Team Championships - 8/16/08

I haven't been blogging lately since I was just concerned on building back up my miles slowly after my treatments, scans, etc. So far, so good. I've been able to run 20-25 miles per week with relatively little problems for almost a month and a half now and I see that my speed is starting to come back too. I'm back to my usual times on the weekly group runs, although I've been slightly slower than before on the long runs, but that is probably more attributable to the heat and humidity that we've had over the past month rather than sluggishness or fatigue. The only race that I ran recently was the Park to Park run in July which got me "back in the game" and I was looking to do another one.

The Team Championships were this morning and I was looking to use this race to see how I have been progressing. I wasn't planning on going all out, but once I was on the road it was another story. I would have been happy with a 7:40 pace (plus or minus), but I was shocked and pleasantly surprised that I PR'd today (my previous best 5 mile time was back in 2004). This is the third distance in which I PR'd this year (the others being at 4 miles and the 10K). I started the race in the fourth corral today, which is farther back than I usually start, but that is due to the fact that today's race was only club teams and the pace times are alot faster than other races. I was actually happy to start further back. At this race, people tend to be aggressive at the start and go out very fast. I didn't want to get sucked into that and tire myself out right away. The weather was pleasant and rather comfortable as the race began. I went out pretty hard during the first mile and glanced at my watch and saw that I ran 7:30. I wasn't looking to PR at this point, but I was glad to see that my speed didn't leave me after these past few months. The next two miles were both at 7:19 - I didn't feel that I was going this fast but I was working hard to keep my pace consistent. The weather at this point was starting to get hotter and I knew that Cat Hill was still coming up. I didn't lessen my effort during the next mile, but I knew that this was probably going to be the slowest mile of the race for me due to the combination of the 2 Hs (hills and heat). I ended up running mile 4 at 7:40 - slower than the other miles but better than I thought I'd run. With only one mile to go, I started to calculate if a PR was possible and I realized that I was running at or near my exact PR pace of 7:27. After pressing on through the northern part of the park (8o's and 90's), I picked my pace up a lot and was glad to see a bunch of Flyers cheering us on right before the finish line - it was a big boost for me. I think I emptied the tank just a little bit too early and I struggled a bit with about 50 meters to go. I even feel slightly nauseous for a few seconds after I crossed the finish line but that just proves that I ran a very hard race and I had nothing left to give. I ran the last mile in 6:52 (only the third time I've run a sub 7:00 mile in a race).

Below are the split times (I erased my times after the race by mistake so these are from memory):

Mile 1 - 7:30
Mile 2 - 7:19
Mile 3 - 7:19
Mile 4 - 7:40
Mile 5 - 6:52
Total time - 36:41 ; pace - 7:20