I ran the Hospital Hill Run Re-Run this past weekend. I raced a 5K on Friday night, then did the Half Marathon as a progression run on Saturday morning.

My current goal race is a marathon in late August. Coach Kyle (http://kylekranz.com/coaching/) suggested I use this 5K to assess fitness at this point in my training, but not race the half the next day. It was really hard to not race a race!

I warmed up for the 5K with a full lunge matrix and two miles of easy running. That was a first for me as well – I haven’t raced a lot of 5Ks, but for my first one I didn’t warm up much at all; for the second one I did do about a mile of easy running. I thought the extended warmup was pretty valuable, and it certainly didn’t wear me out.

I ran a 21:13, pretty far off my PR of 19:59, but that came on a much flatter course. There are calculators you can use to figure out what you would have run on a flat course, if that makes you feel better, or you’re trying to compare apples to apples with a prior race. I used this one:( http://www.runworks.com/calculator.php) which yielded an adjusted time of 20:42. Credit to Tim Noakes, whose book “Lore of Running” is the basis of these calculations. You can also use these calculators to predict your time at other distances using your established fitness level from a recent race. Another fascinating adjustment is altitude – I train at 1000 ft. here in Kansas City. My August marathon is at 2000 ft., so it looks like I’ll give up about 2 minutes for that. However, I’m excited to be running a virtually flat race course, which I’ve never really done before.

You can go crazy with these calculators. I considered the elevation change the most significant factor. If you adjust for temperature (anything over 60F pushes your time up) my already adjusted time goes down to 20:12. If you further adjust that 20:12 down to sea level, it drops to 20:07. My advice: don’t talk yourself into a PR with these calculators! Most of us train and race in the same geographic area.

Here’s some photos from the 5K (not all of them (edit: none?) flattering…)

As a forefoot/midfoot striker, I’m happiest running uphill, flat, or very gradual downhill. Even at this short distance, I was doing tortoise and the hare with some heel strikers – I’d motor past them on the uphills, then they’d come pounding past me on the downhills. I didn’t get caught on any flats – including the finish stretch. I won my age group!

The next day, I ran the half as a progression run. Or swim. The skies opened about 4:20 am, and it rained all through the race, even delaying the start a half hour due to concerns about heavy rain and lightning. It was a good call by the race director, and we still got to run. The rain backed off for the race start, poured about a half hour in, then came down pretty steady the rest of the time I was out there. Hard rain but no lightning. I tried to run the first 7 at an easy pace – my target was 9:00, but pride, excitement, or just feeling good that morning had me pushing down into the 8’s before long. I ran miles 8-10 in the 7:30 range. The last three were supposed to be at a FAST effort – but it was hard to gauge if I was achieving that based on numbers only. The Broadway hill starts around mile 10, and it’s a long up. That pushed my pace down a bit until the final short but steep Trinity Hill just past mile 12. I cranked it down to close to around 7:00 for the final mile, with a 6:00 pace sprint for the final 0.2.

I suppose I’d prefer rain to sun and heat, but to tell the truth I don’t look all that happy in these race photos:

As you can see, I wore my Skora FIT for both races. It’s just such a great all-purpose shoe it’s hard to take it off! If the course had been flatter I might have gone with the lighter CORE or PHASE, which I’ve raced in before, but this wasn’t a goal race so I went with the increased cushioning of the FIT.

Final thought: the air temp was 70F and I was passing people running in disposable ponchos virtually the whole race. Maybe they were on their way to a weigh-in. If not, I hope they were hydrating! I’m sure they weren’t that much drier than I was at the finish!