Here’s how Greenwood went down.
We all toed the line under wet grey skies. The temperature was just under 10, but there was little wind, so conditions were pretty good. When the gun went off, a bunch of guys surged forward, but I kept myself in check, trying to establish the pace with my first few strides. Normally I go out too fast and don’t realize it until a kilometre or more in – and by then it’s too late – I lose it all and more in the last couple of ks. But this time, I kept things comfortable. I fell in with Nick and Terry and counted the guys in front – 5.
The first k clicked by in 3:32. Perfect – exactly the range I was looking for (anything between 3:30 and 3:35). Much of the first k was uphill, but it felt easy, which restored my confidence after a week of bad workouts. The pace felt good. All I had to do was keep it.
We passed the guy reading out the mile splits in just under 5:40. Perfect. I chatted a bit with Nick as we were moving along. We took stock of the leaders. There were three guys out in front, but after their first mile (a too-fast 5:10), one of them fell back a bit. Between those three and our little group, there were two guys running together. Nick knew one of them from his Dal days, and he said I should think about reeling those guys in over the last 5 miles. He told me to have patience – he figured they would come back if I stuck to my race plan.
After the second k (3:34), I started to pull away a bit from Nick and Terry and occupied the lonely space between our group and the next two runners. Nick told me later that there was a guy who tried to go with me, but he fell back quickly, realizing it wasn’t there. I was still being cautious, but when the third k was a bit slow at 3:39, I injected some life back into the pace and picked it up on the fourth to 3:33. All the while, I was inching closer to the 4th and 5th guys. One and two were gone, and three looked pretty far, but I was reeling 4 and 5 in, which gave me something to focus on.
The fifth k is the hardest on the course: there’s a bit of a monster hill. But it was on this hill where I finally caught up to the 4th and 5th guys. Even so, my pace slackened because I was scared of red lining up the hill and flooding my system with lactic acid. I kept the effort the same, but could feel myself slowing – as a result, the 5th k was my slowest at 3:48. What was worse – my 5k time (according to my Garmin) was 18:07 – off pace for my goal of sub 36.
Normally that would have thrown me completely. I would have gotten frustrated and my mentals would have gone to hell. From there, I would have tensed up and run poorly. But it didn’t happen. I shrugged it off and kept wheeling. In fact, down the other side of the hill, I decided to up the ante and see if the other two would come with me. During a 3:31 6th k, I could hear their footsteps get quieter and quieter behind me. I was pleased.
At this point, I noticed that the 3rd guy was starting to come back to me. That first mile was eating away at his legs, and he had nobody near him to give him a push. Incredibly, I was still feeling good and kept an even pace over the rolling terrain with a 3:35 7th k. However, as I was gaining on the 3rd guy, I heard footsteps approaching from behind. One of the two guys had made a break and caught me up. Those damn teenagers – all legs and lungs. But the presence of this guy pushed me to a 3:31 8th k.
We ran together for awhile, but as we started in on the penultimate k, I remembered to relax – and found that I still had gas in the tank. I picked it up slightly and the guy faded again. Now I was going for the 3rd guy and could feel him coming back. My second last k was my fastest so far – 3:30.
With a k to go on a long flat stretch, I let loose, doing all I could to eat up the distance between me and the 3rd guy. But as I was giving it, I heard those damn footsteps from behind again. The kid had saved a bunch for the end – he had more than I did, and with 200m or so to go, he went by me, hungry for the 3rd guy. Turns out, though, that the 3rd guy had lots left and kept both of us off.
Coming down the last 50m or so, I finally saw the clock – and saw that I was going to go under 36. It was awesome. I cruised over that last k in 3:24 and crossed the line in 35:42, with a huge stupid grin on my face. Julie-Ann rushed over knowing exactly how happy I’d be. It was a great feeling. I congratulated the 4th guy on a great race. He ate me up at the end – probably had more in the tank than he thought. But I came away feeling that I also had more in the tank and that this wasn’t the limit of my 10k potential. Problem is there’s only one more 10k on the Timex schedule this year, so I’ve got to make it count in July!
In the end, I was 5th overall and 2nd in my age category (20-39), which netted me a silver medal – woo hoo. Three of the guys I lost to were 19 year-olds – but they don’t really count – a 34 year-old dude should lose to whippersnappers like that! What I was most happy about was that I ran a pretty big negative split, covering the second 5k in just under 17:40. Last year, that would have been a great 5k race time for me – this year, it’s the second half of my 10k!
Now it’s back to the training. There are no more Timex races until June, when there’s three – so the next month will be all about working on 5k and 5mile speed. I’ll be looking for that elusive sub-17 for 5 and maybe even a sub-28 for 5 miles. We’ll see.
