World Media Run 5K Race Report

I was planning to run my virtual race on Saturday, the day after the media folks got together in Miami to run their race. The weather was bad, and we had a children’s birthday party to attend, so in the end it didn’t happen Saturday. Looking back, this was actually a good thing - it was after all just a day after my leg-heavy weight training session. And the requirements were to run sometime on the 22nd through the 24th, so I still had another day, Sunday. Sunday my mother flew in to visit, and the day proved busy, but around 4PM she, my wife, and the kids all laid down for a nap, and it had been at least 3 hours since my last insulin bolus, plus I was running a nice blood glucose, so the timing was right. Quietly, I suited up and headed out for my run with one goal in mind, 3 sub 8 minute miles, NO EXCUSES.

I finally saw my strength training and interval workouts pay off. I knew I could pull 3 sub 8’s, since recently I’ve been running periodically at that pace without feeling overexerted. I decided to run to the point that I felt my breathing become more intense - not out of breath, but certainly more than the relaxed breathing I’ve grown accustomed to. I gobbled up some carbs, as I wanted to avoid a low during my soon to be intense workout, avoiding having to stop for a gel mid-run, and this worked. I started out strong, I would end up increasing my pace throughout the run, but wanted to be sure I would not need to stop and rest. I felt great, and at one point a song came on that had the perfect tempo, forcing my turnover to quicken to keep pace with the beat - I can see this period in my data before mile 2, and looking back I wonder if I would have been even faster if I would have kept repeating the song… I felt as though I kept increasing my pace as I went on, getting more and more confident that I would finish this thing strongly. In actualitiy, I was lengthing my stride, but slowing my turnover, so I didn’t get the huge speed increase I thought I had, but hey, the numbers don’t lie - I had my best 5K race EVER. 22:50, about a 7:20 minute/mile pace. Great for me actually, and the time was a good 2 minutes better than my previous best, so I was pumped. Got out of the shower to a household now awake, and shared the good news with them. I feel like I’m faster these days, don’t get me wrong, there is no way I could have maintained that pace for a 10K, or even a 5.5K, I gave it everything I had, but I certainly see improvement, and can call it a sucessful day just knowing that.

Thanks again to Marcus for putting on the race - I look forward to another one in the future!

PR’d,
Jamie, The Diabetic Runner