Master Runner,Rookie Mistake

I love the blues,they tell my story,if you don't feel it you can never understand. So many times I thought about it and now I know just what it means to be a man. Everyday I realize you can see it in my eyes,I never wait or hesitate Cos I love the life I live,I'm gonna live the life I choose You've gotta understand,I'm walking in the shadow of the blues

Walking In The Shadow Of The Blues-Whitesnake

There's nothing worse than having to blog a bad race or bad workout,but I've tried never to be the type of blogger who only blogs the good stuff and hides the crud under the rug,so here goes w/ Saturdays less then stellar 5,000m race from Penn.

Last years 15.57.7. 5,000m at the Upenn Invite lit the fuse for a banner track season for yours truly including a 15.36.8. pr and bronze at Nationals so it wasn't that unrealistic to hope the same race on the same weekend this year wouldn't do likewise.....or was it?

31 of us toed the line at 5pm w/ sunny and mild conditions,where as last year I found myself on the second line which ultimately aided my first ever sub 16 5,000m this year my recent 15.47 indoor 5,000m earned me front row status and a #16 seed,this w/ hindsight lead to my downfall as from the gun I allowed myself to get swept up in the lead pack as we joined seeds 1 thro 8 who lined up ahead of us on a California start till the break line on the home straight as I maintained my 16th place position and went through 200m in 34 seconds.

According to my unofficial splits my first 4 laps went 1.13,1.13,1.14,1.15 for a 4.55 opening mile,I was hoping for 5.00 off of 1.15 per lap but that had gone out the window,clearly hoping to run in the region of 15.30 today I'd allowed myself to get caught up in a pace too rich for my blood at this stage of my season,that's a race better suited to a few weeks down the road,a rookie error someone of my age should NOT be making but somehow I'd made it and the subsequent carnage that comes w/ such a error was about to unfold.

W/ 7 laps to go I fell off the rear of the chase pack as my pace had now ballooned to a woeful 1.23,at this stage I had to call upon my several years of experience to coax myself through each lap rather than drop out of the race,by the time I reached 4 laps to go my second mile had skyrocketed to a pitiful 5.24,there'd be no sub 16 today that was for sure,all I could do now was gut it out to the finish and at least have that as something to be happy w/ on an otherwise bad day at the office.

A final mile of 5.20 saw me finish in 24th place in a hugely disappointing 16.21.1. time,for a race that I had hoped would provide answers I found myself w/ more questions upon crossing the finish line,having ended the indoor season on a bum note the last thing my confidence needed was to open the outdoor season on a backwards step but here it was in all it's technicoloured glory....or should that be gory.

Clearly it all went pear shaped at the gun,last year I ran a cagey opening mile as I sought a sub 16 for the first time in my career,today believing I could run a 15.30 I went out too aggressively in the opening mile and paid for it big time,if memory serves last year my opening splits were 4.58-5.16 for a 10.14,today read 4.55-5.24-10.39,like I said a rookie error and one a seasoned masters runner like myself should not be making.

Granted today is only the first race of a long outdoor season,there are several more races b4 I toe the line at Worlds and Nationals in July but it's not exactly the way you want to kick off the season,I have two choices,jump right into another race asap to erase the memory of this cock up or bide my time over the next 5 weeks in training so that come my next meet at Swarthmore on May 9th I'm primed and ready to run a better race and hopefully closer to 15.30 off of even pacing,in running as in life,it's a learning process and hopefully you learn from your mistakes and don't make the same mistake twice.....lets hope I've learned.