On The Track

On Friday I ran my first track race since I graduated from college in 2002!

I spent most of last week running easy, trying to shake off my lingering soreness from Sunady's 12K on the road.  I went back and forth on whether to race Friday, but my Thursday I said sore or not sore, it will be a fun experience. 

The San Francisco State University Distance Carnival started just 3 years ago with 4 events for athletes who did not get into Stanford Invitational later the same day.  By last year, this meet had grown to hundreds of athletes and a full day's worth of events.  The men's 5000 had 86 runners this year split between 3 heats.  It was a really low key event, but one that included very competitive races.

I was in the 2nd of 3 heats, which last year had finishing times from just under 15 minutes through the low 16's.  My plan was to shoot for 74 second laps (a 15:25 pace), while avoiding using up too much energy early on.  When the gun went off, I dropped toward the back, and found a spot on the rail by the end of the first lap.  There wasn't a clock at the start or the finish line, so I had to depend on various coaches yelling splits to runners around me.  I know I hit the first lap in 77 but then settled into 73-74 sec laps.  My calves were pretty much sore from the get go, as they had never fully recovered from Sunday's race, and I was wearing a pair of track spikes that have been sitting in my attic for years.  Other than the calves, I felt fairly comfortable through the first half of the race.  Around 2 miles, I started to slip back from the group I was runnign with.  I knew I was slowing down, but I just tried to dig in and make the most of it.  Those laps 3 laps hurt!!  Dana enjoyed the track environment & it was fun having her on the infield cheer for me. 

I crossed the line & really had no idea what my time was since I hadn't gotten any good split info the last few laps.  But I figured I was in the high 15's, and that was confirmed first off of a friend's watch, then the official results - 15:49.

I'm not as happy about this race as I was with the 12K Sunday, but I took 10 seconds off my post college PR for 5K, and it was my second PR in less than a week.  So based on that, I'm certainly not disappointed.  I'll have some more opportunities to lower my 5K time in April, so just need to keep it going!