West Hills 5K Race Report

Who in their right mind get's up at 5:30 in the morning while on a family trip and drives for 40 minutes into the next town to run a race? Oh wait, that would be me while in Gatlinburg over the weekend for a little family weekend. Saturday morning I was scheduled to run 8 miles for my marathon training. In the interest of staying on schedule and adding another state for this goal I rolled out of bed at 5:30 am hopped in the car and went in search of the West Hills YMCA in Knoxville.

With the help of my iPhone and the race flyer forty minutes later I rolled in to the race site feeling pretty good. I picked up a banana and a Red Bull on the way. I decided to do a little experiment. I'm not a big caffeine consumer. I don't drink coffee regularly and keep my consumption of soda to a minimum. This morning I was going to do a little performance enhancing by following the guidelines for caffeine intake that I had heard recently on Phedippidations podcast.  This could go either way. Either it will help or my stomach may decide to reject the stuff. Game on. 

Before getting caffeinated and race ready I needed to get in some miles. I decided 3 miles would be a good start. That would be a nice warm up followed by the 3.1 for the race and two to cool down. Good plan. I had a vague idea of the course based on some markings that I saw on the road, so I headed off in that direction. As I was running my mind wandered back to the race flyer and this line "Challenging 5-hill course...". Is it wrong and weird that I liked the sound of that? Don't judge me I hate flat courses.

I finished up the run feeling really good. It was do or die time. I had about 30 minutes until the race, so I headed back to the car and cracked open the Red Bull. According to the podcast and Run The Planet I should consume "from 1.5 to 4 mg/lb body weight (3 to 9 mg/kg) taken one hour pre-exercise". In my case that comes to about to about 225 to 600 mg. I underestimated how much I'd need as one Red Bull only has approximately 80 milligrams of caffeine per can according to the Mayo Clinic website. Maybe it's for the best. I'd rather underestimate rather than over do it and end up with a sick stomach.

Race time and so far so good. I was feeling pretty good. I had my caffeine, some more stretching and water. All systems are go. As I went to the starting line I realized this was truly a small community race. There were a little over 100 runners and walkers present. The weird thing was there were many more of the Vibram Five Finger shoes than I'd ever seen at a race before. Weird. I'd found a hot bed for barefoot running enthusiasts in the middle of Tennessee. Who would have guessed?

The race was on. Since it was such a small race there would be no mile markers and no mile splits being called out. I decided to just run with my stop watch. There would be no gps and no tunes to distract me. This race would be a good test to see how things are going in training. The first mile went by in a blur. I didn't push the pace really hard. I set a steady rhythm and just concentrated on maintaining good form, breathing and an even pace.

How many hills was in this race? As I entered mile 2 I was into a good race pace. There was very little flat ground on this course. It was a series of up hill and down hill stretches, and I was loving it. With each hill I would put on a little surge and increase my turnover trying to close the gap between myself and the next runner ahead of me. With each down hill I would try to not pound the pavement and let gravity do the work instead of fighting against the hill. 

I went into the final stretch of the race feeling somewhat tired, but with something left for a kick. There was one particular runner that I had been close to the entire race. I passed him early on. He came back and passed me during one of the down hill sections late in the race. In the final mile or so I kept him in my sight. We were done with the hills and heading into a park that I recognized as being close to the finish from the earlier run. I wasn't exactly sure how far it was, but judging by the time on my watch there had to be less than half a mile left. I picked up the pace and started to close the gap. 

Off in the distance I saw something orange. It had to be a cone leading in the finishing chute. I put on a full sprint.  Legs pumping, lungs burning I passed my target and through the finish line at 21:44. It was an average pace of 7:01 and good enough for a second place finish in my age group and 14th overall. Small races are awesome for that.

I stuck around after the race for a while and had a good chat with one of the barefoot runners about his crazy looking shoes. He said the same as many other runners that use these things. "I had [insert calf, shin, ankle problem here] and since I've started running in these my problems are gone." I think these people sleep with the shoes under their pillows and the shoes talk to them at night.

I'd say the race was a success on all accounts.

It tastes like victory.