Race Report: Zero Prostate Cancer 5k, June 15, 2019

I ran the Zero Prostate Cancer "5K" in 19:37, which was good enough for fourth overall and the female win.

The "5K" is in quotation marks because the course was significantly long.  But more on that later.

If you think I've been racing a lot, you're correct.   I like to race regularly, especially at shorter distances, because I think practice makes perfect.  Racing is not just a test of one's physiology, but a skill.  And that skill benefits from practice.

When I'm marathon training, I can't race too much, because it interferes with logging mileage and big marathon pace workouts and long runs.  But since I skipped a marathon this spring, I've felt free to play around and race whenever the mood strikes me.

My big goal, of course, is the Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon next weekend, where I'd like to break 84 minutes.  I jumped into a 5K this weekend because I thought it would be a nice sharpener for the half - I've run several very good 10 milers and halves the week after a 5K.  And the weather was also ridiculously good for June in DC - mid-60s and low humidity.

Plus, running another 5K would mean that I'd have a chance to get the bad taste out of my mouth left by my last 5K.    I don't regret going out hard in that race; but I do regret not being able to pull it off.  It would be nice to roll into my half off of a more positive experience.

***

I had a few choices of 5Ks to race this Saturday; I ended up going with the Zero Prostate Cancer 5K - it was the closest to my home, was not a new race, and based on my research, the course was reasonably fast.  There'd be a steep hill near the start (about 250m long - incline of 7%), then a very slight decline (couldn't really call it a downhill) to the turnaround.  Then you returned - first up what was now a gentle incline, then down the steep hill before turning and kicking to the finish.

Elevation map from my Strava account
(after correcting the barometric errors my Garmin is notorious for)

Not a superfast course, but not bad at all.  And the weather would be good.

***

So I paid my money on Tuesday, and then drove to Pentagon City on Saturday.  Warmed up with 3 miles, including a hard quarter in about 90 seconds, then did drills and strides until we were ready to go.

Lined up at the start, I didn't see any other female runners that I knew to be about my speed or faster.  However, that doesn't always mean anything - there's always the chance of a fast high schooler or visitor from out of town.  So we would see.

My plan was to be patient until after the big hill, and then to hit a solid groove that I'd hold through 2 miles, before finishing strong in the third mile.  However, if it turned out that I had another female near me, then I'd revise my plan to do whatever maximized my chance of trying to win the race.

***

The gun went off, and we started.  Like always, several people, including children and runners with headphones, jumped to the lead.  There were two women ahead of me, but I suspected that both were going out too hard, and would come back to me once we hit the big hill.

Sure enough, that's exactly what happened.  As we hit the hill, I dropped down a gear, targeting efficiency rather than speed.  The women pulled slightly ahead, then puttered out, and I passed them easily before the top, along with a few men.  I was now in third-ish position, with two men far in the distance ahead and another two running near me.

From there, I hit "hard but controlled" effort - letting myself roll down the slight decline on Army-Navy Drive which would take me all the way to the turnaround.

About a minute in, I was distracted by a teenager in race marshal gear waving frantically at me to pull over to the left. "TIE ZONE" he yelled and waved.

Were we being diverted?  I debated pulling over (another runner near me did, and veered off).   But...I was pretty sure that the course was out and back on Army-Navy Drive, and he hadn't been yelling "turn."  So...I just continued on, listening for someone to tell me I was off course.

Which of course didn't happen.  I was on the right course, it was just an overzealous volunteer who assumed that anyone in the race, including the leaders, would want to pull off and don a tie in support of the cause.

***

My pack and I hit the turnaround cone and reversed course.  It seemed like it took forever to get to the turnaround, and the mile markers also seemed to be coming up very slowly, but I didn't worry too much about it - 5Ks always seem like they take forever.

[like always, I was taking manual splits but not looking at my watch, so I didn't know what I was actually splitting]

Now we were running up a slight incline.  Fortunately, the mild headwind that I had noted on the way down was now a tailwind, which made life easier.

I stuck with my plan through mile 2.  But when we passed the second mile marker, I just felt unmotivated to pick it up.  The slight incline was becoming a bit steeper as we approached the big hill, and I felt I was working hard enough.  I think I would have found another gear if there had been female competition near me.  But there wasn't.

One of the men in my pack surged and I made a half-hearted attempt to follow, but I didn't dig especially deep.  I think it was part that he was male and I didn't really care about beating him, part that I didn't want to take a big risk and blow up like last time, and part that I was protecting myself for next week.  I'm a bit sheepish now that I didn't try harder, but oh well.  Such emotions are good fuel for future races.

[I looked him up later (don't judge), and confirmed that he's a high school runner with recent results of 17:xx for 5000m and 4:4x for 1600, so I don't feel too bad now - I likely wouldn't have been able to hang anyway.  But still, it would have been better to try.]

Then we hit the downhill - the inverse of the steep hill near the start.  A friend had warned me that it was too steep to really kick down, and I found that to be the case - more a matter of keeping my feet under me.  Then I was making the right turn and I saw the mile 3 marker, and the finish further out.  And I kicked.

As I approached the finish, I saw the clock counting down - at first I thought it was counting down 18:3x and was pleasantly surprised - I had felt good, but I hadn't dug deep into the well.

Then, as I got closer, I realized it was actually counting down 19:3xx, and I realized that either the clock or the course had been significantly off.  Or I had had a really bad race, which didn't feel like it was the case.

I finished, stopped my watch, and after a few minutes to catch my breath, checked my Garmin and started comparing notes with others.  My Garmin read 3.21 miles (and it tends to short change me on miles with 180 turns around cones, shortening the distance); others had between 3.2 and 3.26.  And I wasn't the only person who had run a surprisingly slow time.

I hate to be the "but my Garmin says," but it seems pretty clear that in this case the course was off by about 200m or so.  The turnaround cone at the halfway point was misplaced, and I think the mile markers and/or the start-finish line were off as well.

[full disclosure - I also insisted that Cherry Blossom was accurate when it turned out to be short, so there you go.  I may not be a model of credibility here.]

Very frustrating.  This was a well-established race that had a certified course to work with, and there were no reasons (bad weather, construction, traffic incident) to deviate from that course.  During my warm-up jog, I had noted that the mile markers weren't where the race markings on the road were, and now I know why.

I understand that this was a race for a cause, and the cause benefited regardless of whether the distance was accurate, but still.  Either you are holding a 5K race, in which case you do what you can to ensure the accuracy of the course, or you call it a fun run or note that it is approximately 5K in distance.

I'm annoyed.  Ironically enough I had considered doing a 5K out in Easton, Maryland instead, so I could combine it with a visit with my parents.  I didn't because I wasn't confident that the Easton race would be an accurate 5K distance, while I was sure this one would be.  Whoops.

The only reason I'm not truly angry is that I didn't run fast enough to PR today, so I didn't really lose anything.  I got a win and good prep for next Saturday, and that's what I really wanted.

It would have been nice to know what I ran, though. My best guess is that I ran the equivalent of 18:5x, which is consistent with my other performances this year, the pace I averaged according to Strava, and the fact that the man who finished a few seconds behind me ran 19:00 at a 5K last week.  So I'll just have to be satisfied with that.

Strava splits were:

Mile 1: 6:09
Mile 2: 6:10
Mile 3: 6:08
last .21 - 5:32 pace

[manual splits at the posted mile markers were 6:15/6:39/6:09/0:36

Other notes:
- Weather ended up being a temp of 66 with a dewpoint of 57 - really, that's as good as it gets in June.
- I feel that between this race and the last one, I've made some good steps towards my ultimate goal of running a fast 5K.  I think I've finally hit the right note in terms of how aggressively to go out.   I just need to do that in my next race and then dig deep and pick it up in the third mile (easier said than done).  After my half next weekend, I'm planning on sticking to only 5K and shorter until I start training for my full marathon (Indy Monumental) in September.  I think that once I start treating 5Ks as my "A" races rather than supporting characters to my halves and 10 milers, I'll finally get over the 18:5x hump.