What a Difference a Week Makes

One week ago today I ran 19:11 in the local Jingle Bell 5k. It was a huge disappointment. Eight months of training for a one-second improvement on my PR, and one more in a long line of failed attempts to beat nineteen minutes. I decided to take one more crack at it, since I've done the training, but I resigned myself to being a 19:11 runner.

This morning I ran the 5k race in the Wetumpka, Alabama 12k's of Christmas (and 5k too). The conditions wer nearly identical to last week's race conditions: 40 degrees and partly sunny at race time. This course was hillier than the one I ran last week and I had no one with whom to pace. Almost all of the good runners ran the 12k race. I was torched by an NCAA Div. 1 cross country runner, and the next closest runner was over 1/4 mile behind me by the 2 mile marker, so I was all alone, trying to pace with no frame of reference. I ran the first mile too fast (5:58) and the second mile way too slow (6:22), so when I passed the two-mile marker at 12:20, all by myself, with two (small) hills left to climb before the finish, I resigned myself to another near miss.

With my expectations adjusted downward, I concentrated on simply running the last 1.11 mile as evenly as I could and emptying the last fumes from my fuel tank right at the finish line. When the 3 mile marker came into sight I glanced at my watch. 16:27. That can't be right, I thought. Too focused on my stride, I didn't catch my time as I passed three miles, but as I made the last turn for the final 1/10 of a mile, I saw the NCAA runner still in the finishing chute. That doesn't look right, either. Then I dared not look at my watch, instead I concentrated on maintaining my form as I kicked down the stretch. The meagre crowd cheered me to the line, I punched the stop button, and looked down.

18:37. That's definitely not right. Yet the timekeeper yelled out the same number as I slowed to a stop. I had finished with a 5:40 final mile and a 37-second stretch kick. Not the smartest race I ever ran, but the fastest I have run since high school.

That's it. 18:37! That number sure does look familiar, don't it? That's a 34-second improvement in one week, and it gets this nineteen-minute monkey off my back. Now the stage is set for a head-to-head-to-head matchup against CGB and Alittlemoreflashgordon. We plan to race on Christmas week while I am visiting the Boston area. This will be the first time that all three of us have competed in the same race. Stay tuned...