Race Result

Racer:	Steve Smith
Race:	Dad's Day 5K
Date:	Sunday, June 20, 2004
Location:	Oakton, VA
Race Type:	Run - 5 km
Age Group:	Male 30 - 34
Time:	0:16:58
Overall Place:	1
Comment:	Ouch

Race Report:

There are some race reports you write because of the race, there are others that you write because everything before the race. And still others because the race has some meritous trait that deserves mentioning.

This race report definitely has the last two qualities.

My father's been running on-and-off for the last 2.5 years. About four years ago I gave him a book on marathoning. He was excited, but work got in the way. Still, he slowly added running back to his life and had a pretty good stretch going on until August of 2003 when some strange injury side tracked him for a bit.

Then a few weeks ago he asked me if we were heading to the Dad's Day 5k this year. I was a little surprised, because I knew he was working and traveling a lot. I checked the calendar and no racing on my schedule, so it was off to Active.com to grab two registrations.

However, not racing for me, during the summer months, usually means some big-ass training weekends. Right now I'm in a pattern of alternate race/long weekends. The long weekends are long-long: 130-mile bike rides and 17-23 miles runs, plus another shorter bike ride and an evern shorter run. And some swimming. Anyway, Saturday proved gorgeous, and Glover, Cascio, and I headed out for a 130 ride in which we averaged 19.3 mph for the day. A tough 3-mile brick run finished Saturday off, nearly taking me with it. I took a quick nap & headed over to my folks place for dinner & festivities (my father would fly out on business later Sunday).

The race moved to Oakton High School this year (it was at South Lakes last year), and the day was picture perfect (as in pictures wouldn't capture the wind, but very pretty otherwise). We arrived early and were actually a little cool in the breezy morning. I warmed up on the track and felt pretty good, but tired at the same time. Dad took a quick jog around the track & decided to save his energy.

We start the race and I take the lead pretty early. The course is two 1.5-ish mile loops around the Oakton High School campus, complete with some running on the baseball fields. I gain terminal velocity and find that my HR is right around 171, just about as high as I can sustain it for a 5k (174 is the highest). I can certainly feel the 130 in my legs, but I'm pretty sure I can sustain this for 18 minutes or so.

There's one double-back on the course, and I see the folks chasing me. I'm not too surprised to see a woman in third. I saw a truck with AU XC or something like that in the parking lot, and then I saw a tall, fit black woman wearing an American University XC jersey. She wasn't that close, but she wasn't that far back either. Good incentive to keep the pace up :)

I make my way back to the track & start my second loop. Things are still feeling pretty good, and when I get to the double-back, I see the woman's in second. More incentive. I push things just notch and finish the last 3-4 minutes a little scared.

We finish on the track and as I come around the bend I see 16:40 on the clock. CRAP! I know for sure that if I push things I can cover the last 100m in less than 20. That we athletes are so driven by round numbers seems a little silly. But 16 is 16 and 17 isn't, so I hammered the last 100 and it hurt. Two seconds to spare.

The woman was 2nd place overall, and then a collection of XC kids put on a nice battle for third an fourth. Seeing the fourth place kid break just meters from the finish was something of an inspiration. He really gave it his all and that's what counts. I also watched a 14-year-old kid finish in 18:39. I don't know my HS track times, but I was pretty impressed.

So I finished and then went over to wait for dad. He comes around looking pretty good. We turn the corner. And there it is again: 28:45. Dad pushes the pace and I leave comfortable jog mode for the finish. Dad goes 28:17, for more than a 1:15 PR from last year's run! Woo hoo!

For the first time I was bummed there was no hardware; I thought it'd make a good Father's Day present. Oh well, more fun was the time hanging out & watching dad PR.