Return to Good Racing [Schlotzsky's Bun Run 5K]

After a 3 day running vacation (or vacation from running), I was starting to feel more than a little guilty about avoiding my responsibilities to training. Granted, I had stuff to do that interfered a little bit with my training schedule, but nothing that absolutely made it impossible to get the work done. So, it was with no little trepidation that I ventured back out this morning for the Bun Run 5K. I've run this race a bunch of times, on two or three different courses, and it remains a constant staple of my spring racing schedule. Still, it's a 5K, and 5K races are not much fun. You go out and have to run hard from the horn, without the usual first mile (or more, in the case of longer races) where you can find yourself and settle into the race. It's just very difficult to make up for a mile split that isn't satisfactory. In a 10K or longer race, you can adjust on the fly, but not with the 5K. I've joked that I'd rather run a marathon than a 5K, and that's not entirely a flippant remark.

Race goals? A masters PR would be nice, beating last year's 22:04 (7:07 pace). I'd also like to break 22:00. My ultimate goal would be to break 7:00/mile pace for the race.

I met Frank, Rich and Marcy down at the Mopac bridge this morning for our warmup run. This would guarantee that we'd have to do a cooldown run of equivalent length, and for shorter races, it's become our habit to do it this way. Weather was low 70's, humid, but with overcast skies, it didn't feel quite as oppressive as the Capitol 10K did. It probably has a lot to do with getting acclimated to the heat again. I was sporting the Fila shorts that I got at the Fila testing session on Wednesday, and they are really bright! I figured I'd better run well, because it would be bad if I was in some serious Gazelles regalia and failed to finish strong. More psychological stuff I put on myself, I guess...

The warmup was fun, and we chatted away, nervously, I think. Once we got to Auditorium Shores, we saw a few Gazelles, including Richard (with his dog), who was competing in the K9 division, and Patrick, who merely wanted to run fast. I took my pre-race GU, and we managed to find more water to wash that down. Drills in the parking lot there at the race site, and we were ready to go. We definitely had worked up a sweat! Pretty much everybody else went way up front in the crowd, but foolishly, I chose a spot that matched my intended pace...or so I thought. I shouldn't forget this EVERY TIME I RACE IN AUSTIN, but there are a lot of folks, a huge number of folks, who just don't understand race etiquette for self-seeding. A lot of casual runners don't get the whole concept of chip timing, and usually, they severely overestimate their ability to run the given race, too. More on that later...

National anthem was sung by Kelly Willis, and sung well. Always nice to have a "live" national anthem, especially by one of Austin's musical luminaries. Then, the wheelchair racers were sent away, and finally, our horn blared and we were off. Now, I'm not the fastest guy in Austin, but I still was quite annoyed for the first half mile or so today. A group of elementary school students had trained for this race, which is great. However, they also lined up on the front of the pack, and all of them except for maybe 2 people ended up walking within the first mile. That's totally cool, but they were lined up as if they were trying to win. It just made things unnecessarily difficult to navigate that first part of the race. They weren't the only problem, mind you, but a representation of a larger issue. I had to weave through walkers, joggers, several slower folks with dogs on a leash, and a host of people who hadn't the least reason to have lined up as they did. Yeah, I got through it okay, but it took away my small store of "happy" before I needed to spend it. :-) The best was when some kids went onto the sidewalk at City Hall, and then, without looking, hopped back off the sidewalk right into my path. Grrrrrr......

Once we turned the corner onto 2nd Street, things cleared up enough that I was able to find clear lanes to run in, but it took a while to put that out of my mind. There are a lot of 90 degree turns in the first mile, and I was glad to finally end up on Cesar Chavez for some wide open field running. I hit the first mile split in 7:13, about like last year. I didn't feel like I had run that fast, so again, just like last year, I figured I was already running faster than that, given the traffic issues, so I maintained that perceived level of effort for a while. I was moving well, passing people all the time, and I don't recall getting passed myself by more than one or two people, if that many.

As I approached the turn for the "Dog Pound Loop," I saw Bernard flying along on the other side of Cesar Chavez, followed distantly by the usual fast guys. There was still a pack of women runners leading their race, closely marked by the masters men who usually win those awards in Austin. I didn't see any of my buddies as I turned off to loop under Cesar Chavez, which made me very happy. I guess I was running pretty well! The band at the turnaround was playing "Get Back," and did a fine job on that tune. It helped motivate me to keep moving along. I saw Mac Allen standing on the side of the course there, and got some encouragement from him as well. Just less than half the race to go, and it seemed like forever!

I didn't see anybody I knew on the other side of the road as I merged back up onto Cesar Chavez, but then again, I was pretty focused on my own race at that time. I was feeling the effects of hard running by now, but wasn't in severe agony yet. I was still doing a good job of catching and passing people, and that always helps improve your mental outlook. Around the 2 mile marker, I caught up to the Judge (I forget his name, but he's a regular figure in Austin road races). My mile 2 split was 7:01, so I decided to latch onto him and use him as a pacemaker for the little uphill bumps on the course during mile 3. By the time we crested the last little rise, I moved on by him, feeling a quicker pace coming on. At the corner of the First Street bridge, I saw Gilbert, who was yelling encouragement at various folks. I think I was hidden from his view as I turned south, and certainly didn't have any extra energy to yell out to him! I did see Erine at the inside of that corner, and he helped me with an "attaboy!"

On the bridge, I missed the mile 3 marker, but it was way past time to be doing a hawk-eye with the watch, so that wasn't that big a deal. I kept pressing, letting the crowd's cheers push me along, and finally reached that last corner onto Riverside. Thankfully, the finish line was a little closer than I had thought, so I used my last burst of energy to push hard down the stretch all the way to the tape. Done! After some post-race gasping, I checked out the time, and saw that I had accomplished most of my goals for the day.

Last 1.1 miles in 7:43, or 7:01/mile pace. Overall, 21:57, 7:05/mile pace. Masters PR, course PR, and I broke 22:00. Given that last year's race was under perfect 50 degree weather, I'm proud of my work today. This was my 6th fastest 5K ever, behind only times that I ran 20 years ago. I'll get those one day, but today wasn't that day. Interestingly, my overall pace today was almost exactly the pace for the 4x1 mile repeats that we ran on Monday. Coincidence?

Post-race stuff included seeing Richard's wife, Stephanie, and Leslie, who were volunteering at the water/Powerade table. The Stanford's sold their house almost immediately upon putting it on the market, so that was good to hear. Alex showed up to share in the post-race vibe, fresh off of his 5K PR 19:11 yesterday in Houston (he finished 2nd overall, so that's pretty cool!). Gretchen was there, too, and seemed pretty comfortable just 5 or 6 days after Boston. We stayed for the awards ceremonies, and except for them screwing up the Clydesdale awards (they gave them out to the 4th, 5th, and 6th place finishers...duh!), it was pretty fun to see Gazelles clean up on the prizes. Frank won the Clydesdale division by a bunch, but they'll have to send him his actual award later, once they get it all straight. Marcy was fastest masters woman. Rich blasted a sub 20:00 5K, which was very impressive, too. Good running all around, it seems.

By the time Frank had gotten his paperwork to straighten out his prizes, it was pretty late, but we still had a nice relaxing cooldown jog back to the cars. Once again, I laughed inwardly about us running along, with our race numbers still affixed, long after the race was over. That's exactly the kind of behavior that I used to marvel at, back before Gazelle times. Who'd want to run before a race, or, worse, after a race? Uh, people just like me, I guess. :-)

It was a good day at the running office, and I'm much more confident about the Indy Half Marathon now that I've done a good race this spring. Just two more weeks, and hopefully, I'll drop a rare lifetime PR at the half marathon distance, defeating that much younger self that set the existing PR in 1993.