Trinity Academy Reindeer Run 5K - Dec. 6, 2020

Feeling like I had one more shot at a decent 5K in 2020, I went back to one of my familiar early December courses - the Trinity Academy Reindeer Run in Caldwell. 

I ran this race in 2013, 2014 and 2018, with a finish time of 18:35, 18:40 and 18:20, respectively.  Now, two years after my fastest course time, things are dramatically different.

After bounding down that first short hill on Hatfield Street, the work began after the turn onto Smull Avenue.  For the next mile and a half, I pushed uphill with all my might, disappointed at how much slower I was running compared to a mere two years ago.  My heart sank when the first mile clocked in at 6:51.  

What the hell happened to me this year?  Is it possible that I had COVID and did not even know it, and now I am feeling the after effects of shortness of breath while my heart feels like it is struggling to pump hard enough to meet the level of activity I am trying to perform?  Or am I just getting old?

Whatever it was, I needed to crest this damn hill, now on Mountain Avenue, and finally did so, turning onto Forest Avenue with a 6:49 second mile.  

All that was left to do was make up as much time as possible on the downhill to the finish line.  A 6:05 third mile was the best I could muster, finishing the race at 20:24, more than two minutes slower than 2018.  

So that is it.  No more 5Ks for a while.  No speed work.  No tempo runs.  For the next few months, I will do some marathon training - going for long, slow miles.  And maybe, just maybe, I can enjoy the run for sake of it.

Trinity Academy 5K Reindeer Run

After running the Trinity Academy 5K Reindeer Run in 2013 and 2014, it was nice to return to this well-organized, friendly and fun race.

And as was the case for the races I ran in the past couple of weeks, the emphasis would be on fun.  But that does not mean I would not work hard, too.  Each of these three 5Ks were replacements for the weekly speed work, prescribed by Hal Higdon in his Advanced 1 training program.

Not only that, but I was happy to participate in this race for the first time as a married man and was thrilled that my wife would be running it, too.  When we got to the site, I remembered how the course involved a loooooong incline through the first two miles, followed by a steady decline for the last one, so I relayed that information to Gloria and we talked about tactics for handling it. The mission was to go hard...but not too hard at first.

I placed myself near the front of the pack and, at go time, darted out on the brief downhill, quickly taking my place in fourth.  But no sooner were we a quarter mile through, we turned onto Smull Avenue and began the long climb.  Pushing with a big effort, but making sure not to spend all of it too soon, I hit the first mile at 5:54.

Determined to stay in that sweet spot, I tried to give it some more oomph, but my body was not having it.  On the plus side, I was closing in on the third place runner.  So even though my second mile was a dramatically slower 6:08, I did what I have always done best - made my passing move on the uphill.  The guy was clearly gassed from the constant uphill and there was no way he was going to come back from it.

Now in third place and cresting the hill, I started laying it all out there - increasing both the rate of leg turnover and the length of my stride.  From out of nowhere, the guy that had been in fifth place bolted past me on the downhill and I found myself in fourth again, with no chance of catching him.  Admittedly, I held back a little bit because I am still in marathon training and did not want some of the aches and small strains in my groin, hamstring and Achilles tendon to be become problematic.  Nonetheless, my third mile was a swift 5:32.

Barreling into the final hard 90-degree turn into the Trinity Academy parking lot for the finish, I finished with 18:18 on the clock, even though my official end time was listed as 18:20.  Not sure how that can happen, but who cares. And even though the man who blew past me to take third was in my age group, his placement in the top three made him ineligible for an age group award, putting me at the top of the males age 40 to 44.  That means I won another warm winter hat with the race's reindeer logo. That makes three for my collection.  

A 5:54 pace not only made for my fastest of the three times I have run the Trinity Academy 5K Reindeer Run, but also a triumphant conclusion to a streak of three 5Ks in as many weeks, in which I have liberated myself from the need to run PRs and simply running the best races that I can.  As a result, I would say that fall racing season has been a success.

Full results: http://www.compuscore.com/cs2018/novdec/reindeer.htm