Manitou Days 5k - June 14, 2013

It's been 7 long months since my last race on Thanksgiving Day.  No, I didn't give up running and no I haven't been laid up with an injury.  There were 5 other races this year I either entered to run or considered running.  But primarily due to inclement weather, I backed out of every one of them.  Maybe I've become a bit soft after 6 years of racing.  I used to race no matter what the weather was like, but to be honest, it's just not much fun when you are cold, wet and miserable before the race even starts.  With winter stretching into April this year, coupled with a very wet and cold start to summer, it's just not been a good racing year.  I did show up for a 5k race last month, but about an hour before the race began a major storm hit that dropped several inches of rain in just a few hours.  It was only 50 degrees that day and there was no way to adequately warm up before the race without becoming thoroughly drenched, cold and miserable before the horn even sounded.  Hard to run at a 5k pace when your muscles aren't loose and relaxed.

That brings me to today's race.  A small 5k in White Bear Lake that preludes their Manitou Day's parade in Downtown White Bear.  After all my talk about cold wet weather, I'm not going even considering complaining about the weather being warm for this race.  Most of my 60+ races have been morning races. This was just my third race held in the evening.  It was 79 degrees at race time, with some humidity due to a chance of rain.  I didn't think the warm temperature would bother me too much at a 5k distance.  It was also windy, so I figured the breeze would keep me cool enough. 

The first mile was a quick one mile counter clockwise loop that took us directly into the wind the first half mile and then with the wind over the second half.  I ran a 6:17 first mile which is right where I wanted to be.  The remainder of the race was primarily with the wind heading east through the downtown parade route and then following the White Bear Lake shoreline east to the finish.  As we ran through the downtown parade route I could feel my body start to overheat.  I was dressed appropriately for a warm race wearing a thin singlet, but the sudden change from cool to warm weather was a bigger shock to my body than what I expected.  My second mile slowed to a 6:33 - an indication I was not dealing with the heat and humidity very well. 

As the final mile began, I was really struggling with the heat.  I maintained my mile two pace, but felt sluggish, uncomfortable and basically "spent" the rest of the way.  I found myself looking at my garmin way too often to see how far I was from the finish line which wasn't coming up fast enough for me.  We then approached a left hand turn at the 2.8 mile mark.  Trying to stay mentally tough and push myself over the final 3 tenths of a mile, I made the turn and much to my surprise the finish line was suddenly just 50 yards in front of me.  The race clock was only showing 18 minutes and change when I crossed the line.  My garmin said the same thing.  The bad news was my garmin only showed 2.83 miles as the race distance instead of a true 5k distance of 3.10 miles.  For some reason the race distance was almost 3 tenths of a mile short, which explains my fantastic race time of 18:19 (about a minute and 15 seconds faster than my best 5k).  I wish I could claim the time as a legitimate 5k distance, but my actual race pace was 6:28 which translates to a 20:05 time for a 5k. 

After the race, a number of other runners were confirming the same thing, that the distance was about 3 tenths short based on their GPS watches and dramatically impacted their 5k race time from what they normally run.  The race director said the start line was moved due to road construction, but didn't think it shortened the race more than one tenth of a mile.  I'm afraid his estimate was off a bit. 

I finished 6th overall among 157 finishers and 1st among 13 men in my age group.

Race results:
http://www.frontrunnerusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/manitoudays5kresults20131.txt      

All in all, I was a bit disappointed that my overall pace translated to a 5k time over 20 minutes. I don't want to use the 7 month layoff from racing as an excuse. I still maintained a strong training regimen over the winter and kept myself in race shape as best I could. The 20 minute barrier is my personal goal to break every time I run a 5k.  If I do, I consider the race a success. I'm registered for 5 races of varying distances, now through October with Twin Cities Marathon as my big race for the year. Last year was the first year I didn't run a full marathon since I began running again in my 50's.  I was running 2 to 3 a year until 2012.  The marathon layoff feels a little scary, but I will deal with that later as the race approaches.  For now, I have other races to prepare for.  My next race is a 10k in July.