IOS Turket Trot 8K / 5mi 2008

Results (preliminary):
8K / 5mi - 29:50 (5:58/mi), 15 year old PR broken
18th out of 642
4th AG out of 37

A year ago I wrote a post called "Always Chasing this Guy." It was a look back at myself as a high school runner, and how easy it was to be fast then, and how hard it is now. My old running coach (actually more of a life coach and motivational guru) read the post and told me how I shouldn't want to catch that guy. We can't live in the past, we have to keep moving forward, setting new goals. The personal records I set as a teenager have cast long shadows over nearly every running race I have done since my re-emergence as an athlete. Well, yesterday I ran very well, and broke out of those shadows for the first time. It was unexpected, and it surprised me so much that the pursuit of new goals in endurance sports seems like a wide open world to me once again.

The Race itself:
Becca joined me this year and ran with the baby jogger, which added an element of fun and complication to my usual pre-race routine. I think this was a good thing, I liked that we were so caught in in things like "Is Elena too cold?" and "What do we do if she freaks out during the race?" to be worried about how I would run. We took a nice long warm up, probably 2 miles or more, mostly owing to having to find a place to pee less than 10 minutes before the race started. We arrived at the start line about 1 minute before the gun, all hot, sweaty, and loose. I went as far to the front as I could, which was still 7-8 people deep. I quickly found Tim Gatreau and talked him into pacing me to a 6:00 first mile. Tim is a good, experienced runner, and with my lack of speed training (or running in general) lately, I was worried about how my RPE vs pace would go. So, they fired the airhorn and we were off. Tim and I were dodging our way to the front and chatting away about kids, work, moving, and our favorite treadmill brands. After a couple minutes I saw there was still a load of guys in front of us and began to get a little nervous that Tim was taking me out at a 7:30 pace. No matter, we kept talking and soon we hit the first mile marker in 5:41, which was totally fine by me since it was mostly downhill. I also found Cid Cardoso right about then, so I thanked Tim for his good pacing job and decided to run behind Cid for the rest of the race. Not much interesting for the whole rest of the run except that I didn't die, and stayed with Cid, Sean Curtis, and another guy in a nice little group all the way to the finish. Mile splits were 2 - 5:55 (all uphill), 3 - 6:15 (lots of up and down and turns), 4 - 5:55 (all downhill), and 5 - 6:03 (slightly uphill). I crossed the finish winded, but feeling fantastic. It took awhile, but it began to sink in that at 30 years old and 20lbs heavier, I had beaten my old high school time.

I think the thing that has me most psyched about yesterday's race is that I didn't train for this. I have been training all summer for an Ironman: lots of long, slow runs, mostly after biking. I haven't run a speed interval in over a year. My "fast" pace for IM training is 7:30. So to be able to go sub-30 in a 5 miler has me blown away. Especially 3.5 weeks after my IM, when I took 2 full weeks of recovery, doing absolutely nothing.

Rebecca came in under 40, as I predicted, in 37:06. Elena slept the whole race. Becca's fast right now. I want to see her in an open 5K and 10K over the winter. I think we have both been brought to a new level by the structure of the training regimen we followed this summer (out of the Secret Book, thanks again Kit!). Becca has enlisted me to work on her running form in the next few months. I am convinced she can go under 3:50 for an IM split if she corrects a few form deficiencies.

So, I don't know what's next on the Team DeWire agenda. We can't sign up for races too far from home while the house is for sale. Right now I just want to get back to some structure for off season training. I'd also like to break the old 5K and 10K PRs while I am in this kind of shape, so we'll just have to wait and see.