St. Patrick's Day 5K

This past Saturday, I raced the Colorado Springs St. Patrick’s Day 5K, and ran the fastest 5K of my life to date. This race has it all: drama, suspense, hot chicks. But before I delve into this epic journey for my new 5K PR, I’d like to take the time to fill you in, my loving, doting fans, about the hellish week that preceded this race.

I guess it all starts with my drive back from the Winter Series #4, where the ‘Check Engine’ light on my car came on. STFU Sam this has nothing to do with running or your gorgeous bod. Bear with me here; see, when I first drove out to Colorado back in July, that same light came on. But because it was my second day of owning my car, and I’m a procrastinator, and I’m poor, I sort of just…ignored it. This was until my mom came to visit me and vowed to disown me if I didn’t have my car checked. So I did, and thankfully, the awesome mechanics at ToyTech fixed my car, good as new.

So when that light came on again, I decided to be a somewhat-competent adult and actually have it checked out right away. But this time, it wasn’t an easy fix – this time, that check engine light was flashing, which is your car’s subtle way of telling you it’s (actually) about to explode.

My colleagues actually think I'm Chris Traeger now

ToyTech said they’d need to work on my car for a couple days (spoiler alert: turned into 8 days). And during this time, I still had to get my daily run in, AND get to school every morning. So I did as any idiotic masochist did: I ran the 8ish miles to school. There’s no great route, which means I literally have to run on a highway for a portion, but for about a week, I ran the 8ish miles to school (of note: all money I saved on gas was instead spent on copious amounts of food).

My colleagues were gracious enough to provide me with rides home after school most days (shout outs to CG, Veronica, and Brandon!), and I actually really enjoyed it. The whole ‘illegally running on the shoulder of the highway’ thing kinda sucked, as did commuting a good 2 hours before sunrise, but it felt good knowing I was logging some decent mileage without really trying. I did in fact run home one day, which stifled any more desire for this run-commuting thing. This past Wednesday, I ran to school, then, thanks to the sun’s decision to exist again, decided to make the commute home after school. But: I was pulled over by a cop, got lost, and stumbled home in the dark for an 18-mile day. Good news: got my car back the next day!

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So, needless to say, I felt like butthole this past Thursday, then Friday. Honestly, I was considering DNSing this race, on account of this feeling like butthole. But waking up Saturday morning, and realizing that I’ve already paid for this race, I might as well go pick up my tee-shirt. So I made a slow and painful jog over to the race course, still sore and tired and butthole-like. But once I picked up my tee-shirt and found some friends Phil and Brian (who even read this blog! So it’s not just my mom!), I figured I’d yog a nice and easy 5K, “for fun.”

But, as I stepped up to the starting line, it hit me: I don’t know how to not race. I don’t do “fun” – I run to slowly and painfully kill myself. Plus, soooooo many hot chicks to impress.

At the start, behind a million people.

When the gun went off, people started flying (video of the start is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWysUOYMoQY. I'm at around 30 seconds in). My GPS watch was telling me I was clipping off sub-5 minute pace for that first 400 meters, and I was probably in 25^th place, getting smoked by middle schoolers and geezers. Focusing on staying relaxed, I finally cooled down my pace to 5:30ish, intent on passing these little kids ahead of me (seriously, who do these 11 year olds think they are, making me look slow in front of all these ladies?) The course itself was relatively flat, but had a total of three 180-degree turns that basically required you to come to a stop, or swing waayyyy wide.

Mile splits and a general map of the course.

Finally getting into a rhythm, I went through my first mile split in 5:30ish. Quick for sure, but I felt relatively good, so decided to try and push this mile, as I’ve always got something left for the end. So I worked on passing the guy in front of me, then the next, then the next…the benefit of racing in a big race (more than 2,000 in this 5K) is that there’s always someone to run against, and so I was able to pick off people over that second mile.

After making two quick 180-degree turns, we were finally on the homestretch, about .8 miles to the finish. I’d stopped checking my watch at this point, focused solely on closing the large gap between me and the next runner. At this point in the race, the rest of the 5Kers were making their way out to the 180-degree turns, so flying by them with the occasional cheer was a big boost. With probably .5 miles to go, I started my signature grunting with each exhale (but really, when did that start?), and my form must’ve started to look real atrocious, because I definitely saw someone hurl.

But I was making up ground on that guy ahead of me! As we neared the finish line, I heard someone shout “Don’t let that kid pass you CJ!” Obviously I’m not CJ, so as “that kid,” I had to show this CJ who was boss, and threw down the nastiest kick (and not in a good way) to just narrowly fly by him in the finishing chute.

Suck it CJ.

Checking my watch, I couldn’t believe it. Just 6 weeks ago, I’d raced the Gameday 5K and finished in 17:49, a time I was very pleased with. My PR in college was a 17:17 (although it’s definitely possible I split a faster time in an 8K race), and without any (like, zero) speed training, I would’ve been happy with another sub-18. But my official finishing time was a 17:08, a 5:31/mile pace, good for 15^th overall (and at 6,000 ft. too!).

Going from feeling like butthole and almost not even racing to finishing 40+ seconds faster than last month, I was pretty stoked. But, there were still 14 people ahead of me (winner finished in 14:45!), so I’ve still got work to do. I’ve got a slight break from racing, my next being the XTERRA Trail 24K on April 12^th, so until next time!