VI carrera José Antonio Redolat race: 5.075 kms in 22:25!

Today I raced the 5.075km race called "VI Carrera José Antonio Redolat" which I enjoyed. As I said, I decided to run this race on Thursday. I wanted to do a 8k tempo run on Friday and I did not want to miss it, but I really wanted to get sub 23 mins in the 5k, yes, I wanted to run faster than 23 mins even with the extra 75 meters that it race has. So I decided to skip the tempo and run this race though, We do workouts for improving at races after all, so We have to race.

I went to the race with my brother, the race today was far from home, around 4 miles. I was not going to do a 4 mile warm up, so We got there by bus and I did my warm up over there. I told him to take me 15 mins or so to warm up, I did around 16 mins of easy running including my usual 5 x 50m or so strides, but this time at race effort or the pace that I want to go out. I jogged some more and did another stride in the corral (it was not crowded just yet). Then had to wait 30+ mins in the starting line till the gun went off ( at 9:04 a.m. my wave). The weather was good though!!

The gun went off and I crossed the starting line 8 seconds after the gun went off, so a bit back, however, I encountered some problems in the first 500m of the race, dodging people, jogging behind a line of slower runners, I wasted a lot of energy and that kind of pissed me off, after the 500m though I found a good rhythm, but I was huffing and puffing more than necessary and when I crossed the 1st km, my breathing was faster than I liked, but I hang tough and kept going. Its difficult to run with someone in these races, because people are just passing you fast, or you are passing people, too much people running these races. The level here in Valencia is awesome!

However, I spotted a gal that had around 10m of a gap, and try to keep contact, man! She kept the same gap till the last 1-1.2k to go, and then started to build a bigger lap, I tried the best I could to keep my effort and to turn over the legs as quickly as possible, but a lot of people were passing me, but I felt I was not slowing down much though (if at all), maybe She sped up very hard in the last part of the race. My workouts have teached me to run hard when tired and when is hurting so I was very confident about that. With 1k to go, I just remembered my 1000m intervals and just said, one more interval and you are done, I was very tired at that point, but moved the legs as fast as I could while running relaxed, I thought that I was not going to have the strength for my killer sprint, like in the last 2 races, but when I saw the finishing line/clock I started accelerating till my sprint velocity, closed very hard and passed some people at the end.

As you know, I dont wear a watch in races, so I only knew my time at the end. This time my brother took me the time , since the finishing clock has the time of the 1st wave, so I only have to wait till getting home to know my real time, but as my brother took the time of the 2nd wave, I knew pretty much what my times was.

I finished the 5.075kms in 22:25 (7:06 per mile/4:25 per km), so that means I did the 5k in 22:08 or so, so almost 1 min faster than the 5k race I ran on February. I ll take that as a success. Getting better with each race! But as my brother told me We need to get faster, the level here is very high and those people make you look very slow! The race finished in the track of the Turia, so this was the first time that I ran in that track. After the race, I did 12 mins of easy running back and forth in the track. Then went went back to my brother`s home in bus, and then when We got to his house, I started running 1 more km to my home at an easy pace, so I did around 18-19 mins total cool down. I would say that I ran around 10k total for the day and I am thinking on running 5k this evening to shake out the legs, not sure about that though.

All in all, a good day at the races and very happy with my performance even though I had some problems in the first 500m.