5k

I ran an ATC 5k that started in the downtown area near the Georgia Aquarium and World of Coca-Cola and ran a loop up to Georgia Tech and back. Moderately hilly - ran a 21:55 which is 7:03 pace.

TB is a tall old-looking poop in my age group who has beaten me by 15 seconds and 6 seconds in the last two races. The first race I didn’t know who he was, but the second race I did know him, and he beat me in the last mile. I was so exhausted and beaten in the last race that I had given up trying to catch him a half mile from the finish. I was disappointed in myself. What a quitter.

So today I got to the starting line kind of late and surreptitiously placed myself several rows behind TB. I vowed NOT to let him get away.  He got away from me a bit the first half mile due to slower traffic, but I eventually got on his six and stayed there. He got 20 yards ahead on two up hills, and I was so empty that I was fully prepared to concede the race, but each time on the following downhill I recovered the gap and got some life back in my legs.

There were several turns in the last mile and no place to hide, and so he knew I was there, so I moved up and ran side-by side with him, which caused him to jack up the pace. Ouch. As if I wasn’t already hurting to the max.

In the last third of a mile there were three 90-degree turns, right-left-right, to the finish line. I knew this in advance, and knew that each turn would take a toll on strength and speed, so I was mentally prepared to attack coming out of each turn with whatever I had left. I dropped him after the first turn, but kept charging hard the last 400 yards figuring he wouldn’t let me get away easily that late in the race. I beat him to the line, and don’t know how close he was as I didn’t want to turn around and have it misinterpreted as gloating or some other negative connotation.

I hope I don’t see him again anytime soon because that 5k really hurt. I hate the 5k; too dang short and painful.