Killarney 5k Fun Run

I’m not supposed to sit on the computer, so in marked contrast to my usual epic race reports, this one will be short.

With the dearth of races around here I can never resist this event, even though the timing is less than perfect, it’s always in my base building phase. I told myself to run it as a hard workout, but knew perfectly well that I would not hold back as soon as I was over the start line. I even contemplated to taper for a day or two, but decided against it. I’m not training for a 5k, I’m training for a marathon, and kept my heavy mileage going. It meant a race on tired legs, but that’s a feature of all my short races.

I wasn’t sure what to expect. As ecstatic as I had been with my previous PR of 19:52 when I ran it, by now it was looking embarrassingly soft, especially when compared to my best 10k time. On the other hand I hadn’t done a single speed workout in months, and my legs were tired from the high mileage. But I suspected that a new PR might be on the cards anyway.

The event is definitely not for the purist racer. It’s a fun run, not a competitive race, which shows by the number of, let’s say, less-than-athletic runners at the start. They went even more towards the fun run part this year by not giving out numbers, so I guess we won’t be seeing any online results either. Anyway, I started near the front, but hesitated for a split second at the start and was immediately boxed in by a bunch of kids. They seemed to form a solid barrier in front of me, but ran a bit slower than the pace I had in mind. Eventually I had to deliberately drop back behind a few people to be able to get to the side and run past all of them. From then on I had a clear run all the way.

I kept reeling in runner after runner, which is always fun. Usually the overtaking part more or less stops after a while when the field is settled, but I managed to keep it going all the way to the end. For the first half, some guy was right on my shoulder and wouldn’t relinquish this place. I expected him to stay there for the entire race and outkick me at the end but around the 3k mark we went up a small incline and he fell back. This seemed to set the tone for the rest of the race, on the flat bits I usually managed to draw up to the person in front of me and on the next incline I went past. Not that there were any hills, just tiny changes in elevation. I felt comfortable all the way, so much so that I questioned my commitment to the race. I’ve definitely got the marathon runner’s mindset, and I never pushed far enough into the pain zone to feel the acid burn in the legs and the breath of fire in the throat that you’re supposed to feel when you’re running a 5k. On the other hand I never seemed able to run any faster. I had plenty of strength in the legs but was definitely lacking speed.

Anyway, the finish is the only hard part of the course, going up the only real hill. I pushed as hard as I could and pressed the button on my stopwatch as I crossed the non-existing finishing line in 19:16. In comparison to my 10k time this is still soft, but then again I was nearing the peak of my fitness for that 10k, while I’m still in the building phase as of now, as mentioned. I was reasonably pleased with my time. I have another chance to better it in 2 weeks' time.

Killarney 5k Fun Run, 19:16, 6:12 pace, a PR by 36 seconds.