Distance: 5 km
Location: Turner Field, Atlanta, GA
Current PR: 20:10 (February 6, 2016, Hearts and Soles, Atlanta, GA)
90% Goal: IDK, pace someone?
50% Goal: 21:00
10% Goal: 20:00
Result: 19:55 (Result)
Mile Splits: 6:12, 6:30, 6:29, 0:39 (GPS Link)
Summary
I had no expectations for this race. I asked around to a bunch of people ahead of time, mostly trying to find one of the faster Run Leads to pace. However, just about everyone was looking to take it easy. I had tossed around a bunch of goals in my head over the past month, but ended up walking to the start line without anything particularly in mind. Coach Amy dropped into the corral next to me and changed everything. All of a sudden, I was getting challenged by our Olympian coach, so I HAD to perform. I ended up turning in a great time and broke a new barrier.
Pre-Race
My dad has been in town the past few nights and with about two-and-a-half glasses of wine last night, it was pretty clear to me that my performance at Braves was not at the top of my priorities. I've been nursing a hamstring injury the past few weeks and only just had my first "good" runs this past Wednesday and Thursday.
Wednesday was speedwork (6x1000m), which I took easy because of my leg, but had no issues. Thursday was 3.5 "garbage" miles just for maintenance to help shake off speedwork. Friday was a rest day (got mah hairs cut).
Friday night wasn't too late of a night. Had some fish, potatoes, and wine. Grandma had the kid this weekend, so, even though we chatted until about 10:30, I ended up getting decent enough sleep.
I had a Clif bar in the morning before driving down and felt generally good. Nothing spectacular. I asked around trying to find someone to pace. A few were already going to be running with Angelina, and I had already been forbidden from running anywhere near her. Others were taking it easy or running with training participants. Either way, I had zero direction on what to do.
 |
| Training Group! |
I ran about a mile warmup, nice and easy with a few fast striders thrown in. Everything felt like it was in the right place with my hamstring, so I wasn't worrying about my body coming apart.
Standing at the start line, ATC's head coach (Amy) walked up to me with ~30 seconds before the gun.
Her: "Hey, so, I'm running with you , today, and I'm going for 20 minutes today."
Me: "Sounds good, I'll try to keep up."
She's well versed in my goals for the year and knew exactly what she was pushing me for.
 |
| Gauntlet Thrown |
Race
One doesn't get challenged by an Olympian and back down. I had to respond. I managed to stay on her shoulder for nearly the first mile. Eventually, I realized we were around a 6:00 pace, which I knew was unsustainable, so I backed off and let Amy go. My goal was to keep her in sight, which I managed to do for the most part.
Like usual, I started with a very fast mile. However, it wasn't debilitatingly fast. Looking back, I started with a 5:55 mile last year. This year's 6:12 was much more manageable (and sustainable).
The end of mile 2 and most all of mile 3 felt downright awful. While I know the course has a few dozen foot drop, it really doesn't feel like it when trying to climb out from Grant Park.
If you've run with me, you know my go-to mantra playing in my head is "the faster you run, the faster you done". The last mile, I turned on one of Angelina's training partner's: "it's going to hurt". And it did. My body wanted to stop the entire third mile. Every warning siren was going off in my brain to stop, but nothing was ever actually wrong.
Making the U-Turn into the stadium, I passed the 3 mile timer that was just ticking 19:00, so I knew I could make it to the finish in time. My watch had me at 19:49, but officially I'm down for 19:55. 6 seconds is a pretty big spread, but I'm guessing my bib triggered the start a bit before I actually got across the line.
Post Race
I hung around near the finish as much as I could to watch Angelina come in. This was her first target race since Holden's arrival last Fall, and she had very high hopes. She ended up notching a 90 second PR, exceeding her goal for the day by over a minute. Both her and Brandi should solidly be in B wave for next year's Peachtree.
The Kilometer Kids tailgate was a blast afterwards. A bunch of people broke some awesome times and it was great swapping stories about the run. We had some drinks, played some corn hole, and helped the New York group pull in nearly 10% of their fundraising commitment.
 |
| Dooooon't stop, belieeeeevin. Hold on to the feeeline |
Conclusion
Sometimes you just have to go for it. When the perfect person gives you just the push you need, you have to take that opportunity. I did very few of the things I normally do to physically prepare myself for a PR race, but I was completely mentally locked in today. I know I have more I can pull out of myself.
We are all works in progress.
