First race report of 2008!

And yes, that title totally deserved the exclamation point. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, a race report for the first race of the year... a 5k in beautiful downtown London, Ontario! I did this race last year as well - same distance, same course. So I was looking forward to seeing if my first winter of actually doing some training would pay off with some improvement. Last year's time = 27:16... plenty of room for improvement (I've told you before... I'm slow). Race morning turned out to be colder than I would have liked for late March, but it was mostly sunny and that took some of the edge off. I was actually thinking of wearing shorts, but with the wind gusting I decided against it at the last minute. Long sleeved T, zip-up vest, toque, gloves, running pants (side track... I bought these Nike pants a couple of years back... they're not tights, but they aren't as loose as something like say, windbreaker pants. I just call them running pants and try not to look too ridiculous while wearing them... I still think I don't look as goofy as the tight-wearing guys). Ok, moving on... this race usually has 400-500 people in it, and last year I started near the back of the pack, not wanting to get in anyone's way. Well... I thought I was slow... turns out the people who are there to socialize during the race and push their kids in strollers also start at the back. After taking something like 7 minutes to complete the first km, I was finally around everyone and was able to continue on my way. Lesson learned. This year I started closer to the front. I was still paranoid about being trampled by the 5-minute mile dudes, so I kept myself about 25% of the way back. It's a narrow starting area, so there was still some dodging-the-crowd issues, but not nearly as bad as last year. It seemed like a fast pace right from the start, but I felt in control... it felt good. My HR jumped up to 166 almost instantly (my first race ever with a HR monitor!). I was a little worried - I hadn't seen it that high since I tried to give myself a lactate threshold test on the treadmill a few times last fall. The tests I did all had my LT pegged between 166 & 169... I had kind of written it off at the time as inaccurate, but my average HR for this race turned out to be 166, so it might have been closer than I originally thought (I've been trying to find someone in this city who will do a lactate threshold test in a lab-type environment, but no luck so far). So my HR seemed high, but as I ran along I felt good... my heart didn't feel like it was going to explode out of my chest, or anything, so I just kept going. This race is two loops of a 2.5km course, and as I passed by the clock to start my second lap, I was just under 11:30. This thrilled me a little, and I let it creep into my head that a 23 minute 5k was possible. Yeah, right... nice try, though. The second half felt just as fast, but the clock told a different tale. In fact, I was about 30 seconds per km slower on the second loop. How is that possible when it felt so fast? I was passing people like crazy! Needless to say, this unthrilled my previous thrill. Final time = 24:18. About 3 minutes faster than last year, or almost an 11% improvement. I am happy to have gained 3 minutes over 5k, but I'm disappointed my second loop was so much slower than my first. Maybe I went out too fast, I don't know. At least now I know that the winter training did actually do something, and this race gives me a good benchmark for the rest of the season. Next up: 10k road race on April 13.