We are in Chandler, Arizona this weekend for Fiona. After years of studies, she is an official licensed Physical Therapist in the US and is continuing further training for her job in Green Valley, AZ at Progressive PT. So of course, I looked out for what races were happening and found and looked at the StartLine Racing newsletter I receive and was happy to see a 5K going on. Tame the Wolf 5K was a race to raise money and awareness for Lupus and would be a great race for me two weeks after a marathon I had been training for, for months.

I took it a little far, carbo-loading for the 20minute race. Friday, I drank more than a liter of Sprite, ate a package of airhead bites, a muffin, 500calorie mac and cheese at lunch, and pizza for dinner with my tradition of Champagne.

The Jack Daniels VDOT calculator had me in 19:09 shape based off of the 3:03:24 marathon I ran 2 weeks ago. My best 5K was a 19:35 at the Ak-Chin race that Fiona and I won in 2018. This year on my treadmill I ran 19:48 and 19:56. So I expected Sub20 and hopefully a good top position.

Up at 6am, 450calorie muffin, medium RedBull, but I was feeling a bit heavy/full. I had run 30miles already during the week but retaining lots of water from a salty premade lasagne the previous 2 days.

20min drive, I warmed up for 1.24miles pretty easy at 9:05/mile. I registered with face mask on and got ready for my chosen 7:40start.

The start on grass proceeded to packed dirt and my Altra Paris shoes did not feel like they were getting much traction. I went out at what I felt was 5K pace looking briefly at my watch and had a hairpin turn into more packed dirt. First mile in 6:16. I felt OK with this wanting to go faster but the 70 degree weather and 152 HR was perfect Threshold effort. In to the second mile now on concrete running over a baby traintrack and around a fishing pond in this athletic park I came into mile 2 with a 6:24 and 156HR, the upper limits of a sustainable 5K threshold effort. I was slightly discouraged here but was telling myself to fight it and hold on looking to stay below 6:27avg which is 20min. I tried to pull in the runners ahead of me and was certainly doing the best I could. So into the 3rd mile, mouth was dry, water of course not in cups so ran past the aid stations. 6:30mile and HR maintained on 155 down an enbankement trying to maintain connection to the dirt and up the final .17mile stretch at 6:18/mile I was telling myself WTF. I knew I was going over 20min officially but under 20min in TrainingPeaks. I crossed thinking my 20:14 was bullshit. I mean how do you add .07mile in a 5K? That shit adds up! But, everyone races the same distance so no worries!

I was happy to see I ran a 19:52 in TrainingPeaks which is my 2nd fastest of the year, 1st fastest outside on the year, and 5th fastest all time after 2 downhill races and a 19:35PB. I was also happy to see I won my A/G of 6 and took 4th Overall after a 17:45, 19:11, 20:11. I am a bit disappointed in missing the podium by 3seconds but what you going to do? I did the best I could. Maybe I shoudn’t have eaten half a pizza. The Champagne was non-optional!

The race setup was great and StartLine racing puts on great races but damn, get it a bit closer to 3.10 miles!

After the race I used Strava segments to find a great park I ran around for 6.2miles and then rode almost 30miles up to Tempe to see the 70.3 Arizona setup where I talked to an amazing UltraMarathoner who ran for Hansons in the 2000’s specialing in 100mile ultras. He was a 2:46 marathoner and sold me another pair of the same ezact shoe I ran on in the AM for a deal of $70. Gotta love Expos!

Tomorrow, 10miles of running maybe around 70.3 Arizona to cheer on the athletes and make 50miles for the week. With that run, I will hreak through an all time best of 2,000miles for the year on pace to go through 2,500!!! For now, back to the SunTran Brewery and Normatecs.

Next up, 7 weeks till the Tucson Marathon Goal SUB3 and BQ, PERIOD. Anything else is a failure; but I AM NOT GOING TO FAIL. Shout out to my 62yr old mother going 2:05 on a treadmill setting a 3min PB!