5K Run Rematch results in Roles Reversal.

The running gods certainly have a way of flipping the tables around.

Flashback to the mile event from two weeks ago, I was leading out the chase group on lap 2. I was the official pace bunny, that is until the group had other ideas heading into the final laps. Nathaniel Flipper Janzen was one of the few who managed to reel me in and steamed passed me on final lap to decisively take fourth place, while I was breathing heavily to claim fifth place just a couple seconds back.

Now to the 5K event. Prior to the run I came across a random running forum online for tips on running my fastest 5K, which suggested taking the first half mile (800m) with an easier effort. Then at least in theory, I would be trying to ‘finish strong’ rather than trying to ‘hold on’ for the remaining distance. I’d decided that distinguishing the two was going to be based on level of effort rather than on time. This of course is always easier said than done, especially if you have to keep eyes on your closest rivals (i.e. in my situation Flipper and Scotty-Doo). Although I was wearing my GPS watch for the entire time, I didn’t get to see my time until I uploaded the data into my computer because of the dark/wet conditions.

The graph below is a rare peak at my heart rate during the run, which shows a distinct jump in heart rate at the first half mile (For my dedicated and loyal structural engineering readers, this graph is not to be confused with a load test for a stress-strain relationship...although one can say I’m quite a ductile material if that was the case).

At about the first km mark, Flipper was impatient of my pace setting and started to book it with madfish-like intentions. Liam Harrap and I was hanging on to Flipper’s pace, who seem to have borrowed the pace bunny page from my books. I was impressed with Flipper and Liam’s running abilities and thought this group was going to pull away like how it did in the mile. Even up to the fourth lap of the 5.5 laps run, I thought Flipper was very close to dropping me. Like a true competitor, I kept onto him matching him stride for stride and taking longer breath slowly one by one. Slowly but surely, a gap opened between Flipper and I as we approached the 1km to go mark. My watch started to beep from this point onwards which was telling me to slow down (heart rate reached 189 max bpm see graph above). Ironically, this time I finished fourth place and Flipper just edged out Liam for fifth place. My final time was 18:35 (much faster than expected). Surely this rivalry is starting to heat up.

Pace times:

Lap 1 3:12 (3:33 min/km)
Lap 2 3:14 (3:36 min/km)
Lap 3 3:22 (3:44 min/km)
Lap 4 3:31 (3:54 min/km)
Lap 5 3:26 (3:48 min/km)
Lap 5.5 1:47 (3:34 min/km)