Disappointment with Success

So I won my "big" road race.  Fun With the Fuzz was great.  Perfect weather.  Great crowds.  Perfect course. I'm not $500 richer for having run 15:20.  I'm happy with the time all things considered.  Which means I've trained like garbage since February and I thought I'd be lucky to run 15:30.  But I guess I maximized the training I have done.  And luckily, some of the big dogs who might have traveled up from Seattle opted to check out the new 5k with cash prizes in Tacoma.  It's closer and it pays three deep.  Mike Sayenko won $500 for a 14:23.  15:08 was the first non money winner.  Ouch.  But I won't complain.  I'm using the money to fly my mom out here finally.  Yes, RB, I'm actually doing that.  The money is in the bank, waiting until we figure out a weekend in late August or early September for her to come out here and see how awesome it is.

As for the race, here is the recap:  First off, I was super excited to sport my new Saucony Hurricane gear.  It looks awesome.  And I even had a pair of early release Kinvara 3's to warm up in.  I know shoe buying is an individual thing, but Saucony has always been great for my foot shape and I like what they're doing with the lower drop shoes.  Vizipro orange is rad.  And they've helped me out with a lot of gear.  Ok, ok, I'll stop with the obvious product plug.

I was pretty nervous because of the prize money.  It has a way of bringing fast guys out of the woodwork, but luckily we're far enough away from Seattle and Vancouver to deter some of those guys, and Kyle Nelson does such a good job getting a thousand people from nearby that he doesn't need to recruit out of town.  That might change next year.  That's ok, I'll be faster.

But it doesn't happen until you start warming up, that sense of fear and doubt.  Heavy legs, which are always heavy before a race (I'm actually more worried when they feel good in warm up) don't do much to inspire confidence.  The thoughts of the skipped runs and workouts due to the nagging little issues, the lack of motivation, and the bevy of other lame excuses start to fill the brain.  So I was happy to talk to anybody, take pictures, and just try to distract myself in general.  I felt a lot like I did before I ran Seattle Marathon in '09.  If I could have puked, I probably would have.

But as it got closer and closer to race time, I didn't see any recognizable "big fish" so I started to calm down little by little.  And eventually we lined up at the start.  And despite the pace car's best efforts to get in the way, we were off and running.  And after about 15 seconds, the brain sort of quiets down and racing instincts take over.  I decided to just go out hard and see who could hold on.  If somebody could match a 4:50 first mile, they could probably beat me and they probably deserved to.  I didn't quite hit 4:50 but I wasn't too far off and I had already opened up a gap at the mile.  I knew if I could grow the gap just a little bit by mile two, surviving until the downhill portion to the finish shouldn't be a problem.

I tried pushing hard after turning off Eldridge to push the gap while I was out of view.  I never know how well that actually works, but I always try it.  But it didn't matter this time.  I ran the second mile in 5:00, lengthening the lead a bit.  By the time I hit mile three, I had switched my thinking to "just hold on, don't trip, don't blow up" and I finally reached the downhill grade and I knew I was safe.  I got some extra boost from Jim Clevenger who was out supporting his 0 to 5k group and Klicks Running and Walking.  My "hold on" mentality ended up driving my fastest mile, somewhere in the low 4:50 range.  I crossed the line in 15:20 with arms raised, and a few fist pumps, excited for my mom.  It was great.  I kept running through the line for a moment to collect myself before turning back to see the rest of the finishers.

The time wasn't bad but I immediately think of how poor I feel my training has gone and wonder what I could have run when training was going well.  I guess that will have to wait.  I do plan on crushing an All Comers 5k sometime this summer though.  But a slice of Little Ceasars, a quick call to my mom, and some race recap with friends and fellow racers (who for the most part all seemed to have pretty good days) and any disappointment in my fitness was short lived, especially when they handed me the check.

And the whole tone for the weekend was set.  Had some great Ethiopian food (will this make me faster?) at the farmers market.  A caramel latte from Avelino (they use real caramel, and chocolate, and ingredients in general) was awesome.  Yellowcard beer from Chuckanut Brewery was a nice bonus.  Sunday morning I went for an awesome long run in the Chuckanuts with Jake Hartsoch where he snapped this cool action shot (trying to show family the awesome-ness of our trails).

It was a great day, with plenty of sun and warm weather.  I ran chinsraper (or walked) and some other sections of trail I had somehow managed to miss on Chuckanut.  All in all, a pretty awesome weekend.