There’s always a couple of bad races each season, and I’m hoping I got one of them out of the way early because I was not too happy with how the Alaska Heart Run went this past weekend.
I actually felt great going in the Alaska Heart Run 5K–training was going well, I did an 800 meter interval workout where I ran faster than I ever have (at least from what I can recall), and my easy pace was coming down and getting faster.
But maybe the fact I forgot to sign up for the race was predicative of the race to come. I showed up race morning to pick up my bib, and they said I was not registered! How do I forget to sign up for a race? I definitely remember being on the website to sign up, but I don’t remember what happened after that. Maybe I got to the part where I needed to enter my credit card information and intended to come back but never did??
Anyway, I got registered, and then started my warm-up as I was down to about 30 minutes until the start of the race. I did a mile jog, stretches, drill work, an then changed into my racing shoes. I ended up wearing the Saucony Endorphin Pro+, but I’m not sure I liked racing in a carbon plated shoe (or at least not that one) for a 5K.
When the gun went off for the start, I felt really good for the first half of a mile and saw 5:30/5:40 on my watch and briefly thought I could maintain that pace during the whole 3.1 miles (Oh, the innocence of a mind at the start of a 5K.), but that quickly dissipated around 0.75 mile into the race when the girls I was running with started pulling away from me. I didn’t feel like my pace was dropping that much (the effort still felt the same), but I glanced down at my watch and saw the pace creeping up to a 6:00 minute pace. I tried to stay calm and pick it up a bit, but my legs weren’t turning over like I wanted them to.
As we climbed the first and only hill up to mile one, I glanced over at the race clock and saw 6:09! Yikes! That was much slower than I had anticipated, but I reminded myself that the first mile had the sizable hill and I could make up some time on the downhill.
I kept checking my watch through the flat portion, down the hill, and on my way to mile three, but my pace was just not coming down and the girls I was running with had passed me and left me in the dust by now. At mile 2, my watch beeped and the split for that mile was 6:05. Bummer.
Mile 3 was desolate but I know I was almost done. I knew the damage was done to my time, but I did my best to hang on and keep pushing as much as I could. (If anything, I always want to give it my best at the end of each race.) Mile 3 split was 6:09, so at least I was staying consistent.
I crossed the finish line almost in tears with how “bad” my performance was. My finish time was 19:17, which was 30 seconds slower than my indoor 5K at the beginning of March. I realize a 5K on a track is going to be faster, but I also thought I would have gained a considerable amount of fitness in 6 weeks.
As I cooled down after the race, I racked my brain for an explanation. After reflecting for a couple of miles, it dawned on me I had been following a vegan diet for the last 6 weeks, and now I am 99% sure that is what affected my performance because last spring when I also followed a vegan diet (We observe a vegan diet for Lent.), I started feeling really flat in my running during the last couple weeks of the fast.
Anyway, it is what it is, and I definitely don’t take for granted being able to run this “fast” or run injury-free and with an able-body. I am thankful for each and every run even if it doesn’t go the way I want it to.
