Race Report: New Day - New Year 5K

I ran the New Day - New Year 5K in Ashburn, VA - finishing in a time of 19:35.

I had my choice of several races to do in the DC area on New Years Eve/New Years day.  And...I went with the one that was furthest from my home.  And also quite possibly the coldest. 

There was a reason behind my seemingly poor decision.  We had a significant snowfall two days ago, accompanied by fairly cold temperatures for the DC region.  I was concerned about the possibility of ice on the race course, and this race - held on well traveled roads in daylight - seemed the least likely to be affected by ice.    Since I just wanted a tune-up for Houston in two weeks, my priority was a hard, safe effort.  And this race was the best choice for that.

Race morning dawned, and it was frigid.  Out of morbid curiousity, I checked the weather report for Ashburn before I left - 9 degrees Fahrenheit.  (It did warm to 15 degrees by the time the race started).  

Fortunately (in a sense) it's been pretty cold all week so I'd had plenty of practice dressing for the conditions  On the bottom I wore compression shorts with tights over top; on the top I layered a sportsbra, a long sleeve shirt, and then my team jacket (the same one I usually put on AFTER the race).  Thick mittens with handwarmers and a thick headband completed the ensemble.

I warmed up with about 3.5 miles, including some hard surges. The course was mostly gently rolling, with one significant climb in the first mile.  I reminded myself of the importance of staying conservative and not throwing away my race on that hill.  No tight turns, which was good since I was wearing the Vaporflies.

***

The race started, and I was dropped instantly by several other people, including two women.  Part of this was that I'm always slow off the line. But it can also likely be blamed on the Vaporflies -  those are definitely very hard to get moving.

For whatever reason, I was dropped, and I let it flip my "bad judgment" switch.  Instead of patiently making my way up the opening hill and then starting to race, I gritted my teeth and started working.  By the top of the hill I was second woman, only about 5 seconds behind the first.  I'd remain in that ordinal place for the rest of the race, but that would be the closest I'd ever be to the first place woman, who would eventually gap me by 40 seconds or so.

I used the downhill after the first uphill to gain some more speed, but by the end of the second mile I was starting to struggle, and the last mile was just holding on.  I was completely by myself (very small race), which gave me plenty of opportunity to start doubting myself.   Which was good - that's why I do tune-up races - to practice dealing with that BS.   And also to occasionally re-learn that starting out hard and hanging on doesn't work well for me.

Finally, after taking way too long, the finish line was in sight.   As I turned the last corner, a spectator yelled "it's OK, you can slow down - there's nobody behind you."  Had I been able to speak, that would have earned a "WTF, dude?" in response.

I noted the clock ticking 19:3x as I crossed - slower than I had expected but whatever.  I got what I came for - a good hard effort, some mental callousing, and a solid test of how the Vaporflies felt on tired legs (going out too hard and struggling at the end was a very good thing, from this perspective).

***

Since it was so cold and I was wearing my heavy mittens, and since there were no tall buildings or tight turns to massively screw up the Garmin, I set it to auto-lap each mile.  I don't usually rely on autolap, but I knew that it'd be almost impossible to hit the lap button manually using my mittens-that-double-as-boxing-gloves.  

My splits ended up being: 
Mile 1: 6:19
Mile 2: 6:00
Mile 3: 6:11
last .18 - 1:05 - so supposedly 6:04 pace.

My Garmin read the course as long.  I'm not generally the "but my Garmin said..." type - that argument usually annoys the hell out of me, since Garmins have their own accuracy issues.  However, the course felt a bit long, and the mile markers seemed to be all over the place.  Plus, this wasn't an officially certified course, so it's not surprising that it wouldn't be an exact 5K.  (I don't think it was massively inaccurate).   How long was it actually?  No way to know, and not all that important.  We all ran the same distance, and I got a solid tune-up in, and that's what I cared about.

[Addendum - since I was procrastinating other stuff, I checked out the race Facebook page.  There, I noted that they said they were using "the standard course" but in reverse.  So...I did some digging and found "the standard course."  Yup, they ran it in reverse (which didn't change the distance) but also used the same line for the start and finish, which added some extra distance.  Not a huge amount, but enough to be noticeable.  

I'm assuming they did that because of the cold - it had to be easier to manage one timing mat than two.  If that's the reason, I don't begrudge them that at all - certainly understandable, given the weather.]

Other notes:

• Weather ended up being 15 degrees with a DP of 8, and some wind (though not too bad).  Wearing a thin jacket over a long sleeve shirt was the right choice for this weather.
• I wore the Vaporflies here.  Based on today, I can confirm that I don't like the Vaporfly as a 5K shoe - too slow off of the line, too clunky, and even gentle turns were slightly awkward.  Additionally, my cadence gets pretty high in a short race, and I think I run best in the Vaporflies when I use a slightly slower rhythm.  It's a shoe for efficiency, not top end speed.  But I did get to experience how they felt when my gait was starting to fall apart, and I didn't hate them then.  Good.
• It was 35 minutes from Arlington to Ashburn - not bad.  It would have been 30 minutes, had my EZpass not flaked out.  Rolling down my car window to use my credit card at each toll gate wasn't pleasant.  Additionally - those toll gate credit card slots are clearly not designed for women with short arms.
• Major kudos to the race staff and volunteers for being out there on a very cold morning.  It's far easier to race in this weather than it is to work bib pick-up.  It would have been understandable if there had been some race day hiccups, due to the conditions (nothing goes right when it's that cold).  But no, the race went smoothly, and the race management gets a lot of praise for that.