Medved Father's Day 5K

The Father's Day 5k began on a warm clear morning. I had few goals going in to the race. Mostly I wanted a race I could feel good about. I've been feeling a little too lethargic lately (maybe from allergies) and Chase was a disappointment. Certainly I was shooting for a victory. I looked at past winning times. It was definitely within reach.

The race started with Rochester's Jeff Beck and Anthony Gitau from Toronto leaping off the line like bats out of hell. I thought, you're kidding me, right?

I didn't want to lose contact so I tried to keep them on a relatively short leash without pushing myself too hard. I probably could have let the line out a little farther, but I wasn't feeling very confident.

The course is flat, but has many 90 degree turns, which were blamed for slower-than-expected times. Hanging a meter or two back from the very front helped me swing the turns a little wider and keep a bit more momentum.

Six of us clumped together up front: Jeff, Gitau, Chris Muldoon from Buffalo, Garrett Wagner, Ryan Pauling, and myself. Throughout the middle of the race Chris, Jeff, and Gitau each threw in a few surges and pushed the group. At some point Ryan strained his calf and slowed down a bit. This was probably a very smart move on his part since he passed both the other runners who later fell off the pace of the lead pack. These two others were Gitau and Wagner. I can't recall exactly when they faded. I wasn't paying too much attention to mile markers. I just made sure I was in striking position with a K to go.

The course finishes on the home-to-third-base line after rounding a crushed gravel "warning track" along the back wall of a baseball stadium. In the parking lot the remaining front runners, Chris, Jeff, and I, accelerated. I passed Jeff just outside the stadium. A sharp short hill descended into the stadium and gave us a big speed boost as we hit the gravel.

Coming into the stadium with less than 400 meters to go, I was close enough to whisper in Chris's ear and Jeff was close behind us. I felt very clear headed, emotionally detached. I made the decision not to try to pass Chris on the outside, but hang on his shoulder until the third base line and then try to shift into a higher gear and pass him for the win. He probably expected this. He sped up when we hit the straight away and I couldn't catch him even though I accelerated too.

In retrospect, I should have had more confidence and tried to pass him on the outside earlier. This was my better chance at winning. Even if I hadn't passed him, I would have forced him to accelerate into top speed before the final straight away. By waiting, I essentially condemned myself to second place. If I had tried to pass earlier, the worst I would have finished would have still been second. Jeff's kick, strangely, failed him. I was not in danger of being bumped into third so close to the finish.

For the second race in a row I took second place, one second behind the leader. My time: 15:08. Chris Muldoon: 15:07. Apparently, I need to work on my kick.

Thankfully I did not feel sick-awful like I did after Chase. I recovered fairly quickly and jogged a cool down with Ryan Pauling and Eric Boyce. Many kudos (kudoses?) to Medved for providing ample post race food. Nothing chafes me quite like being one of the first race finishers and missing out on post race food because I went on a cooldown.

My next race will probably be a one miler. That should be interesting.

Training-wise, I want to get my edge back, sweep away nagging almost-injuries, and feel fast. Ryan Pauling echoed my sentiments when he said, "I want to race, not just survive." I was certainly racing the last kilometer of this 5K, but the first four felt way too much like survival.

One exciting bit of trivia is that Chris Muldoon, Jeff Beck, Ryan Pauling, Eric Boyce, and myself are all GVH runners. That means GVH swept the top four spots in this race with our fifth runner in 9th. If we can bring out a couple more open runners and stay in good shape we should be a team force to be reckoned with in the fall.

I could find no pictures for this race, but a nice article by Peter Glavin can be found here and overall results are here.