All the lonely people

A mixed bag of feelings about last night’s 5000m in London, ON…  Race Video.

The temperature was perfect for a 5000m but the wind was a little unfavourable along the backstretch.  Gillis’ plan was to pace me through 2500m, splitting 6 laps (2400m) in 6:33.  Gillis did a great job and we split 6:35 and 100m later he left the track.  At that point I was all alone and with the wind at my back I felt good about keeping the pace.  Once I hit the backstretch I knew the pace was going to slow down but even if I hit 67 second laps I would come out under 13:50 (which is my stadium record from back in ’06).  In my head I had 6:33 as my 2400m split and when I saw 7:43 on the clock I freaked out thinking that I just ran a 70 second lap and it felt tough! In reality it was more like a 68 but I didn’t find that out until after the race and the damage was done.  I kept thinking I was running slow as 69 (second lap) after 69 kept adding up.  At 4km I knew I was going to get caught and instead of trying to maintain a gap I let them catch me with the plan of kicking in the last 200m.  Weibe and Loiselle caught up to me with 600m to go and Weibe took the lead for a lap before I kicked it in with 150m to go for the win.  And it’s a good thing Weibe was there to push me because otherwise it could have been much uglier.

Going into the race I really wanted to run 13:40-13:45.  With the wind I would have settled for a sub 13:50, so I’m not happy about 13:55.  When Gillis was pacing I felt as though running 13:45 was in the cards and when I got caught it wasn’t tough to pick up the pace.  I’m just simply not that good at running alone.  It was also my first track race in a long time and it usually takes me a race to get back into the swing of things.  Back in ’05 I ran 13:52 alone and then came back one week later to run 13:23 with competition.  I know I’m not going to run under 13:30 in the next week but there is more in there than I showed last night.

Where do I go from here?  I decided not to run in the Pre Classic.  When I asked to get into the race I thought it was going to be a 27:45-28:00 race but once the start list came out it was evident I was in over my head.  After not enjoying my 5 solo laps last night I’m not about to go and run a 25 lapper where most of it will be solo.  The pace is set for 13:18 for the leaders so even if I were to run 13:45 for the first 5000m I’m would still be alone.  I’ve never raced in Eugene and I was really looking forward to it but it just doesn’t make sense.

And to prove to myself that I’m not delusional about the shape I’m in I’m going to find another race.  10 000m races are hard to come by so I’ll likely run another 5000m which is a little frustrating because I’m in much better 10 000m shape than 5000m.  This weekend I’ll still race the 2000m at the Guelph Inferno because, god knows, I need a good dose of speed.  After that it will either be a 5 in Nashville June 4th or in Portland June 11th.  Depends on which one looks like a better field.

The foot felt pretty good in the race and was good today.  On my runs today I actually felt really good considering I raced last night, which also tells me I was a pansy in the race.  As much as it sounds as though I’m pissed about the race I’m actually fine with it, as long as I run faster really soon, haha.

Here’s a cool gif from www.busylivin.com