A Rare Race Victory

Despite logging my highest weekly mileage since the first week of March, I decided somewhat last-minute to sign up for the LEE’S Friends Run on the Wild Side 5K, which took place at the Norfolk Zoo on Saturday morning. Despite the 8 AM start, humidity was already high with temperatures rising all the time. My warm-up was a good one but reinforced the fact that I wouldn’t be running fast time today –– way too hot and humid for my heavy legs! However, I did think I would be able to run faster then my 5K on the boardwalk couple of weeks ago [17:56].

The race got underway promptly at 8 AM with the usual fast kids starting off swiftly. There was also one guy who set off especially fast –– for a brief couple of seconds, I thought maybe I had entered a 1 mile race by mistake! Anyway, I soon settled into a rhythm, and hit the 1 mile mark in five minutes 44 seconds, with Renee High tracking me in second place and Jon ‘Flex’ Leiding not far behind in third.

However, I went from feeling fairly comfortable at the mile, to very heavy legged at the turnaround point. From ticking along nicely, it was almost like I was treading water. I managed to hold pace fairly well and stay under six minute mile pace [5:57], but it was definitely a struggle.

Leading the race was cool, but the threat of being overtaken was always in the back of my mind. The oppressive heat and thick humidity really got to me in the final mile and I remember gasping for air and trying hard to maintain form as best as possible. Somehow I logged another sub minute mile [5:59], but it was ugly! Only when I reached the 3 mile mark did I dare glance back to check how close Renee was. It turned out she was about 10 seconds behind and just far enough out of reach. I also saw Jon about 1/10 of a mile behind and racing strongly.

I crossed the line with a grimace on my face, but a huge sense of relief that I had held on for a rare 5K race victory. The time wasn’t great [18:12], but a win is a win, and I will take it!

Hopefully next week I can get back to a sub-18 minute 5K when I race again at the OK5K at Mount Trashmore.