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OTC Thursday Night Race Series: 5K CC at Alton Baker

May 11, 2017 (Night)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: 50s, on and off steady rain, then OK

Comments:
OK day. Saw an early AM patient, then crammed paperwork 'til noon...then got home, feeling drained, so I napped! It was solid. Then, practice 3ish to 5ish. Kids did 2x 3-2-1 and looked really good.

Tommy had an idea last week to jump into the Oregon Track Club's community Thursday night race series. They've been around for years, but I've never done them (mostly because they are at 6PM, I I always worked that late). So on Tommy's motivation, both CA and I agreed to race.

I ran a mile at P.Hill during the kids' cooldown as warm-up #1, then hustled over to Alton Baker, quickly registered both CA and me, then jogged some more. Felt OK, but still generally stiff. However, my breathing felt great from the massage work.

The course was pretty solid: 90% on the bark, with a couple hairpin turns and one little gut buster hill. From the gun, just after a hard rain episode, I got out OK...but found myself in lock-step with some annoying woman who took 'til about 500m to fall back. Then it was just me.

A couple form-focus areas went well:
- back arch
- butt back (namely right side)
- shoulder blades + arms (keeping blades back, "plowing" with elbows)

But some others clearly suffered.

Gosh I felt GREAT in that first mile, so good that I wasn't sure if I was running super fast or too easy! It was right in the middle: hit the first mile in a fairly unimpressive 5:36. I pushed a teeny bit to maintain pace around the millrace pond, then around the first hairpin turn and up-and-over a small overpass in the park, then back on the field. I didn't see too many folks close, which was nice.

On the inbound, things got a bit more uncomfortable but I still felt good. Focused on the turnover and forward engagement (though the arch makes me feel upright)...but I could feel that I was "trunk left"-ing...

Hit the 2-mile in a 5:33, which was really encouraging. Then, it was the last (and hardest) mile, with tons of little rollers (like 3 second hills), but gut busters. Things got painful, then, so by the time we got near the finish, which was 200m of gravel straight, I didn't really feel like kicking.

Ran 17:24 "FTW"...with the annoying chick maybe only 30s back! Splits:

5:36
5:33
5:40 +

SOLID run. I remembner road 5Ks being slower. Wore the NB 1500s on pretty ideal bark surface (not soggy, not dusty). Stride...was clunky. I'm sure I was shifted a bit (as the right abs got a little tensed), but...I haven't practiced that gear much at all: this is another fitness area that needs shoring up.

CA ran solid in 19:45 with Tommy not too far behind.

Post-race: long course cool-down with CA, then over to T&G for beers and food. Fun stuff!