Well after months and months of training and no races since October, my coach thought that the best way to jump back into racing was to do a 5km (thanks coach!). =) No all is okay, I am not mad at my coach as I agreed to it. In saying that, with little to no interval/speed training leading up to this race (my real race goals are in early May), there I found myself standing on the line for something I knew was going to hurt.
First off I must add that the race was at 9am in Victoria, which resulted in me leaving my house at 6:15am to drive down south. I "may" have been driving over the speed limit as I found myself down there by 7:45. It was a very enjoyable drive though, with little traffic and a beautiful sunrise in which made me realize I forgot my camera at home. Darn.
I did my warm up and things felt okay. Not great, but not bad at the same time. I felt some tightness in my lower legs and hoped that it would loosen up during the race, but it did not. The first km of the race went out fast, though I did hold myself back and ran more conservatively than last year. It was a bit faster than I should have still, but compared to my training I thought I had a chance to hang on. The 2nd km slowed down a lot, though it didn't feel like it, and then the 3rd one slowed down even more, with the 4th the slowest of them all (man and I thought I was picking it up). I was able to pick it up in the final km, but timed my take down of the girl in front of me wrong and she barely held me off (turns out she was in my age group 25-29).
In the end, I finished in 18:30 (by my watch) and the official results say 18:33 but they are in the process of being reviewed as a lot of people have results off by 3-4 seconds if not more. It ended up being a personal best over last years time of 18:46. It felt horrid as it was one of those races where my lungs felt fine, but my legs just would not go. As much as I was telling them to pick it up pick it up pick it up, they automatically decided "no," stupid legs.
At first I was disappointed in the race. My coach said to go in with no expectations due to the fact this was my first race back and that I have not done any speed/VO2 stuff since December. As he stated, if you PB great, but you'll smash that PB in 4-6 more weeks (or something along those lines). I tried to go in with no expectations and I really had no idea how it was going to go. I ultimately wanted to at least beat my PB (which I did), but I did have a few other thoughts in my head which I did not meet. I know I am capable of a way faster time if the race were in say 4-6 more weeks. BUT at the same time, my goal race is in just under 2 months, so that is perfect timing.
I have had some wonderful support and very intelligent comments from Marilyn, who made me feel much better about the run and also made me realize that I was disappointed for no reason at all. I can always count on both Marilyn and my coach Matt to put things into perspective for me. Thanks guys. Results are found here. Basically Simon Whitfield took the win in 14:36 and Magali Tisseyre won in 17:03. It was certainly the day of triathletes!
**In other sad news, I have to say that no matter how disappointed I initially was in the race and more so my legs, nothing compares to the unfortunate incident that occurred at 1km into the race. A 67 man from Courtenay (about an hour and a half north of Nanaimo) reportedly suffered from a heart attack and did not survive. He had medical aide immediately and they worked on him for ages until finally transporting him to the hospital, but unfortunately it sounds like he died immediately. RIP to this man and my thoughts are with his family and friends.
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