Wasatch Walkers 4th handicapped 5K - 2010

This race made up for all the bad races I've had this season, I think. It was amazing. Yes, it hurt a lot, because I pushed very, very hard. But I didn't run out of steam, and had my best 5K ever.

The race was in Provo, about an hour south of Salt Lake City, on the Provo River trail. The trail goes right behind the house of one of our club members, Boyd, who is an amazing 81-yr-old racewalker. It's a gentle downhill trail along the river, and Boyd's wife and son drove us up to the start so we could race downhill to his house at the finish. The trail meanders a bit, and it does have some uphills as well; my Garmin said 10m uphill and 70m downhill for the 5K, for a net 60m downhill. That's 196 feet, so it's a pretty decent amount, though not so steep that it's bothersome. Just FAST!

Before we went to the start, I warmed up for about 10 min for 1.6k and did a bunch flexibility drills, just like I do for track workouts. I wanted to let my body know that I was about to really work it.

Then we drove up to the start, and it was chilly up there. I don't know the temperature, but it was 64F (17.8C) at Boyd's house, and probably about 62ish at the start, because it's a bit higher and next to the river. 64F is not that cold but it was quite windy, and so all of us were racewalking a bit to stay warm while we waited for our start in the handicapped race (slower walkers started first).

It seemed like my turn to start came pretty quickly, even though I was the last to go and had to wait 13:59 before I started. I was off like a shot. The trail has marks every 100m, so it's really easy to know your splits and monitor your time. I was so focused on my efforts that I didn't do a good job of that though! I missed my split at 3 km and hit my lap timer at 3.1 instead...oops. My last split was correspondingly shorter. Anyway, back to the race. I reached 1K at 5:25 and thought, "Uh-oh, I've gone out way too fast", but quickly squelched that thought and replaced it with "It's a downhill, and I'll be OK". The first km didn't feel that hard, and my average HR was 159, which wasn't that high. The second km went by pretty quickly as well, and I had settled into a nice pace, reaching it in 5:39. There were quite a few runners on the trail, most of whom were pretty friendly; one guy going the opposite way called out "are you guys racewalkers?". Wow, he actually got the word right! Most of the time people call me a "speed walker".

The third km is where things usually start to get painful. I start to look at my watch more, and the km begin to creep by more slowly as the pain level increases. This is also where I have to be more vigilant about the pace. I was relieved to get to 3.1 km in 6:14, for an average pace of 5:36/km (I'm not THAT good at doing math in my head, but I do know that 36 sec is 0.1 km at 6 min/km, so I subtracted 36 sec in my head and knew I was on pace).

After that I knew I was on pace for a seriously nice PR if I could just hold the pace for 2 more km. I was determined to do so. I dug in and focused and endured the pain. Pretty soon I had the distraction of passing some of my fellow Wasatch Walkers, starting at about 3.5 km. I continued to pass them one by one, and passed the last person not long before the finish line. I passed Leah sometime in the 4th km, and remarked to her, "I'm dying! I think I went out too fast!". But I was also thinking I only had to hold it for a little over 1 km more.

My next split was at 4.1 km (so 1km from the last one), and it was 5:39, just like the 2nd km. "Awesome," I thought, "if I can just hold this for 0.9k I will have an amazing PR". I gritted my teeth, was breathing incredibly hard, and dug down deep for that little bit more. I had a few more people to pass at that point, and that was a good enough distraction to keep me racing very hard. I gave it my all, and the finish line was in sight. I knew I would make it! I held the pace and even sped up a little for a final split of 4:58 for the 0.9km (about a 5:31/km!).

I had no idea that I was going to go sub-28:00. It's just too hard to do the math when your brain is otherwise occupied with racing hard. When I got to the finish and pushed the button on my watch, I could hardly believe my eyes: 27:57!!!!! A new PR by 39 seconds! OK, granted, the course is downhill, but still, I was extremely pleased. I feel my confidence starting to return, just in time for the big races to come in just two weeks in Sacramento.

Right after I crossed the finish line, I was dying and gasping for breath, but I whipped out my camera anyway to get some shots of the other walkers finishing. Boyd finished just 19 seconds behind me, with a 34:33, which is a very good time for him (age graded it's a 21:30!!!). Since I didn't get any pictures of me finishing, I had one of the walkers shoot a few of me afterward; I was giving him a few pointers on toe push-off and hip flexibility and wanted him to have some visual aids.

Here are all the photos. Here's my Garmin data (again).