Woke up at 7:30, took the dog out, and jogged to the Racing with Passion 5k. Race was at 8 AM, on the same course as Gravity Hill, where I had a bad race and ran 18:22 (18:19 on my watch?) in July, but still won. This version was more competitive and I ran 17:44 (17:41 on my watch?) but got 4th. I'm not sure why Runner Card timed events are always several seconds off what my watch gives me, whereas most others are spot on.
Anyway, Nathan Hornok appeared to be the fastest person there before the start, but some 17 year old Ethiopian kid in basketball shorts shot off the line and had a 10 second gap on everyone by a quarter mile in. A couple people were right behind me and I figured that Hornok and the Ethiopian were gone, so I focused on them. My stomach was a little upset and I was thinking about how annoying Gravity Hill was when I suddenly threw up halfway through the race, so I didn't push too hard, but ran hard enough to keep from getting swollowed up. About a mile in, everyone beind me was gone except a really scrawny high schooler, and I saw the Ethiopian start to slow after being passed by Hornok. Mile 1 was 6:01 with a lot of uphill and no downhill, but didn't feel super hard.
I figured the kid behind me would fade as most younger teenagers do in races and that maybe I could catch the Ethiopian kid since he appeared to be slowing, but the kid behind me suddenly made a huge increase in speed and shot past me. Going up the rest of the hill to 11th, I kept my distance from the Ethiopian while the other kid crept closer to him. I wasn't feeling super fantastic, so I just kept biding my time and didn't try to go with the younger kid. I hit the top of the hill, turned around, and hit mile 2 in 5:50 (almost exactly net flat, but with a lot of both up and down).
Mile 3, both the kids were battling up ahead, which caused the Ethiopian to pick it back up as I was finally starting to close, so he maintained his 20 seconds in front, with the other kid finally getting the best of him. Split was 5:19 on the nice gradual downhill, but it didn't eat up any gap.
Finished in 17:41 on my watch (3.12 miles), officially 17:44. Not sure how that happens as I was on the front of the line and started my watch immediately. Oh well, doesn't really matter. It's a lot better than the last time on this course without having done much real training, and better than the 17:41 I ran at the pancake flat Dart 5k a few weeks ago, despite this race feeling considerably less taxing and being on a course that is ~15 seconds slower. Still, it's a long way off where I was before getting injured, so I've got some work to do.
After this, I went to the Utah Bioengineering Conference until about 2:45, where I sat through some podium presentations and then presented a poster. I left before the awards ceremony, and headed up to Alta for the Downhill Dash.
My stomach was finally settled down for the Downhill Dash, but I was really nervous about destroying my hip. Oh well, figured I'd have some fun and back off if it started to hurt. I thought sub-27 sounded reasonable, because, while it's super downhill (1500' or so? Stupid Garmin isn't being recognized by my computer and will only show elevation data in Garmin Connect), it does start at like 8500', which is pretty high up, James told me I should be trying to run in the 24s, which sounded absurd. Apparently, the course really is that fast.
We took off at a hair under 5:00 pace and held it most of the way. James took off really fast like usual and I thought I'd reel him in like at Dart, but he's an outstanding downhill runner, so after about a mile in, I never got within 10seconds until the very end. Kevin took off even faster than James, but I watched him get reeled in by James and they had a nice duel for most of the race. I had a good duel with Rob Murphy and, after I finally caught him, we passed each other 3 or 4 times in the 4th mile until I finally pulled away. All of my splits were right around 5-flat, but once again, I can't load them until I get on a work computer on Monday (my laptop side panel is slightly damaged and sometimes a little screwy). Around 4 miles, I realized that, while I wasn't feeling very good (feet were on fire, quads felt like death), I was slightly gaining on Kevin. James had seemingly gotten the best of him, but I was slowly creeping up on him. I was about 12s behind him with a quarter mile to go and decided to make a big move. By the finish, I cut it down to 1s, but ran out of distance and finished right behind him, 24:54 to 24:55. I knew that if I passed him much earlier, he'd outkick me, so I was hoping to catch him by surprise right before the line, but it wasn't to be. Officially, I ran 4.97 miles in 24:55 (5:01/mile), but according to my Garmin, I did 4.98 in 24:53 (4:59.8/mile), which I am more than happy to claim. I wasn't at the front of the line at the start (gun-timed, not chip, so I lost a second or two there). Also, I was at the back of the faster group for most of the race until I passed Rob, so I was really nervous about cutting into the road and getting hit by a car and I didn't run the tangents as well as some of the people in front of me. Anyway, I think my Garmin allows me to say that I ran "sub-5" pace for 5 miles. :) Everything about the performances here is absurd anyway, so I might as well claim that last little bit of ridiculousness. Hah.
It started raining hard right at the finish, and I jogged across the road to get into a van for a ride back up and my legs instantly started to seize up. My quads and hamstrings were spasming for the entire ride back (5 minute pace is not normal for me...), so it was nice to chill out in the hot tub for a bit. Steve Anderson and I had a conversation about ultramarathon training and racing with Jeremy Howlett (owner of Altra shoes and ultrarunner) and I probably spoke my mind too much about why running 100 miles is generally a really stupid idea (even though I plan to do it again in the future eventually!) and how typical ultramarathon training is not a good way to train, etc, so he got out of the hot tub pretty quickly. Hah. Sorry!
Anyway, after the race I found out that I had taken 3rd in the poster competition at the conference, so that was pretty cool. I guess I'll be getting $50 for that when I got into work on Monday. Nice!
According to the FRB calculator, 24:55 at the 8k is worth about 17:27 at a flat SLC 5k. My 17:41 or 17:44 in the AM is, according to my calculations, 15 seconds slower than flat at the same altitude (and 32 seconds slower than flat at sea level), so Sasha would apparently give the two races almost equivalent marks. Personally, I felt that I worked a lot harder in the 8k, but it's possible that it just felt harder than it otherwise would have because I had already raced earlier in the day. I didn't feel that my first race had affected the 8k, but who knows!
In any case, today, the day after the race, my legs are pretty beat up, but I'll head out for a shakeout run pretty soon and see if I can get them feeling a little better.
Oh, and while nearly every muscle in my legs got beat up by the Downhill Dash, my hip (granted, with ibuprofen as a preventative measure), was completely fine after both races. Definitely a good sign! I'm going to see if I can start upping my mileage now, as 19 mile weeks aren't really doing much for my fitness.
DOWNHILL DASH SPLITS:
First mile mark (.99 miles): 5:04.1
Second mile mark (.98 miles): 4:56.6
Third mile mark (1.00 miles): 5:03.4
Fouth mile Mark (.98 miles): 4:55.9
3.95 to 4.95 (auto 1 mile split): 4:46.3 (picked it up a lot trying to nip Kevin)
4.95 to 4.98: 6.8 seconds (3:48 pace? Hah... Probably not super accurate)
So, I guess I was just above 5:00 pace the first 4 miles and really picked it up in the last mile. My pace was about 15 seconds faster, so I guess that's how I was able to close down almost the full 12 second lap. According to my elevation profile from my watch, the first mile wasn't as steep as the rest, with the remaining miles all being pretty similar. Last mile was a slightly more downhill, but not much.
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