Hole in the Wall 5k

One of the many perks in being a High School Cross Country coach is that I get to continue my training throughout the fall and winter and, on occasion get to exercise my competitiveness at the few "open" races that are offered.

This past Saturday was one of those few opportunities and I didn't want to miss it. As with all XC seasons there comes a point in the year where workouts change from being base building workouts that coaches are able to participate in, to more speed workouts where we are needed to facilitate and call out times and splits. So needless to say, with this expected change and then all of the other things going on in life (ie. funeral, wedding, sickness, etc.), my training has been a bit sporadic as of late.

The weather was nice, overcast with the occasional sprinkle throughout the day which allowed many of our athletes to set a new PR for the 5k race and even though the weather would gradually grow worse (well just wetter), I was going to be one of those PR's for the day as well. My previous best has been a 20:28, which I ran last month at South Whidbey's invite.

As the gun shot off, I said my final pre-race prayer and off I went. This was the first time that I had ever run this course even though I've been coaching for 4 years at this invite, I've never ran it in it's entirety until then. The course consists of a 2.25 lap course that stays on the Lakewood HS campus and due to the rain and being the eighth race of the day was a bit on the muddy (which means slow). The first lap through the woods, I got suckered in to running down the middle of the course, coming across the mile marker with a time of 6:09. The second mile of the course is a tough one as you hit all of the hills for the first time and you start thinking about how much faster you need to run to reach your goals for the course. I was able to hold on to a 6:30 mile, while maintaining my position in the field among the top 20 runners. The final 1.1 mile I smartened up and ran on the inside and outside of the course, to avoid the mud which may add a little distance but is definitely made up in speed. I could hear our other coach and our athletes encouraging me yelling, "maintain form, focus on knee drive, etc." all the things I usually call out to them throughout their races. It really works, I was able to leave my pain filled body, focus my thoughts on specific technique things and finish the race with a time of 19:48, over a 30 second PR for a 5k distance and reaching my goal of running a sub 20 minute 5k.

Thanks team!