When: Wednesday, 06/20/2018 – 7 PM
Where: Frankfort, IL
Distance: 5K
Results: 21:31 – 30th Overall, 1st M50-54 A/G – Link: Race Results
To sum up this race in one word: strange. Of all the 5K’s I have done, this one always has a weird vibe to it. The anxiety is different for me here. I’m always a little more amped up for this race for some reason. Today was no different. There’s usually some good competition here, especially for a Wednesday night race.
First of all, this was my first hard effort in a race since running the Boston Marathon, a race I did not do very well at. Oh sure, Boston had some extreme conditions, but I never really felt prepared for it and it seems that I had struggled with effort since. My expectation was that I was not going to be able to run my typical sub-21 minute 5K.
Then there’s the club vibe at this race. The competitive aspect seems high for these clubs. I follow the Frankfort/New Lenox Running Club online and have interacted with a few of the members, and tonight I decided to sport the club singlet and represent. Although I tried to interact with them pre-race, I just kind of felt like an outsider. That’s mostly on me, as I don’t really run with them much, mainly because they schedule their runs in the evenings when I’m doing dinner with the family, or early on Saturday morning when I would rather take my time getting up and around. But I do value associating with them online. The Tinley Track & Trail club is always competitive at this race, and I noticed a few other clubs this year as well.
I did my typical slow warm-up, a few quick up-tempo strides and then got in line at the start. Ben and Emily joined in on the fun this year, and I positioned myself behind them. The guy with the bullhorn started the race, not from the middle of the road this year for a change, and off we sped. We weren’t a 1/4 mile into it when an 8 year old kid went in front of me from right to left. He had his arms raised, flexing his muscles for some reason and we clipped feet and down he went. Immediate dread filled me and I stopped to see if he was okay. I hadn’t even got turned around and he was already up and running. Must not have affected him much, because he finished in 32nd place. Yes, the 8 year old kid that I accidently tripped when he cut me off almost beat me.
Back to running again I found that I was pegging the heart rate into the red, in my typical fashion. Not sure why I can’t hold back at the beginning of this race, but I go out too hard every time. At one point I glanced at my watch and it said I was running sub-6 minute pace per mile. Oops. I dialed it back and hoped I could salvage a couple of miles around 7 min pace.
I saw Todd Street spectating somewhere near the 2.25 mile mark and said hello. After that I was all about trying not to get passed, but it was happening with regularity. I saw a couple grey haired guys pass me and I had the feeling that I wasn’t going to finish in the money. With about a half mile to go we crested a hill and I used the downhill to make a final push. The last 100 yards or so is uphill slightly, and I pushed as hard as I could while still checking my shoulder for the guy I passed. I was able to hold him off. I could see the clock and saw that I wasn’t going to break 21 minutes, which deflated me a little, but I was more worried about place than time at that point.
I found Ben at the end and he said he had won the race. Very proud of him. He’s finished this race in 2nd way too many times. Nice that he got the trophy this year, even if it is the most annoyingly big 5K 1st place trophy ever. Emily did well too, grabbing 1st in her age group and 3rd overall for the females.
So I finished in 30th place, 14 places later than last year’s 16th place. There were less faster old guys this year and a lot more kids. There were 7 men in their 50’s in the top 30 last year, and this year there was just two. Last year I finished in 20:45; this year more than a half minute slower. It is a little bit of a head scratcher for me, as it seems that I am still feeling the effects of being over-trained the past year, or old age is just catching up with me. I’m not really training to race 5K’s, but I do like to push myself and race them. I just don’t like getting slower as the years pass.
Here’s last year’s recap for comparison:
Short Run on a Long Day 2017 Race Recap
I was reviewing the race on Strava and saw this really cool Flyby feature that shows other Strava using runners in the race and how we ran. Fun to watch. I hope the link works. Click on the orange start button to make it work. Strava Flyby of the 5K
See you next year!
an amazing run 