Race Report: Univ. of Ottawa 5000m Track

This was the first (and probably last) time I attempted a 5000m track race on a 400m track... Oh, who am I kidding? Of course I'll do one again, just a sucker for punishment I guess!

I'd only done 1 other 5000m on track before, but it was on a 200m banked track, not a flat, 400m track. Most runners would mush prefer 12.5 laps than 25, but I have to admit, I liked 25 laps much more. It gave me something to think about with 25 different lap splits, only ~40 seconds apart. Plus, there were banked corners which let you get a tiny bit of a downhill coming out of the corner, which broke up the monotony slightly.

So, the story goes: Early on a Friday morning, the UNB XC crew packed into 2 cars and headed up to Ottawa. In case you're wondering, yes, one of them was my baby - my '94 Subaru Legacy, aka the "Red Rocket"! And, yes, she made it all the way there and back, problem-free! Actually, she's running better now! :)

Anyway, so after a cramped 10-hour drive we arrived in Ottawa and relaxed in our swanky, 5-star hotel... OK, it was a 2-star dump... but it was cheap and it was downtown, so we explored around the "market" area a bit. It was really nice.

Saturday morning, we headed out to the "Dome". It's a big 'bubble' with a 400m indoor track inside. I believe it's the only one North America! There were 3 or 4 turf soccer fields inside the track, really cool! The 5000m was the first event at the meet, thankfully. I really didn't feel like sitting around all day thinking about running a 5km on a track!

Oddly enough, my buddy Cliff (the co-conspirator of the original LMS Adventure) now lives in Ottawa and he came out to join me in the "fun"! As you can see in the pics, we ran together for the first half of the race, until I fell off the pace slightly. I hit my watch every 200m, so you can see my pace. I didn't slow that much, so that's a good sign, but I didn't feel fresh at all. I think a big part of that was the 10-hr drive... I hope anyway.

My plan was to run 40-second 200's for as long as I could. If I did that, I would run 16:40. My PB is 16:37, when I had a similar plan and pulled it off and gained a few seconds with a little kick on the last lap.

Lap # 200m Split
1 40.15
2 40.13
3 39.68
4 39.94
5 39.94
6 40.69
7 41.06
8 40.06
9 40.12
10 40.88
11 41.25
12 41.94
13 41.81
14 41.55
15 41.39
16 42.18
17 41.82
18 41.31
19 41.43
20 42.26
21 41.39
22 41.86
23 41.06
24 40.13
25 36.3
Total: 17:00.33

Funny thing, before the race I said "I think I can run 17 mins". Maybe I should have said, "I think I can run 16:40"! haha. One more good thing I am taking from the race: the last time I did the California 1/2 Ironman and I raced a 5k a few before the race, I ran 17:02. So, that's a good sign!

Toodles...
chris