2019 Elves and Reindeer 5K

 Holiday Fun

Although only two weeks after Crooked Road 24, I felt recovered enough to race a 5K. I needed a change of pace and Crooked Road hadn't drained me that much. Looking around for something convenient, I found the Elves and Reindeer 5K in Wilson Farm Park, a venue that I sometimes train at, so I'm familiar with the course. As it turned out, it wasn't the usual course used by races held there, and I think it increased the difficulty slightly with a few more hills. Leading up to the race my workouts were a combination of recovery and taper. I was gradually increasing the distance of my easy runs while adding some long overdue speed work in small quantities. I wasn't really sharp or at a peak, but I expected that I could run faster than I had last June at the Nun Run 5K.

 

Though temperatures were just above freezing at the start, which is not to my liking, that shouldn't affect times that much, certainly not to the extent that very warm temperatures do. The hills will have an effect. The start is up a moderately easy hill, but the finish is up the biggest hill on the course. With the new layout, we run almost two full laps, so we pass the finish line for our first split a little short of halfway. Besides the hills at the start and finish, most of the rest of the course is up or down with only a few flat sections of 50-150 meters.

 

Being a charity 5K the start is casual with what seems to be only a few serious racers. I started slowly not wanting to begin with tired legs from the initial uphill, but was surprised that even then runners starting ahead of me were slower and I had to work my way around them. By the time we reached the first kilometer most everyone around me had settled into their rhythm and there was very little change in position after that. The mile marker wasn't where I expected it based on the course map, and my time at that point was faster than I expected, so I suspect it may have been placed for convenience rather than accuracy. My Garmin split was a good 10 seconds later. Even so the first mile was fast, about 10:03 estimated, and I wasn't sure I could maintain that pace, especially with the new course. I came through the first partial lap in 15:26 clock time, so on pace for something around 31:30. The hills were taking their toll on the second lap and I felt like my pace was slowing a little. (The 2 mile split was way off from where I thought it should be. Per the posted markers my first two miles were 9:53 and 10:16, by my Garmin they were 10:03 and 10:43.) At that point I was trying to chase a couple runners who had passed me but was gradually losing ground. Finishing uphill was torturous, but this was where the splits really got crazy. I didn't see a 3 mile marker, but my Garmin split was 10:21 indicating I had sped up, not slowed down, then recorded the time from 3 miles to the finish as only 49 seconds. I know with certainty I wasn't running that fast.

 

Knowing how my Garmin records on hilly courses (measures them short), and being told by the timing team that the course measured between 3.11 and 3.14 miles (not certified), I'd estimate my splits at closer to 10:03, 10:22, 10:21, and 1:01 to the finish. My chip time was 31:47, a 20 second improvement on a slightly tougher course from my June 1st Nun Run 5K. I was exhausted and don't think I left much on the course. Even a short cool down was an effort. I stayed for the awards but was not surprised to not win one. The oldest age group was 60+ so I was competing with runners as much as 13 years younger.