Thursday evening was my second race of the summer and it took me down to Manchester for the 19th running of the Cigna/Elliot 5k. I ran this in 1997 and really sucked bad. I have heard horror stories about the race since then, but I knew that the course was pretty fast and would be a good test of my fitness with a month to go before the marathon. I really had no idea where my fitness was at, but I was still hoping to run under 17:00. I didn't know if this was a possibility though because I have done very little 5k specific training.
I picked Joel up at his work and we headed over to Manchester West High School to stash the car and get race ready. We jogged over to Veterans' Park and picked up our bibs and headed back to the car to change shoes. I dawned my newly issued GWS singlet and continued with a couple more miles of easy running. I got to the line about 15 minutes early and had plenty of time to do drills and strides. I was feeling good and warmed-up before the race and my legs weren't causing me too much trouble. I thought I may have a chance.
When the race started I got out pretty clean and only had to dodge a couple people who were obviously way out of their league up there. I had hoped to go through the first mile in under 5:25. I looked down at my watch three times during the first mile and saw that I was running in the low 5:00 range, but I was still sitting about 50 people back and knew that there was no way 50 people were going sub-5:00 for the first mile. My effort level felt like an 8 or 9 out of 10, and when I saw the clock click past 5:28 as I was passing I thought for sure that I was screwed for a crack at 16:xx.
During the first part of the second mile I became acutely aware that my mouth was so dry it felt like I was sucking on cotton balls. I had to grab a cup of water and splash some in my mouth or I would have hated my life (more than I already did) the rest of the way. I think the water stop slowed me down a second or two, but I really tried to keep the tempo up and my legs turning over quick. The second mile is pretty much downhill/flat and is a good place to make up some time. I split that one in 5:22 (10:50 o/a) and started to think that there still may be a chance.
The third mile was awful. I worked with another guy most of the way from the 2-mile mark to the finish. I pushed as hard as I could the whole time and had to keep telling myself that it was almost over and that the pain would be gone in less than 5minutes. I was in a lot of discomfort and I was ready for it to end. This mile is all flat on Canal Street until you get to about 2.9 miles when the course turns 90 degrees left and goes straight up hill for about 0.1 miles. The hill really isn't that bad, but it definitely broke my rhythm. I split the third mile in 5:35 and was sitting at 16:30 with 0.1 to go. I knew that it would be a stretch to finish the final 0.1 in 30 seconds but I dug down and gave what I could. Unfortunately, when I asked my legs to turn over faster I got nothing back. I was only able to increase my pace a little bit and crossed the line in 17:05.
I am very happy with how the race went, and it represented a 6 second PR from Shamrock Shuffle in March. I am giddy to think that 6 more seconds puts me under 17:00. I am smack dab in the middle of a marathon build-up and have done very little 5k-specific work. When I am done with Lehigh in one month my focus is going to shift to shorter/faster races. I am probably going to try for a goal 5k race around Thanksgiving and I want to blow through this stupid barrier by then.
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