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I ran the Samaritans 5k this morning as my final 5k of the season. I’ve run this race twice before, posting a 25:57 in 2004 and a 24:38 in 2005. My goal for this race was to finish under 21 minutes. I ran 21:25 in Memphis two months ago, and I’ve been pretty consistent with my training and especially speedwork since then, so I thought I had a good shot at it.

The day was perfect for a race, with temps around 60 degrees and sunny. The course is flat, with mile markers every mile and a USATF certification so you know you are running the correct distance. It is also not too crowded, so you don’t have to worry about a crowd at the beginning holding you back.

My plan was to run even splits at 6:45/mile. The issue with this plan is that I very rarely run that fast in training. I hit that pace on my 800- and 400-meter intervals, but that’s it. I also haven’t ever run a full mile in less than 6:45; now I was planning to run 3 of them.

I lined up near the front and waited for the start. For the first 1/4 mile or so, there was a pretty substantial crowd running around 6:10 pace. I was very surprised by this, but I figured most of them would drop back by the first mile. This might have caused me to go out too fast, but I finished the first mile in 6:42, which is exactly where I wanted to be. The second mile started to wear me out, but I apparently was running pretty fast: 6:39. The third mile was horrible, the most uncomfortable I have ever been while running. About 2/10 of a mile into it, I looked down at my watch and discovered I was running at 7:05 pace! I picked it up and finished the 3rd mile in 6:54. The final 1/10 went by in 42 seconds, a 6:10 pace. Final time: 20:59. I did it!

A few notes about this race:

• I went out too fast. I wanted to keep up with the small crowd at the start, and I didn’t want to get stuck behind slower runners. I’m not sure if this was a good idea or not.
• I wanted to try running even or positive splits in this race. In nearly all of my previous races, I’ve gone out conservatively and picked up speed during the race. I felt I was leaving some time on the table with this strategy, and I think my early pacing has been too conservative. So this time I purposely picked a slightly faster pace than I thought I could handle and tried to hang on. I fell apart a bit with that 6:54 3rd mile, but I still PRed.
• I had a hard time finding someone to pace myself with. At the beginning, it was hard to tell who would be able to maintain their pace. It really wasn’t until about halfway through the race that you started to settle in and recognize people around you. My most consistent pacer was a girl who ended up finishing as the #2 woman. I passed her on the Eliot Bridge during the 3rd mile. Then with 1/10 of a mile left, she sprinted past me to the finish. I didn’t have much left at this point, but this got my competitive juices flowing and I kicked as hard as I could. I didn’t catch her, but I’m convinced I wouldn’t have finished under 21 if she hadn’t passed me. Then she stopped and doubled over just past the finish line, and I nearly ran her over.
• This was the most painful race I’ve run. It’s getting harder and harder to run these races. I think my days of big improvements from race to race are over; it’s incremental improvements from here on out.
• Sub-20 minutes is within sight. I need to run roughly 20 seconds per mile faster (6:26 pace). I think I will need to increase my training to get there though. I feel I’ve pretty much maxed out what I can do with my current training volume and quality.

Enough with this boring stuff. TL;DR version: I set a new 5k PR today with a 20:59. It was very painful.