As the mile marker approaches, I realize I'm having an out of skin experience with 5:10
showing on my watch - only 45 seconds behind the leaders but I'm working just as hard. Maybe if I did more 400s in 62
seconds I'd be able to stay with them; maybe if I could run one 62
second 400 I'd at least be closer to them. The second mile slows to a 5:15 suggesting I didn. t start exces? sively fast, merely
a little too fast. I'm surrounded by fellows who will run this
pace for several more miles, and already catching those who went too
hard in the first mile. The lead group is only another 42 seconds up
on us, so in a way we're already closing the gap. Ah, the third
mile, we're really rolling now; same time as the last, but the
leaders repeat also.
The eight 5,000 meter races this year which resulted
in a 16 second improvement, have taught my quads to expect
discomfort early, but I don't feel anything yet...What a difference
15 seconds a mile makes. I'm sat behind a group of five runners, if sitting is an appropriate expression at
eleven miles per hour.
The leaders are lounging at thirteen mph of course. Five seventeen's not unexpected as I wait for my group to weaken. Twenty times
300 meters with a 100 jog ten days ago passes through my
mind. That and many similar sessions free me of fear at four
miles due to the speed endurance and aerobic capacity I've developed. The
five by 1500 and eight by 1,000 sessions which I alternate, naturally cross my
mind as we head for half-way in 26:18. The 5:21 gives another 48
seconds to the leaders - but they're welcome to it.
My skin, and the skin of many others running at 6, 7 and 8 minute miles continues
fairly sloughing off as we run toward likely personal records. Oh,
the race is nearly over, the race is nearly over: get ready to sprint. Or
I could if it was a ten kilometer instead of a ten mile race. But at
least it's not ten k pace...anymore. It was very close to 10 k pace for
a few miles but now we will pay the price. Five twenty six is not
too high a price - three years ago it would have been unheard of for
me to run so fast - yet now it represents a slowing.
I don't have a six mile session to help me through this mile, so I think of
all the rest I've had this week. The leisurely, flat 12 instead of a
hilly 14 at the weekend; three times a mile instead of the usual five midweek;
and doing only two speed sessions has left the legs feeling fresh.
It's good to reap the reward of the hardest type of training: rest.
I have to share the pace now as the group is down to two. We chase some
dying runners whose positive splits will make our positive splits look
positively negative. And the 5:30 mile is the most positive mile we
will do today. Each mile from here I'm thinking about my running form even more than before.
First, extending the ankles and working the calves to their
full contraction. Next, whipping the leg through a little closer to
the buttock to decrease the pendulum drag and in? crease cadence. Then
picking up the knees just a little more to devour the ground.
And finally, leaning forward a micro percentage of one degree,
to ensure the energy propels me forward, rather than upwards with more
hang-time than Michael Jordan. Long hang-time is bad
for distance running.
As we storm towards the eight mile mark, I know we. re in the personal record
make or break section of the race. The third 200 of the 800
meters is where records are lost; as is the forth thousand of the 5,000.
I cheat: pretending it's only an eight mile race as the legs begin to
scream at me to slow - but instead of surging at seven and a half,
I merely extend the effort into the ninth. Chasing down fellow competitors
also helped us to a 5:23; a mere 44 seconds slower than
the winner.
Now it's the penultimate mile. Don't gather yourself for a finishing flourish, I say to myself... give everything
now. If you have a sprint at the end, you obviously didn. t
run the first nine and half miles hard enough. Picking off people
as we reverse the slowing from earlier, these endorphin numbed
legs carry me through a 5:21 mile--surely we're gaining on the
leaders at this speed.
At some stage in the last mile, those who didn. t run hard enough
earlier come screaming by. No matter. I've run my...my...legs off. I
know I'm slowing just a little, yet I'm still catching a few. With 600
meters to go I try an extended sprint for the finish. My increase in
pace is so devastating, that two of the guys at my side take 10
meters out of me in a hundred...and will be 50 ahead by the finish.
Did they run hard enough in the prior 15,490 meters?
Kirui got his world record, many went sub sixty and sub seventy
minutes for the first time, and due in part to a superb 5:25 last mile,
I slashed my PR to 53:23. Positive splits yes; but still a very posi?
tive race.
