[Race Report] Christopher Martin Christmas Run for Children

Race information

• What? Christopher Martin's Christmas Run for Children
• When? 12/11/2016
• How far? 5k
• Website? [race website goes here]

Goals

Goal	Description	Completed?
A	21:42 (6:59 pace)	No
B	21:59	Yes
C	Top 200 finishers	Yes

Training

I followed a modified Daniels 5k plan. Basically I did his workouts, but total mileage wasn't in the prescribed 40-50 miles. I averaged 22 miles for the 13 weeks. Most of the workouts I selected the smallest number of repetitions, and my weekly long run was only 60-70 minutes. I felt like I struggled for 2-4 of the workouts through the training plan, with a shift up to faster paces around week 8.

Additionally, I was following a lifting workout regiment of Wendler 5-3-1, and had all my hard days of lifting the same as my workouts. I did that for the first 10 weeks, and then tapered off the lifting in the final weeks. Topped out at benching 205x8 and deadlifting 365x3.

I was trying to maintain/gain muscle weight through this period as I am targeting competing again next year as a Clydesdale in triathlons and want to get up to 230 by April. I ended up maintaining weight at around 216-218 up through race day.

Doing hard days hard resulted in some very tough runs as I lifted at lunch and then ran around 8:30 most nights.

Race strategy

Went in with a target of 7:05 for the first two miles, and then push it mile 3 to achieve the sub 7 minute pace. I am more of a sprinter, so I can finish a race very strong if needed and was actually in a race, vs running for time.

Pre-race

Had my morning coffee (2 cups) and some Honey Bunches of Oats and then my buddy picked me up and we headed down to the race which was about 2 miles from my house. We parked and then scouted the area for restrooms and post-race activities. Ran a 10-12 minute warmup while GPS struggled to find me and then ended up nearly sprinting to the start line with about 2 minutes to go before race.

Race

Race conditions were less than ideal. Sunny/partly cloudy with temps around 25 degrees F. I struggle with cold temps a bit as I feel the cold burn through my chest, but it was better than the raining cold I had been dealing with in the final weeks of training.

Mile [1]

Since I was late to the start, I had to press in from the side, knowing that many people usually overestimate their abilities. As a result, I spent some time fighting through the early slowpokes to get into a rhythm. Once I was freed up a bit, I found myself around a 6:30 pace feeling good, but knowing I couldn't keep it up. Backed off a bit and came through mile 1 at a 6:55 pace. 10 seconds ahead of pace, but figured I would work to maintain.

Mile [2]

I knew since I came through mile 1 a bit quick, that mile two was going to be tough. My prior fastest mile was 7:06, so coming through 10 seconds faster did concern me a bit, but pressed forward telling myself that if I didn't hurt during mile 3 I wasn't going hard enough. I focused on keeping up with a few other runners who clearly had a similar target pace. I definitely noticed the slight up and down of pacing in this section as those runners would pull away a bit, then fall behind a bit, as we each weren't perfect in setting our paces. Of course there was that one kid who was clearly less than 10 who was motoring along... always a motivation to not try and get beat by them. Came through mile two in 7:08.

Mile [3]

After I got past the 2 mile marker, I noticed my pace dropping like crazy, at first it was because I thought I must have been slowing as one could find reasonable. So I tried to pick it up a bit, but then saw it continuing to drop... 7:10, 7:21, 7:32. At that point I figured out it must have been a GPS issue and tried to go on feel again. At 2.5 miles I knew I had to pick it up, but had pushed hard enough that I didn't have a ton left and needed to keep that sub 7:10 in order to have a shot at 22:00. Finished mile three in 7:08.

Mile [3.1]

As my watch buzzed for the 3 mile marker, I saw my buddy come back from the finish line. He had wrapped up a few minutes earlier and was coming back to cheer me on. He yelled encouragement and told me that in 5 seconds I needed to push to the finish, and counted down. I picked up the pace at that point and was nearly full speed and then saw the clock, 21:52...21:53, I was close but needed to push it harder. I picked it up to a speed I haven't done since college and saw the clock tick to 22:00 as I crossed the finish line. I didn't turn it up as much as I would have liked early in that section, but my finish was awesome, caught about 10 people, and finished out the race with a 5:30 pace for the last .1 mile.

Post-race

Looked at my watch to see I ran 3.14 miles and had an average pace of 6:58. Hit my pace target, but it wont reflect in the net time as I clearly didn't run fastest path. We went back to the car and picked up our sweatpants, jacket, etc and went to the finish line for the festivities. Unlimited beer from New England Brewing Company and Narragansett along with hot dogs, donuts, and bread. Enjoyed hanging around with the crowd as the remaining of the 2000+ finishers crossed the line and celebrated my new PR with one beer per mile.

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