Lehavim 3k - 10 November 2007

After registering for the 10k, I reconsidered and decided that for a whole bunch of reasons, doing the 3k at this race would be smarter. 3k is short, but in my opinion, it's a lot harder than 10k, or at least if you race it.

The race took place less than a kilometer from my house. I actually got to sleep "late" this morning, because I was racing instead of doing my long Saturday ride, which normally starts at 6:30. I walked down to the race site at about 8:30, got my number and then just hung out for a while talking to friends. The 10k started at 9:15. I watched the start and then headed out to do a warm up. The shorter the race, the longer the warm up, so I settled on 2 km, which might not have been enough, but I was starting to feel warmed up when I finished. When I got back to the starting line, a friend informed me that I'd almost missed the start because they'd decided to make it 15 minutes earlier. Uh, hello? Not a really smart move when there are people out warming up! In the end, the race started on time.

This is a really small race and even in the 3k, there were some fast runners. The start is always the worst part for me, as the faster runners take off with the slower runners trying to keep up. I, on the other hand, always try to start at a pace that I believe I can hold. Maybe my strategy
is wrong -- I don't know, but it works for me. So there I was at the back of the pack, either the last runner or one of the last. The one other woman in my age group was up ahead of me, running fast, but I just decided to keep running my own race at the best pace I could hold. Within 500 meters, I'd caught up with and passed that woman and I'd started passing other people.

My goal for this race was to do under 6:00/km (finish in under 18:00). That's really slow for most people, but it's a good pace for me and, in fact, one I've been having trouble maintaining recently. At the first km, I glanced down at my Garmin and saw about 5:25 or so. I was very happy with this pace and for a moment, wondered if I could hold it, but then decided to just keep running as hard as I could -- it was only 3 km! The first half of the race was almost entirely uphill. It's not a steep hill, but it's a long, gradual incline. I've run this route more times than I could possible count, so I knew what to expect. I also know that if I could make it through the first half without slowing down, the second half would be a whole lot easier, apart from a 100 or so meter uphill section at the end. I never looked at my watch again until after I'd crossed the finish line.

I don't remember much about the race after the turn-around. I do remember that I was still running hard. As I turned towards the finish line with less than 500 meters to go, I was faced with that short, but rather steep hill. I knew that the moment I hit the top, I'd be home free. And I was. According to my watch (I haven't seen the official results), I crossed the finish line in 16:17 and my Garmin says the route was 3.07 km -- 70 meters long. The last 70 meters took me 19 seconds to run. So I guess my goal of under 18:00 was a bit conservative. I finished 3 km in under 16:00 with an average pace of 5:18/km. I'm pretty sure I've never run that fast over a distance of more than 1 to 2 km in my life. I did actually finish this same race a second faster three years ago, but I'm almost positive the course was short that year (I remember checking it with my car and discovering that it was very short -- like 300 meters). I took first place in my age group and got a huge trophy (as you can see in the photo above).


And, of course, with the Eilat Triathlon coming up, the first thought that passed through my mind was, "Could I hold that pace for another 2 km?" And the answer is, I don't honestly know. My average heart rate was 172, reaching 184 only towards the end, when I tried to sprint (and when I had to go up that hill). If anyone had asked me yesterday if I could hold that pace for 3 km, I would have said no. Not only did I hold it, but I had a negative split (of course, the second half was a bit easier than the first). On a 5 km course at the end of a triathlon, I have to take water. I skipped the water stations today -- I don't need water to run a stand-alone 3k. That will obviously slow me down a bit, but how much? And running at the end of a triathlon is harder, but how much harder? My normal triathlon running pace is over 6:00/km, but I'm aiming to beat that in Eilat this year. I'd say, "Wish me luck," but I suspect that there's a lot more determination involved than luck.