Thinking About "This One's for Jack"

A 22:00 isn't so bad, is it? It is, after all, over three minutes faster than my first race this year. And, it is just :49 off of what I ran in 1999.

However, a 22:00 offers no laurel I really want. I want 20:00. I'll need another race before I accomplish that, and, probably several, at least. These 2:00 will be harder to drop than the previous 3:12.

Next competitive race I will be running is "This One's for Jack." It is a 5K in the rolling side streets of Glen Ellyn, IL, behind Glenbard West High School. It might be a similar course to the Freedom Four 4-Miler in which I had a less than braggable adventure.

Redemption time? I won't say. I will say my plan is the same. Start at 6:30-6:40, and hold on. Hopefully, I'll return 6:45s instead of 7:14s.

Factors impacting my result compared to the Park Ridge Charity Run --

• Good: Cooler weather. Better health. A couple extra weeks of working out.
• Bad: Hills. Potentially cold weather.
• Best case scenario: 20:30 (6:35/mile pace, and I hold on throughout)
  Worst case scenario: 22:30 (7:14/mile pace. If I start too hard and choke.)
• Summary expectation: 21:15-21:45.

"A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more. Nobody is going to win a 5,000 meter race after running an easy 2 miles. Not with me. If I lose forcing the pace all the way, well, at least I can live with myself."
- Steve Prefontaine

I'm not able to say I have forced any pace, nor punished myself yet in a 5K. My mind is still weak, and my body is only starting to respond when I look to call it into another gear. I am expecting this effort to be on the ready in the spring. I'm still in the process of getting 20+ years of kinks out.