2016 Immaculata Nun Run 5K

Flat Race Over Rolling Hills

I had a bad feeling all week going into this race. One might say this was a self fulfilling prophecy, but I think it's simply a matter of recognizing that I was not race ready for a 5K. Several truncated workouts, hills on Saturday and intervals on Wednesday especially, foreshadowed today's results. I had no spring or bounce for the speed work and Thursday's easy run wasn't any better. Even a day off on Friday didn't seem to restore any vitality.

Saturday morning started normally for a race day and with the race practically next door, I had plenty of time to eat breakfast, drink my coffee, and drive over to pick up my packet. The temperature wasn't too bad, but we had very high humidity. Breaking a sweat during my warm up was no problem at all; my legs still feeling heavy and sluggish was. I chatted with a few people I knew, then proceeded to finish my warm up and move over to the starting line. I'm always amused at this race because everyone hangs back and seems to be reluctant to actually step up front to the starting line, unlike other races where runners that have no business being up front crowd in anyway. The start is very narrow, so I'm glad runners aren't pushing to the front of the field.

The race starts and for once I'm having a hard time feeling comfortable with my pace. I have my Garmin set for current pace instead of average pace, but it's bouncing around enough that I'm not getting a consistent reading. At times it feels too fast, then too slow, and neither match the displayed pace. We hit the first of the rolling hills after about 400m, so I can get a better feel then and it looks like about a 9:30 pace and feels harder than it should. The path up the hill is narrow so a few faster runners are passing on the grass, but generally there's no crowding. The nuns have placed all kinds of inspirational signs along the course. I wonder how many runners even notice them. Then we reach the first water station about a half mile into the race and I hear a young lady comment, "How am I supposed to drink this while running?" My response was that you don't need water in a 5K.

The second hill, and I think it's the biggest on the course, comes shortly after that. These are all roads on campus that I train on regularly, so I know what's coming. Not even a mile into the race and I'm already feeling the effects of the pace. This was my first substantive indication that this would be my first official 5K over 30:00. At this point is was just lock into a sustainable effort and hope for the best. There were still half a dozen small hills over the rolling course to be negotiated. I passed the mile in 9:48 having slowed slightly from my initial pace. I doubted that I'd be able to keep that under 10:00. As it turned out even that was wildly optimistic. Just passed the mile mark we headed up a sustained hill for about 350 meters and veered onto Grotto Road which stretches for just under a half mile through a wooded area, but also includes yet another hill, or rather valley since it goes down then up. When we exited I got an unwelcome surprise. The course was supposed to make an immediate right up a mild rise. Instead it continued straight and down before we made the right up a much bigger hill. This was both a change from last year and did not match the course map displayed at registration.

That finally took us up past Camilla Hall, the nursing home on campus for which the race was a fund raiser. The nuns were out in force to cheer us. It's one of the few times when spectators actually have a positive affect on me. Most of the time I'm oblivious. Past that we take another right onto a long, straight, flat stretch where I unsuccessfully attempted to pick up the pace as we passed mile two. That second mile was 10:32 indicating both the effect of the hills in that mile and my leg fatigue. After a couple more turns we head up the last significant hill at the top of which is a sign that it's all downhill from there. Even at this point I can half smile because I know that isn't true. After we finish the downhill on the narrow path that we ran up early in the race, there is one more small hill that deceptively extends a couple hundred meters as a very gentle slope up to mile three before we make the last turn and can see the finish. At this point I'm wondering if I'll even finish under 32:00. When I can see the clock, I realize I'm going to miss even that by a few seconds. I sprint in with a woman about my age trying to time it so we finish together. The chip time will be different, but it seemed more sporting to "tie" as well encouraged each other. The final clock time was 32:10, the chip time 32:05, and I placed 128th of 218 finishers. In addition there were about 350 walkers that started 5 minutes after the runners.

To say the least this was a disappointing race. It wasn't my worst by far, but it was an order of magnitude slower than what I thought I could and should run. It was also more than 2:30 slower than last year when I had only a week of recovery after my 50K race rather than the three weeks I had this year. I don't have another 5K scheduled this year, but this also places in doubt whether I'll be able to run my age at the Good Neighbor Day 10K on July 4th. I've got a streak going back over 25 years of doing that and I don't want to see it broken. Next up is a very hilly 12 hour race in two weeks, so I need to focus more on hills than speed. It's going to be an interesting and challenging summer.