Roadkill’s Big Weekend

Roadkill Racing took the track and the roads this weekend competing in distances 5000 meters to marathon and racked up two PR’s two wins and 8 very tired legs.

Kenny kicked things off at 8 am in New Holland, PA.  Then he spent the next 2 hours 35 minutes 30 seconds racing around the rounds of Amish Country.  He not only crushed his previous marathon PR but he won the race and a big fat check as well.  Based on his time I’m guessing he has just been toying with us in the shorter races this winter, either that or he was secretly doing tempo runs before the races ala Matt Roberts.  Tons of miles and smart training really paid off for Kenny!

While Kenny was cruising past the 20 mile mark of his marathon, Matt was lining up for 25 laps of fun at the ROC City Classic.  Matt is the only person I know who had a softer 10k PR than me.  How someone can have a 16 minute 5k PR a 2:40 marathon PR and a 10k just a few ticks under 36 minutes is beyond my meager understanding.  Matt managed to get the finish line before Kenny finished his race (assuming both races started exactly on time) and in the process PR’d by over a minute 30 seconds finishing in 3rd place with a time of 34:21.08.  I don’t have any pictures of his race but I can only assume he looked like this…

Technically Brett was running for Damien College at the ROC City Classic, but I’m still going to claim his performance for RKR.  He and I ran the 5000 meter race at Nazareth’s annual track meet many hours after Matt’s race.  By the time our race rolled around it had turned into a beautiful spring day- upper 40’s bright sun and just a bit of wind (which for some reason still feels like a gale once you start racing it in.) Brett and I are both still chasing a sub 16 5k and we each had high hopes of accomplishing that at this race.  The only other seed-time close to 16 minutes was for Matt Fedrizzi a junior from Nazareth.  Matt, Brett and I talked a bit before the race, and we decided we all wanted to come through the first mile in 5:06-5:10.  As tends to happen in these situations we all came through the mile in 5:02-5:04.  I don’t have any pictures of this race either so I will use stock footage of other track meets to show how I was feeling during the race.

Brett was running a few seconds ahead of me pretty much from the gun, but for some reason Matt decided to run right on my shoulder for the first mile.  He wasn’t really trying to pass me, and why he didn’t just draft off me I can’t really say.  After 4 laps of him breathing right in my ear I started making some attempts to drop him and catch up to Brett but I was unsuccessful on both accounts.  I’m not really sure what kind of pace I was running during the second mile.  I know on 1 of the laps we ran a 77 because Matt’s coach (and RKR runner Rob Castor) was yelling splits but the rest of the time I wasn’t really paying attention.  By mile 2 I was in a considerable amount of distress.  Brett hand pulled a good 50 meters ahead, Matt was still huffing and puffing in my right ear and I was fairly sure I needed to finish in 5:05 at least if I wanted to break 16 minutes.

My less kind internal voice tells me that after mile 2 I gave up.  The more nurturing internal voice tells me that after mile 2 I started running smart.  Either way with 4.5 laps to go I let Matt go past me.  I was tired of him breathing in my ear, and tired of dragging him around the track.  I decided I would race for 2nd place and accomplish that with as little effort as possible.  Even when I slowed way down  Matt seemed uncertain if he really wanted to pass me.  When he finally did pull ahead he didn’t cut over to the rail and I found my self having to run on the line between lane 1 and 2 so I could draft off him.  After about 300 meters he did finally pull up to the rail, it was about that time that we went by Rob who was screaming at Matt to get moving, he has just run an 83 second 400, which was no surprise at all to me ( I was just happy it wasn’t 90 seconds.)  I stayed behind Matt for the next 3 laps, and forgot all about Brett, trying to win the race or trying to break 16 minutes.  The only thing on my mind was getting to 500 to go and kicking to the finish.  After a few more 83 second laps it was time to make and end to the race.  Coming off the far turn into the final lap I made a move past Matt and began my kick.  I have no idea why I assumed I could out kick this 20 year college kid I’d never seen run before.  It never even occurred to me that he might actually have a better kick than me, it isn’t like I am capable of running even a 55 second 400 when I’m fresh.  But as I went by him and started the final lap (clock was just hitting 15:10) I knew I was going to beat him, I also noticed Brett for the first time and knew I had no shot at catching him.

I ended up running the last lap in 68 or 69 seconds and finishing in second place with about 3 seconds to spare with a time of 16:18.23 (.63 seconds slower than last year).  Brett won the race with a time of 16:08.18, and I owe him a beer.  Can he lose his NCAA eligibility for betting a beer on a race he is running in?  Meet Results Here.  I’m a bit disappointed looking back at the race, not because I didn’t win or because I didn’t break 16 minutes, but because if I had kept grinding it out during the last mile of the race I would have run my fastest time in years.  A few more 80’s instead of 83’s and I could have run my second fastest 5k ever.  I have a 5k each of the next 2 weekends so I have will have a chance to redeem myself!