Stretford 5000m

Stretford 5k Race Report

I approached this race with a real feeling of trepidation.  I hadn't raced for 4 weeks since the AAA 5k on the road at Blackburn.  At that point, I wasn't very fit at all and it showed, 14:55 was a painful struggle from start to finish.  I'd just come back from a stag do in Magaluf and was carrying a few excess pounds.  My training had been very light with minimal sessions, but that said, they were geared towards 5k.

Since then, there's no doubt I've improved my fitness as I've done a really good first three weeks of marathon training, but there hasn't been any sessions aimed at 5k, it's been largely progression runs and 10k volume sessions.  This week I took the opportunity to have a lighter week after 3 very hard weeks and my sessions were reduced in volume.  I did 5x800m at 3000m pace on Monday and 8x300m at 1500m pace on Wednesday.  These were a real shock to the system, they felt like flat out sprints!  I really needed this easier week, even on Friday I still felt like I did a week earlier, a lighter week including a rest day on Thursday seemed to do nothing for me.

I warmed up while the A race was ongoing, and then put on my spikes 15mins beforehand to do some strides.  How I feel on my strides generally gives me an idea how I might feel in the race and I have to say I've never, ever felt as good on my strides as I did on Saturday.  Straight away, I realised that I was feeling the benefit of the easier week on the right day.

The race got underway and I was immediately where I wanted to be, on the shoulder of the pacemaker verbally communicating with him on the pace.  It's important to get the laps right early on and I'd rather go slightly slow than slightly quick.  2:21 through 800m was slow but it was fine by me.  After 2 laps, I asked him to pick it up a touch.  The 3rd lap was a 66 which was too quick and was always likely to bite me a bit at the moment but I seemed to weather it over the next few laps.  I started to become concerned on lap 4 when the pacemaker moved out into lane 2 and gestured for me to go past him.  I quickly realised he wasn't going to last much longer.  Lap 5 - exactly the same only this time he stepped off the track.  All of a sudden, I was the pacemaker with 20 athletes sat on my shoulder waiting to pounce!  I had felt very very good indeed until this point.

The next 7 laps were much harder work as I no longer had a pacemakers shoulders (or another athletes) to focus on, just trying to keep the pace going.  3k passed in 8:44 with only Owain Jones for company and I signalled to Owain that he needed to share some of the work if we were to keep it going.  I felt it slow down when he did and was set to just go straight back to the front and try to grind him down but we were joined by Simon Horsfield who had moved right from the back of the field in his first serious 5000m.  Knowing Simon very well, I had an idea how he was feeling and said he should take it on which he did.  Over the remaining laps, myself and Simon shared the front running.  With 300m to go I felt him start to pick up and tried to follow him through, with 200m to go he found another gear and totally annihilated me as I would expect a 3:41 1500m man to do.  Owain finished very strongly to catch me on the line and we were awarded the same finishing time of 14:38.

Overall, there's a sense of relief that I've had a decent runout and that the marathon training has obviously brought about an upturn in fitness.  I was more pleased with the way I felt than anything, I'm not a natural frontrunner and wasn't expecting to take the brunt of the race but think it's a good indication that I'm where I need to be.  5k is certainly not the aim at the moment, this was purely a means to an end and an opportunity to take advantage of a much needed down week.  In hindsight I may have been better in the A race and my personal best was certainly faster than a lot of those in the A race but I have to admit the front pace of 65s kind of scared me off!!

Immediately after my race, I toed the line for the C race and paced at 16:40 pace for two girls, unfortunately only one was able to go with the requested pace.  This was a good marathon pace work out on tired legs and good training for how the legs may feel in the later stages of the marathon at that pace.

Looking forward now to the 10,000m at Tiption next weekend.  It would be nice to have a crack at a PB again but when you've been running for 18 years a PB is always a tough ask.  I'll give it a go though!

Keep training hard,
Cheers,
Dave