2020 recap, Part II: Tying up loose ends (Social Distance Dash - Virtual 5K write-up)

Way back on May 30th, I competed in my only "virtual" race of 2020 (and hopefully of my life). Shortly thereafter, I wrote this post. For a reason beyond my grasp, I never published it...until now. As we say good-bye to 2020, here is the post on my final race of the year, almost exactly seven months ago.

It's a strange time to be a runner, especially one who centers much of his training around races. It's now mid-June, and there isn't an actual, live race in sight. My training has been fairly consistent, with a few minor hiccups (knee pain, a funky hamstring, and the usual hip issue) that required short stints on the DL. I've been reminding myself that, given that there isn't "something to train for" right now, I can afford to take the extra day off when my body requires it. On the other hand, I say back to myself, isn't this also the perfect time to take some risks to see what happens? If the risk doesn't pay off, and I end up making something hurt worse, then I can take that time off I'd promised myself. 

Now, it's important to consider that I'm risk-averse by nature, so what constitutes a risk for me is rather innocuous by normal standards. For instance, I might run 5 days a week instead of 4. Or go for a 12-mile run once a year. Recently, it's meant running through nagging pains -- with extra days off, no workouts, and a knee brace -- when I normally would have taken time off. I can't say it's paid off in any real way yet, though I seem to be getting over the injuries (and maintaining my mental health) despite the "aggressive" approach. 

The biggest (dumbest?) risk I took with this current knee injury was triggered by a race, actually. Not an important race, nor one that anyone outside of a small circle would even know about, nor one with any spectators or other runners. But a race nonetheless, and given the state of racing in 2020, I couldn't resist the temptation. This was the first (and hopefully only) Amgen 'Social Distance Dash 5K' organized by the local Amgen Rhode Island running club. 

Given that it was a virtual race, we were allowed a seven-day range during which we could do it. This setup offers tremendous flexibility that, I thought, would let me race under ideal conditions. A few days before the racing window opened, I began monitoring the weather forecast, with an eye toward the predicted wind speed and direction. I was balancing this against my own running schedule and recovery. I was planning a long run on Sunday - the first day of the racing window - which would mean I wouldn't race on Monday or possibly Tuesday, depending on how I felt. However, it was shaping up to be a windy week, and Tuesday was the best bet from that perspective. I told myself I'd wait to see how I felt on Tuesday and go from there. 

Well, as you might have guessed, I didn't feel good. My legs were fine, but my knee began hurting terribly after Sunday's long run, and I couldn't run, let alone race. The particular knee issue is one I'm familiar with, so I knew that I'd need a few days completely off from running and then would have to wear one of those knee bands you sometimes see on old men playing basketball at the Y. This is where part I of the risk-taking happened. I decided to run on Wednesday so that I'd have time to assess my knee afterward. It felt OK on that run but was quite sore afterward. Thursday was another day off. I wasn't yet sure if racing was a smart idea, so I chose to do another easy run Friday.

Suddenly, it was Saturday. My window had dwindled to nothing. It was now or never. OK, yeah, I'm being a little dramatic, considering this was a meaningless virtual race; that's just how desperate I was for a little competition. 

The weather wasn't ideal (warm, very humid, breezy), and my knee was iffy, but I decided to go for it anyway. The other bit of flexibility afforded by the virtual race was its venue. I'd narrowed down my options to the middle school track and the bike path. I liked the idea of the track, since I could carefully monitor my pace, but it was likely to be windier than the bike path. The deciding factor, however, would be the presence of other humans. If the track was nearly empty, I'd run there. If not, I'd opt for the path. That the two were located within a few hundred feet of each other made this a convenient set of options.

I jogged the mile from my house to the track as a warm-up and was glad to see just one other person using it. However, she was occupying lane 1 at a pace that would mean I'd have to pass her nearly every lap. Maybe she'd see me and move to another lane, I thought. But, no, she was committed to it. I'd just have to deal.

My plan for the 'race' was to run 78 seconds per 400 for as long as I could. This was a somewhat arbitrary goal, but aren't they all? 

There wasn't much drama the rest of the way. The first mile was right on pace in 5:12. The second was 5:14, with a couple seconds lost due a lack of focus over the laps 7 and 8. I was realizing what a mental drag racing alone around the track is. I tried every psychological trick I could think of to avoid my tendency to continually calculate exactly how much of the race was left, but nothing worked. The two slower laps did snap me out of it a bit, and I was able to hit 78 again for laps 9-11. (This was also when my lane 1 friend left, so perhaps the better pacing was due to finally running the shortest distance around the track.)

My legs were seemingly tiring just as I needed to get the final push out of them. I modestly picked it up in the 12th lap to 74 seconds and then "kicked" home with a 34 final 200. The final time was 16:14 (rounded up to 16:15 on Strava). It's about as well as I could have hoped to do, given the circumstances and fitness level, so I'm happy from that perspective. Of course, I'm never totally satisfied with a race, virtually or not, so at least something was normal about this experience.