Popular Bank's 5K 2015

Speed. 

It eludes me.  While I admit that I have never focused on developing it, by this time I would have hoped I was a little faster. I hoped that as I matured as a runner, my pace would just naturally get faster. That hasn't panned out. As I close in on 4 years of running, progress in this department has been, like my pace, very slow.

Case in point: the 5K, and the fact that my fastest time in this particular discipline is from 2013. The 37:43 I managed to pull off in the Alliance 5K -which is the hardest 5K I've run. Ever.- keeps staring at me from my computer every time I log into Garmin Connect. Almost teasing me. 

Then, there's this race. My first ever back in 2012. This is the 4th time I step on the line for this one and I love to hate it and hate to love it. It's deceptively simple: You go up one avenue then go back down another. It's flat and potentially very fast but I have never managed a PR here even though the conditions for it, on paper, look perfect for exactly that. My best time here? 39:22. Clearly, something had to be done.

The view from the back

During all my runs these past two months, all I've thought about is how faster I am when I use the Galloway Method. Time and time again it keeps proving itself to my surprise. I mean, you are walking!! How is this possible?! But the times don't lie. I am faster. However, I have relied on it for longer distances. Marathons and Half Marathons mainly. I've actually never tried it for shorter stuff. I mean, a 5K is just too little distance and certainly too little time for it to be effective right?

Well, we were about to find out.

Bear in mind, I didn't train for this. I have just been running like I always do in preparation for the Goofy Challenge: Running during the week then using the Galloway Method on my weekend long runs. I was going to be treading new paths for this one. I know you are not supposed to try new things while racing but given my current level, I thought the risk was pretty low, plus I mentally prepared myself that if something did go wrong, nothing was really lost. After all, my eyes are on the real prize: The Goofy medal. The 5K PR could come later. With this in mind, I developed a very simple strategy: Run like zombies are after me, then hope the walk interval will be enough time to recharge for the next run interval. That's it.

I met up with my now traditional running posse for this race. Gilbert walked the race with his wife and kid and his sister Cristie joined us as well. Frankie "The Jet" Ramos sat this one out. Apparently, after running a sub-5 hour marathon, this sort of stuff is now beneath him. (Hi Frankie!) This year they had corrals (Yay!) and sure enough I got sent to the last one. I ended up almost in the very back of the pack but I wasn't worried. I was the dead last person out of the Philly Half and look how that turned out.

The beautiful Ramos family and little Ramos' first 5K

And so it began. No sooner had I crossed the starting line, I took off like someone was trying to force me to watch a "Twilight" marathon. The walk break could not come soon enough. Plus, I was dodging people left and right which was expected. It turned out to not be a factor though the crowd thinned out a bit later but even so my fastest mile was the first one. 10:52, walk breaks and all, although for some reason I saw some other number on my watch and thought I was behind so I pushed on which was a mistake as I was already running well beyond my threshold. Sure enough, halfway through, that breakneck pace caught up with me and my legs started to seriously complain the final 30 seconds of each run interval. The supposed 2 minute run / 1 minute walk plan slowly turned into 1:50 run / 1(ish) minute walk as I didn't have enough legs to support such a fast pace.

The thrill of victory (...and exhaustion)

The result was an ugly positive split. A 10:52 first mile turned into a 11:59 second mile and finally a 12:19 third mile. I was totally spent. I was trying to muster some strength to finish resembling something close to running when I saw a friend of mine run past me and I decided to catch up to him and finish with him. As I crossed the finish I thought I was gonna pass out but it was over.

Final time, 36:24 - A shiny new PR and a 2 minute improvement from last year.

It's funny. When I started running, I thought that to be a "normal" or "regular" runner you had to do a 5K somewhere in the mid 30's. I don't know how I arrived at that number. I can't even tell you what I meant by "normal runner" but here I am, squarely in the mid 30's and I don't feel any different so there you go. It's not like I'm thinking I gotta reach some crazy number. However, I do feel that with some practice, I could maintain that 1st mile pace throughout the entire race. That would be cool.