Cherry Creek Sneak 5-mile 2012

Last year, I challenged my younger sister to run the 5k race at the Sneak, while I ran the 5-mile.  Whoever had a faster time would win, and the winner would buy the loser a massage.  Then I found out I had a 20-mile run scheduled the day before (training for the Steamboat Marathon), so I asked her for a 2-minute handicap.  Even with that, she beat me by 25 seconds.  This year, we had the same setup, but with no bet.  Just as well:  I had a 20-mile run yesterday (training for the Casper Marathon)!

But I always seem to surprise myself.  I certainly did last year, with a huge 5-mile PR.  I thought this year, even if I didn't PR, I'd still probably come pretty close.  Once again, the music on my iPod provided some fantastic running inspiration, as did the energy of the crowd.  Not to mention the huge turnout of my fellow Runner's Roost Race Team athletes.  I still have to pinch myself to be sure I'm not dreaming when I see that I'm lined up with such an impressive array of running talent.

My race started off well.  I had seeded myself further back in the crowd, which I hoped would force me to keep myself from starting out too quickly and flaming out in the first mile.  Anyway, that was the theory.  But with shorter races, what actually tends to happen is, I expend a lot of energy weaving through the crowd, looking for openings and surging forward.  Which is more or less what happened today.  Still, I kept a pretty solid pace, finishing the first mile in 8:41.

I've gotten out of the habit of looking at my Garmin all the time during shorter races.  However, I noticed that as I reached the first mile marker, my iPod was about halfway through song #3.  So I set myself a goal of three songs per mile.  Of course this is very unscientific since the length of songs varies and I have no way of controlling which songs play.  For example, longtime readers will know that one of my secret weapons is Metallica's Master of Puppets, which is an 8-minute song!  On the other hand, I have a few songs in my mix that are around 3 minutes long.  Well, I told myself 3 songs per mile or less; if an 8-minute track came on, for example, I'd run a full mile before it ended.

This arbitrary measure seemed to work pretty well for me, and each of the next 3 miles were in fact faster than the ones before (8:37, 7:49, and 7:45 in fact).  However--and this was somewhat annoying--although I saw the sign for mile 2, I did not see signs for miles 3 or 4.  I also registered with some annoyance that the course ran further west along Speer Blvd, all the way to Downing, and even turned north on Downing for a good tenth of a mile before doubling back and heading towards the finish.  Was the course measured too long?  Of course, I hadn't realized they'd tweaked the course from last year.  When I saw the finish line, I remembered that last year we'd turned north and wound our way through Cherry Creek for a few blocks before coming back out to Speer.  But when I didn't see runners turning ahead of me, I realized how the course had changed.  Still, even that relief wasn't enough to push my last mile any faster, and I finished in 41:54.

I'm not complaining by any means.  I still had a solid race, and kept myself under 45 minutes, which was what I'd told folks was probably the best I could hope for given that I'd had such a long and busy week (and, again, 20 miles the day before!).  Of course, I had great fun cheering for my fellow Roosters as they came streaking past me.  My teammate Keith took second place in the 5-mile, and the top 3 female finishers were all teammates as well!

Official Time:  41:54
YTD Race Miles: 23.4
YTD Total Miles: 475.9
No Wonder I Was Tired: After yesterday's 20-mile run, by the way, I had an 8-hour rehearsal for A View From The Bridge. Show opens May 4; use discount code DT15 for $15 tickets!