What: KCCC 5K
When: May 3, 2014 @ 7:30
Where: Kansas City
Goal: sub-21:00
Finish: 21:45ish (unofficial) ETA: 21:28 official
I've been dealing with back issues that have hindered my running. To try and counteract those issues, I used a tennis ball and rolled my lower back and deltoids. I also self-applied rock tape (kinesiology tape) to my lower back. I must say that it is difficult to apply the tape to your back by yourself. I arrived to the start of the race about an hour early and sat in the car for a bit listening to some tunes to get me pumped up. After a bit I went out for about a half mile warm-up, met up with some friends, and just relaxed until the start.
With about 15 minutes until the start, we headed to line up. Finally, people start moving forward in preparation of the first wave getting ready to start. The announcer counted down and we were off! Well, I thought we were. We had not crossed a timing mat and everyone was still basically walking. Since I didn't see a mat at the finish, I decided to start my watch. I don't know how long it took, but I finally crossed a timing mat. It took about another 10 seconds or so before I started to be able to pick up the pace. It wasn't until about 1/4 into the first mile that I was able to start settling into my planned pace. My plan for the race was to try to hit mile 1 in 7:00, mile 2 in 6:45, and turn it on for the last 1.1 and hope for the best.
Mile 1 is starts out with a gradual incline for the first 3/4 of a mile or so, then increases to about a 3% grade. I ended up finishing Mile 1 in 6:45 according to my watch. Mile 2 continues with the 3% grade raise for the first half mile, then has a 1/4 mile descent followed by another quarter mile climb. My back started to give me issues and forced me to slow more than I had planned. I realized my pace was dropping, but I could not do anything to prevent the pace from slowing. I finished Mile 2 in 7:22. Mile 3 is basically downhill at a 3% grade until the 3/4 mile point, then it starts to level out. I tried to push the pace, but didn't feel like I could push the pace like I wanted to. I tried, but had to slow every now and then when the back flared up. It was all I could do to prevent from stopping to walk. I finished Mile 3 in 6:38. According to my watch, I finished the last .18 miles with an avg. 5:33 pace. I did all I could, but still fell short of my goal. I am still pleased that I didn't walk and that I performed better than I did during the Trolley Run last weekend.
Once again I took advantage of the free ART and finally came away with the cause of my back pain. For some reason, my right calf is having issues and causing my glute not to fire. This in turn is causing my back to work much harder than it should, hence the back pain. I was told to roll the calf with a foam roller or tennis ball for 1.5-2 minutes before every run. I'm hoping that this will start improving my back. So event though I didn't have the race I wanted, at least I came away with a faster time than last year and a plan to start solving the back issue. All in all, I'll take that as a pretty good day.
Eric
