Within reason, I’m racing more or less anything I can find at the moment, given the dearth of races. But that said, this race was organised by City Runs, who I’ve always heard good things about, and was along Exmouth promenade, which is as flat as you can get. As an added bonus (of sorts) I’ve never raced a 5 miler before, so it was a guaranteed PB!

The race did have two potential downsides: it was on a Tuesday evening, and racing is always slightly tougher in the evening; and Exmouth promenade is very exposed to the weather, so if there was any wind, it would have an impact on my race.

This event was a trial race, ahead of a planned monthly series. My current running is all based around improving my 10k time, and a 5-mile race is a great substitute for the 10k distance, so hopefully I can get as many of these done as possible to benchmark my progress (weather and Covid-depending, of course).

Race day

Things worked out quite conveniently, and I was actually doing a training course at home on race day, which meant that I wasn’t as exhausted as I might have ended up. It also meant that I was a bit more in control of what and when I ate, so really I had close to ideal preparation. I took my weekend runs pretty easy ahead of the race, and was rewarded with the rarely seen “Peaking” from my Garmin: result!

I headed down in plenty of time, and arrived on the promenade about 50 minutes before my start time. The race was organised into waves of six runners, each released a minute apart. I was in the fourth wave, giving me a 7:03 start time. I had a little wander around, used the toilet, and then warmed up along the course, just to get a feel for the route. (Sure, it was just along the promenade, but it was also getting pretty dark, so I wanted to check out how good the pavement was and stuff…)

The race was twice out-and-back along the promenade, so each leg was 1.25 miles. The wind had died down from earlier in the day, and was also coming off the sea, which meant that for most of the course it was a cross-wind, rather than a headwind, though it did feel slightly against you on each of the “back” parts of the course.

Race

Soon enough, it was time to get into my ‘race pen’. Each pen was coned off with plenty of space for six people to socially distance, and the race rules also meant that we had to wear a face covering until 30 seconds before we started. I opted for a buff, which I then put onto my wrist as a sweatband, which I tend to wear anyway.

3-2-1-GO: It soon became clear that I didn’t want to run as fast as the other guys in my group, and I let them move away from me. I was still dragged along a little quicker than I should have been, I probably went through the first quarter of a mile averaging sub-6 minute miles, which is far too fast for me. But, I regained a bit of discipline, and brought my pace back under control within the first mile.

I started passing slower runners from the earlier waves within about half a mile, and not much later I, in turn, started to be passed by quicker runners from later waves. Although this was quite odd, constantly passing and being passed by other runners, it did mean that it was rare to be alone for long during the race.

My first mile came in a little bit quicker than I had been aiming for: 6:26. My expectation was that something around 6:30 would be about the quickest I would manage. Even though there was only a slight wind, I planned to focus on good “out” legs, to try and offset any time-loss in the “back” legs.

According to Strava, I slotted into a decent rhythm for the rest of the race. It felt like it was just getting harder and harder, and my pace was falling off a cliff, but actually, it was pretty perfect. I clocked through the middle three miles in 6:32, 6:34 and 6:33. Honestly, I don’t think I could have hoped for any better, even if it felt like my legs were going to fall off. I absolutely did not realise how well it had gone until I got home and checked Strava: I even told Lolly that I’d run a horrible positive split. (In fact, I ran a to-the-second-perfect even split.)

The second lap was quieter than the first, but there were still plenty of other runners about, going in both directions, so the race was never lonely. I had seen the “race leaders” during my first “back” leg; they had started in the final wave, and I wondered if they would catch up with me. Some quick mental maths suggested that they probably wouldn’t. Spoiler: I was wrong.

I was starting to really feel the exhaustion in my legs during the final mile. The start/finish end of the course was not that well lit for long sections, and by this point, there were few to no runners heading back the other way. Then, with around a third of a mile left, the lead (well, not exactly) bike passed me: “Keep left, lead runners coming through.”

The combination of the bike, and then the runners gave me an injection of pace, allowing me to be dragged along behind them slightly. Sure, they were running over a minute per mile quicker than me, so I couldn’t actually keep up with them, but it still gave me that push (well, pull) when I needed it. I completed the final mile in 6:31, to finish in 33:00 exactly. (Sure, my mile times don’t add up to 33:00: my GPS tracked 5.07 miles, so there are another 23 seconds, but whatever.)

Summary

Before the race I’d used McMillan Running to work out some decent race paces.

• My recent 10k PB at the Power Run 10k had been 41:57 in windy conditions: that was equivalent to 33:30, so that had been my minimum target: Done.
• The next target at 10k, which had been my target at the Power Run 10k was 41:00, that was the equivalent of 32:44: Not done: target for the next race.
• The ultimate target of my current 10k training is 39:59, which is the equivalent of 31:56: Not done: target by the end of the winter, maybe?

• Did I enjoy this race? Yes, definitely.
• Would I do this race again? Yes, definitely.
• What’s next? Probably the next of these. I had another race cancel, the Big Cheese, a 15-mile hilly trail race, so I guess my training now can be completely focused on this flat and fast stuff.