Running in the windy Kingdom...

This was the first time I was to run the Kingdom 5K, a small race of only a couple hundred runners, held at and sponsored by the Community Christian Church in Naperville. A while back Janeth had offered to pace me in a race sometime this year and suggested this 5K. The race was in her neighborhood and her daughter Kyla was also running in her first race, the Kids 1 Mile Dash, which preceded the 5K.

With Janeth pacing me I thought this might be a good opportunity to set a new PR for the 5K. But there was one catch - I had to leave my Garmin GPS watch at home and let Janeth handle the monitoring of my race pace. The thinking was that without the constant focus on my GPS watch I would run a bit more freely and not worry so much about whether I was running too fast.

On the day of the race it was cool and comfortable, just to my liking for a 5K. Unfortunately the weather front that had moved through the previous evening, and provided the cool temperatures, also left behind stiff gusty winds. I didn't think too much about it at the time and didn't really know how it would affect my race.

I met Janeth at her home around 7:00 a.m. and after chatting with her and her husband Andy we walked over to the church with her daughter Kyla for the kid's race. Janeth wasn't really sure how Kyla would do but she seemed ready and looked forward to the race. Some of the parents were running with their kids and Janeth was going to pace Kyla. The kids, and some parents, lined up to start on Emerson Lane in front of the church. As the race began the kids took off heading West down Emerson Lane. I thought this would be a good opportunity to warm up a bit more so I ran down the sidewalk back to Janeth's house. Andy was in the front yard and Kyla and Janeth had already run past. We both waited for them to pass by on their return trip back to the church, and finish line.

After only a few minutes an older boy ran past, the leader of the race followed about a minute later by an older girl. Next were Kyla and Janeth only about 10 or 20 seconds behind the girl in second place. Andy snapped off a picture as they ran by and I yelled "Go Kyla!" I jogged down to the church to see her finish. She couldn't catch the second place girl but she finished in third only nine seconds behind the second place girl with a time of 8:47. Very impressive for a first race (with a rather surprised but proud mom). :-)

Now it was my turn. Janeth and I lined up for the start of the race. I felt good and was sufficiently warmed up, although I wasn't sure what to expect with Janeth pacing me. I wasn't prepared to die - not from running too fast in a 5K anyway. ;-)

My training the last month before the race had been a bit more difficult than usual. Janeth had recommended that I run 20 second intervals, or strides, as my speed work for the 5K. That worked out fine for the first week but I was still adjusting to the transition from my treadmill to rolling crush limestone trails and my legs were quite a bit more sore than usual. It was also taking me longer to warm up during my training runs on the trails of Herrick Lake. The second week I managed only one running day of speed work but after that and over the next couple of weeks up to race day, I had to give up the speed work because my legs were either too tired or I couldn't loosen up enough to feel comfortable with running at a near 5K pace. I probably could have gone back to the treadmill for speed work but mentally I was committed to running outside again.

As the horn sounded to start the race we took off West down Emerson Lane. When you start up front, as we did, it's easy to get caught up in the pace set by the front runners. But for a 5K it wasn't too much of a concern for me. However after running a few blocks I realized this 5K was going to be more of a challenge than I had thought. The wind was blowing directly in my face; at times it was quite gusty. I mentioned that it would be nice to have someone to draft behind but nobody seemed to be running my pace. There were some runners behind me that were passing me and some slower runners that I couldn't tuck in behind to break some of the wind.

So Janeth, running next to me, pulled up in front to see if she could block some of the wind and allow me to draft. Unfortunately there's over a foot difference in our heights (and I'm not quite as thin as she either) so this wasn't working too well.

As we rounded the corner on Emerson Lane, Janeth said that we were going to run in tangents from corner to corner since there were quite a few turns. I replied, "OK" and she immediately responded with "No talking". No, she didn’t yell it, but I understood the tone, and obeyed.

During the first mile the wind was bothering me a bit. Sometimes it was blowing directly into my face and at other times at my back. I can't say I noticed it much when it was at my back. I felt strong but uncertain how the wind would affect me over the next couple of miles and how much energy I would have for the race finish. But I was undeterred and focused on my leg turnover in order to maintain my pace. I definitely felt that I was running faster than normal during the first mile but I couldn't be certain without my GPS watch. Janeth ran a little bit in front and to either side of me but I didn't sense that she was pushing me. She encouraged me along the way telling me that I was doing well and to maintain my turnover. Sometimes I had trouble hearing what she was saying though and when she changed sides she would loop behind me instead of crossing in front of me. I wasn’t ready for that when she did it and was startled a bit because initially I couldn't figure out where she was going.

My concept of time seemed to be off somewhat as the first mile seemed to take forever to complete - probably because I didn’t have my GPS watch to provide any feedback. That got me thinking about my energy again and what kind of shape I would be in later in the race. But with the absence of any knowledge of how I was really doing, I was sort of “winging it” at this point.

Finally, I reached the end of the first mile, although with all the turns it seemed more like a mile and a half. I don’t recall seeing a mile marker with the elapsed race time. Janeth said I was doing well and we were right where we needed to be on pace. She told me the first mile took 7:51 to complete, which was slower than I thought I was running but about what I normally run for a 5K first mile.

The second mile was more challenging. The wind was bothering me more - probably because it seemed like I was constantly running into it. The wind gusts were the worst part but I figured that eventually they would be at my back on the return trip.

Janeth continued to monitor my leg turnover and encourage me along the way. She kept me from slacking off - which I have a habit of doing during my second mile. Despite the wind I still thought my pace was good because I felt that I was working a bit harder than usual.

During mile two a runner pushing a baby stroller passed me. A few seconds later an older runner ran up on my right and made a comment to the effect of "You know things are bad when someone pushing a baby stroller passes you". I didn't say anything (remember I was instructed not to talk) but Janeth replied that guy pushing the stroller was fast.

At the two-mile marker I realized that my time had slowed down a little as the total time read 16:00. Second mile completed in 8:07. My goal was to keep all of my miles under 8:00 but the wind was posing too much of a challenge for me. However, I thought I was still on track to PR with one mile to go. Well, OK, that was kind of a mental mistake on my part because I didn't really consider the extra tenth of a mile in my calculations at the time.

The third mile was even tougher than the second. I tried to push a little harder and dig a bit more but my legs were starting to tire a bit and I was having difficulty with my turnover. I think Janeth noticed but she didn't really push me any harder at that point. From time to time she would let me know when my leg turnover would begin to slow.

Just when I thought I was done with the wind I ran directly into some heavy gusts. This was the last thing I needed as I tried to pick up my pace for a good finish. I wanted to save some energy for my last tenth of a mile sprint but I was running out of gas, battling the wind, and knew it wouldn't be one of my better finishing sprints. But mentally I worked up a little surge of energy as we turned back on to Emerson Lane.

I knew that the race finish wasn't too far away now and as I navigated the curve on Emerson Lane I began to pick up my speed. Janeth was coaxing me more at this point, to increase my speed, but my legs weren't responding as well as I had wanted. I had moderately picked up the pace but was still trying to conserve some energy for my finish. Janeth was trying to get me to dig a little bit more - believe me I wanted to but I didn't have much left in the tank.

There were a couple of runners near me. One, the older runner, who made the crack about the baby stroller, was about ten to twenty feet in front of me. Another younger runner was just in front of me. I passed him as Janeth helped me pick up my pace, but he kind of hung on and matched my pace, running just slightly behind me. My plan now was to catch and pass the older runner during the last tenth of a mile of the race. The runner I had just passed continued to hang with me. But I wasn’t thinking about him much at that moment, as I had turned my focus on the runner just in front of me.

As we approached the entrance to the church parking lot, a tenth of a mile from where the finish is located, Janeth peeled off to the sidewalk. I tried to pick up the pace even more as I ran down the parking lot with Janeth running along with me on the sidewalk coaching me to the finish line. I'm usually sprinting to the finish at this point but not today. I continued to hold back a little but wasn't making up any ground on the runner in front of me – I knew I would catch him before the finish so I waited. The runner behind me was sticking as well and I couldn't pull away. About a few hundred feet from the finish I heard the voice of a female runner behind me say "Don't let me beat you guys". Before I had time to react the guy just behind me sped past. I kicked it into gear but it was too late - I could only match his pace and couldn’t catch up. As planned I passed the older runner in front of me, so basically I lost a spot but picked up a spot. It's rare when I'm passed at the finish, but today I just didn't have enough strides left to out sprint the younger runner.

I completed my last mile in 7:53 and last tenth of a mile in 49 seconds for a total finishing time of 24:50. I was off my 5K PR by 16 seconds. Without Janeth pacing me my total time probably would have slipped to over 25 minutes. Unfortunately I had too much wind to contend with and that slowed me down and zapped some of my energy. But overall I was still satisfied with my time and race.

Afterwards we hung out in the church gymnasium for the top finisher awards. Janeth got to see Kyla get her first medal for finishing in third place. It's probably the first of many. No medal for me as I was 5th in my age division but finished well into the top quarter, 39th out of 206 runners.

Thanks again to Janeth for pacing me during my 5K! It definitely helped and I learned some things from the experience.

Next race for me is the Elgin Valley Fox Trot 10-mile race on May 26th.