Navesink Challenge 5K

Well, coming back to this race... 5 years ago, this was my first ever race (finished in 30:01), so it will always be special for me. It was never a great race for me, but it's still one of my favorites. After my debut, I did the 15k race once, and then last year the 5K again (bad experience, too late in the season, in the middle of my resting period), and on Sunday I also did the 5K since I'm in no condition now to run 9+ miles of hills. Because it's a very hilly race, it's always up or down, with the exception of the start and finish. And it's always way too cold.

The start was quite weird. It took me completely by surprise, I wasn't paying attention, I was somewhere in the middle of the crowd, I hadn't even warmed up properly. I usually start very fast, staying with the leaders for a minute, then slowing down a bit, but enough to give me a very fast first mile, often under 7 minutes (in my better races). But here I slowly got moving in the middle of the pack... So far back that for the first part of the race, on park trails, I had to slalom around and pass people who seemed like they weren't even moving. So confused I was that I thought maybe it was the wrong start, the one for the 15K race, and that's why everybody is so slow. As we were heading out of the park, I ended up asking someone what race this is, he must've thought I'm nuts... or a first-timer. Anyway, the initial momentum was gone, and I decided to do it as a tempo workout, hard, but not all-out.

The out-and-back course is very tough, about 3 long hills each way, cresting with a very steep top. It was really hard going uphill, but I was still passing lots of people. Then, as I approaching the turn-around, I saw only a small bunch of runners coming back at me, so I started counting and there were only 14 guys ahead of me. After turning I said, what the heck, let me go for it, maybe I can make the top 10 and get some hardware! I passed one guy right away, then my club mate Lence on a hard uphill... I wanted to tell him to join me and catch up to the other guys, but I was so out of breath that I couldn't say any words. So I was 13th with one more mile to go. The 2nd mile was my fastest of the race, which is very unusual, for me it's usually the slowest, between the fast start and the final push to the finish. I could've probably gone a lot faster, but it was so cold that I couldn't breathe the air in anymore.

I could actually see the 3 runners ahead of me (my target), and I went as hard as I could after them, but with no success. Seemed like every time they'd appear to slow down, I was slowing down too, and when I was accelerating, they were doing it as well. Must've been related to the road's incline. Anyway, the distance in front of me didn't change at all. But at one point, I looked back, and there was no one behind me, as far as I could see over to the last hill. Taking the turn into the park I realized it's pointless and I won't catch up... I heard someone coming fast behind me and just didn't do anything about it, I let him pass and just prodded to the finish.

Well, I never expected this to be an awesome race, I was just hoping to beat my time from last year (24:49), so I was surprised to see a finish time of 23:26. Far from a PR, but it's actually a SB (Season Best). It hasn't been a good running season for me, with all that injury that kept me from running for 2 months, so it's nice to finally see some improvement. My position was also pretty good, 18th overall, 14th male, out of about 200 runners (or maybe even more). Now there might be one more race this season, if not, I'll see you next year!