. Just that morning she had told me about the one time she had broken 20 min in college and today she eased through at 19:33, with no speed training and in the middle of Triathlon training – not too bad for a long distance runner. At least one of us had a good race.
A final note on the course; in comparison to Saturday’s race, this race was a disaster. The course was poorly marked, causing confusion on several of the turns. Where as Saturday’s race had volunteers or cops at every turn and most intersections, this course had only 2 or 3 cops and the lead biker, who had to stop several times to direct the race leaving the lead runners on their own. This race had not 1 but 2 U turns – killers during races, and weaved through parking lots with cars still rolling though. I realize these charity races are running on a tiny budget, but really, you need a few more cones, a few more paper signs and a little more organization if you want to pull off a successful race that people will return to.
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