Racing on a Whim

In general I like to plan and schedule things in advance and I'm not really the type to do something on a whim. This is true of my running for the most part as well, or at least my racing schedule. But on Saturday morning I decided to run a 5K on a whim. I had thought about doing it briefly at the beginning of the week, thinking that I had just run the Brooklyn Half and that I didn't really want to do any speedwork during the week but an end of the week tempo might be perfect so why I not just go out and race on Saturday, since I have been talking about for awhile now how I am just going to race a lot this summer at shorter distances. As the week went on I decided against the race because my hip had been bothering me a bit and it just didn't seem right to go out and run yet another race a week after a half marathon which had been just a month after a goal marathon.

But then I woke up on Saturday morning, having skipped on doing the tempo run I considered the night before, had some Gatorade and realized I had no milk in the house to go with my cereal for breakfast. It sounds weird but I honestly think if there had been milk there I wouldn't have ended up running the race and I would have just had my normal breakfast and relaxed until doing a run later in the afternoon. Instead I took a nibble of a Clif bar which was about the only other suitable breakfast food lying around and decided what the heck, I'm already eating like I'm going to run a race why not just go out and do it. I don't want anyone to think this typical of my thought process and how I approach running because it's really so far from my normal attitude and in fact I think I have a tendency to over plan and get over anxious over the details when it comes to racing. Since the New Jersey Marathon on May 3, however, I have kind of been in a different mood about running. In Jersey, I had been sick all week prior to the race and for one of the few times in my life I actually went to the starting line telling myself just do the best you can on this day in these conditions given your fitness and how you are feeling at this moment, not based on what could have been a week ago or what you would like to accomplish. Maybe lots of people have that approach to racing, but it hadn't been mine. I like to think of races as having a purpose and most of the time that is for a PR, I really struggle with the concept of racing when in off-season mode or racing my way into shape or training through a race, as I always want to put my best foot forward and give myself a chance to succeed. That's why only race as often as I have a down week coming up in my training to make a mini-taper possible and why I won't run 5Ks really when training for a marathon. But like I said since Jersey I have kind of felt differently about that. I toed the starting line of the Brooklyn Half last weekend, knowing that I wasn't in better shape two months before and that I was still beaten up a bit from the marathon and that the race had no real purpose for my past or upcoming training---I was just going out there to race.

And that's what I did again on Saturday, only this time I literally decided to race about two hours before the race started. I knew I would race the 5K hard because I am a very competitive person but I literally had no expectations for time and didn't even really know what a particular time would tell me about my current fitness since I had just run the half marathon the weekend before and hadn't adjusted the week after to prepare for another race the following weekend. So out I went to Central Park for the YAI 5K Central Park Challenge, a race that benefits those with disabilities. I like races like this one that are much smaller than the NYRR races and have more of a mom and pop feel to them than what you normally get in New York City with these races with 5,000 or so runners. Smaller races also give me the opportunity to compete for place, which is always a nice change of pace from the constant time trialing we do. I ended up running an 18:08 for the 5K, which was actually just four seconds off my PR, and finished 7th place overall and won a plaque as first in the 20-29 age group, but the fun part of this race was that it developed so that I was close to being in contact with the lead pack for the first mile and change even though it took off after that I kept them in sight for a long time and opened with a very fast 5:35 opening mile only to fade and kind of shut things down a bit towards the end when no one was catching me and I wasn't catching them---that is the beauty of these off-season races in my opinion is that I really feel I can go out there and do whatever the hell I want. I can start them hard and not worry about fading or I can start them more conservatively and not worry about having to make up the time for a certain goal but just feeling strong and making it a good training run. Honestly, it is such a relaxing way to race that I think it really allows me the opportunity to hit some unexpected PRs and have some unexpected great days. If I race enough, on a whim or not, I feel like at least once or twice I will just hit that right day when I feel great and everything clicks, that is luxury that I can't have with marathons or longer races but it is one that I can have right now.