This morning I ran the Love ‘em or Leave ‘em 5K at Green Lake. I previously ran this race in 2006 (27:35) and 2008 (24:30). The big change this year was that instead of only using the pedestrian path they actually shut down one lane of Green Lake Drive and used it for most of the route. This made the course marginally faster (no extra loop behind the community center to add mileage). My goal for the race was to run <25:00.

Pre Race

I picked up my bib and timing chip on Saturday so I didn’t have to worry about that on race morning. It was 1C and cloudy as I was getting ready so I chose to wear capris, a thermal long-sleeved shirt, running vest and gloves. The race was slated to start and 9:30 am so I planned to leave my apartment at 9:10 and run a one mile warm-up to the start line. At about 8:40 I tried to turn on my Garmin to take off the auto-lap function but it displayed a low battery warning. I’d charged it on Saturday so this was unexpected. I charged it for half and hour but as I went to leave the apartment it wouldn’t even turn on. Augh! Garmin Failure! I tried to remember how to reset it but I didn’t really have time so I just left it at home and made my way to the race. My warm-up was probably a little too quick but I made it to the start line about 8 mintues before the start. I lined up half way between the 7:00 and 8:00 min/mile pace signs and tried to relax and get some quick stretches in.

The Race

I was feeling a bit flustered at the start and since I didn’t have my Garmin I knew I was just going to have to run by feel. The gun went off and it only took a few seconds for me to cross the starting line. I took off hard, probably too hard, but there were supposed to be 2000+ runners in the race and I really didn’t want to get stuck behind a crowd. The course did run on the pedestrian path on the west side of the lake during the first mile but thankfully I had no crowding issues. By the time we got to Green Lake Drive I was hurting and we weren’t even at the first mile maker yet! Once I was into the second mile my goal was to just run at a controlled hard pace. Once I was into the third mile I started using mind games to maintain pace. My current favourite is counting steps in a ladder by 10′s up to 100. I was definitely being passed way more than I was passing people which made me think that I must have been slowing down substantially. I really didn’t know what pace I was running but I knew I wanted it to be over. We turned off Green Lake and onto the path towards the finish behind the Aqua Theatre. I ran hard through the finish. I didn’t get a good look at the clock but I could have sworn it said 23 something as I was running up towards it.

What? Did I just run sub 24? That’s ridiculous. No wonder I feel like I’m about to collapse!

Post Race

After the race was over I caught my breath, drank a bottle of water and ate an apple and a mini cupcake. I was hoping that they would post the race results and after about 10 minutes they finally came out. I found my name and it said I’d run 23:08! That’s a new personal best by 11 seconds. I walked away in shock. A few minutes later I had to go back and be sure that I’d read the results correctly!

I don’t have splits so I have no idea how evenly I ran the race. I actually think not having my Garmin helped me set a PB today. If I’d seen my pace I might have been tempted to let myself slow down since I was running way ahead of my goal. As it was I felt like I was running slowly (especially since I was being passed so much) so I tried really hard to maintain whatever pace I could. Setting a 5K PB wasn’t on my radar for this race or even this year so it’s a nice bonus. Hopefully it’s an indication that there are more PB’s (half marathon? 10K?) in my future!

Results

Time: 23:08

Pace: 7:28 min/mile

Overall place: 232 out of 2010 (88th percentile) [Places include walkers]

Division place: 18 out of 407 (95th percentile)

Gender place: 66 out of 1310 (94th percentile)

Full results are available here.

Once again the toughest run of the week was Thursday’s tempo session. My legs were a little tight/tired at the start and I struggled to maintain pace through the five miles. Aerobic stamina aside, it takes a surprising amount of focus for me to maintain tempo pace for 40+ minutes. Anytime I let my mind wander too much I slow down. I don’t have this problem in races. I think it’s just a bit harder to get “up” for an early morning week day solo run. On the plus side I made it my goal to do the miles progressively faster and I was able to achieve that.

Saturday’s 12 miler went pretty well. I had company for the first six miles and then then did the second six on my own. I started to fade a bit around mile nine and I was a bit chilled for the rest of the run. I toughed it out though. I need my endurance back!

I thought that it would be interesting to compare the above two training tables with the last time I used this program in 2007 (see week 1 and week 2). I definitely came into training in 2007 with a better base (I was coming off a PB at the Victoria Half) but generally I’d say I’m doing pretty well in comparison. My week 1 tempo run was slow but I think that was because it was my first tempo run in at least 6 weeks and I made the mistake of listening to podcasts on my iPod which detracted from the focus I need to run fast. My long run paces are intentionally slower this time around too but I was pleased that I was still able to pull off the last three miles of week 2′s race-simulation long run.

I’m actually having a lot of fun with the speedwork sessions. Because I only have to do the intervals at half marathon goal pace they don’t seem too bad. Actually I’ve been running them too quickly. The recovery time is much less than I would normally take though so I think that’s where the challenge lies. In any case, it’s a nice change from the mile repeats that I usually do.

Despite all this running and decent training times I definitely do not feel 100% in shape. Of course it doesn’t help that it’s cold (for Seattle) and dark in the mornings so it’s easy to feel sluggish. I swear one morning last week I went on a run and it was no lighter when I finished than when I started! I have a 5K race coming up in a few weeks which I’m going to run as a hard tempo run and use as a gauge of my fitness. I’d like to finish in <25:00 but we’ll see how it goes!

Setting a new half marathon personal best is one of my goals of 2009. Actually what I’d really like to do is beat 1:50:00. I’m not sure that Mercer Island is the place to make that happen though. The course is rather hilly and I’m not coming into training with the greatest base. I’ve been running pretty consistently for the past three weeks (about 20 miles per week) but I haven’t done any speed work or tempo runs since before the marathon in November. We’ll see how it goes!

It’s time for my annual review of the running year past. We’ll start with the numbers. My total 2008 running mileage (including races) was 1224.3 miles / 1970.3 km which averages out to 23.3 miles / 37.5 km per week. My biggest Monday to Sunday training week was 39.3 miles which occurred two weeks before the Seattle Marathon. That week actually overlapped with 41.3 miles done over the seven days running from Wednesday to Thursday. I was fairly consistent with my training. The only zero mileage weeks occurred while I was on vacation in Scotland and Spain and sightseeing was a far greater priority than running.

My year was divided into three main training cycles. First for the Vancouver Half Marathon, second for my 30 on 30 birthday run and third for the Seattle Marathon. I ran five official races (2 5Ks, 2 half and 1 marathon) although only Vancouver and Seattle were what I would consider “A” races while the rest were hard training runs. That’s part of the reason I only set one personal best in 2008 (4:10:19 in the marathon). Next year I’d like to better my 10K and half marathon personal bests.

Finally I have an update on my virtual run across Canada. As of today I am situated on Highway 20 a few kilometers to the west of the town of Montmagny, Quebec. That puts me about 5,021 km along the 7,821 km route. To be honest, I’m not completely sure what the exact route that distance applies to but I plan to figure it out as I go along.