On May 11, I competed in the 5,000 meter race-walk event at the National Senior Games in Fort Lauderdale, FL. This was my second race-walking event in two days. Yesterday, I did the 1,500 meter race.
In contrast to yesterday’s
race, which was on a track, today’s race was on pavement. It was a 1,000 meter road circuit outside of
Florida Live Arena. We needed to
complete the circuit five times.
I already had my race
bibs, since they’re the same ones I wore for yesterday’s 1,500 meter race. That meant I didn’t have to leave the hotel
quite as early as I did yesterday.
I felt like the breakfast
I ate yesterday was about right, so I did the same thing today. I bought Pop Tarts in the hotel store and had
them with tea, which I made in my room.
That allowed me to eat breakfast as soon as I woke up, so I would have a
little time to digest before the race.
Although I already had my
race bibs, I still wanted to get to the race venue a little early. I was a unsure exactly where we were supposed
to meet, so I allowed some time for getting lost. When I got to the arena, the first two gates
I passed were closed. I continued until
I found a gate that was open, but I still didn’t know exactly where to go. There wasn’t any signage.
After driving more that
halfway around the arena and its many parking lots, I saw an employee on a golf
cart. I stopped to ask him if he knew
where the race-walking event was. He
didn’t know, but he told me had seen a white tent in one of the parking lots
near Gate 2. I continued driving around
the building until I saw a white canopy with several cars parked nearby. That was it.
I was there in time to
watch the start of the women’s heat, which started at 7:30. The men’s race wasn’t scheduled to start
until 8:15.
While I was watching the
women’s race, I learned how competitors are informed of red cards. Often a judge will say something as a walker
passes, but you don’t always know for sure if they’re giving you a red card, or
if it’s just a warning. Near the end of
the course, there was a board where they listed the numbers of any walkers who
had been given red cards. Each red dot next
to a number represents one red card.
In pre-race instructions,
the walkers were all told that even if they see three red dots next to their
number, they should continue walking, just in case there was a mistake. If someone is actually disqualified, the chief
judge will hold up a red paddle and ask them to leave the course.
The weather today was several
degrees cooler than yesterday. There was
a chance of a late morning shower, but that never materialized. I found the conditions to be almost ideal for
a 5K race.
I had been worried about
whether walking at an all-out pace would aggravate my lower back. It never bothered me during yesterday’s race,
and I felt fine for the rest of the day.
I was surprised that I felt much better after an intense 1,500 meter
race than I did the day before after sitting on a plane for a few hours.
This morning, I felt fine
when I got up, but after driving to today’s race, I noticed some minor
discomfort near my right hip. Every so
often, I would lean against a light pole and do some pelvic tilts.
I walked yesterday’s race
at a pace that extrapolates to 9:38 per mile.
That gave me a good idea what my top speed is. What I didn’t know is what pace I could
sustain for 5,000 meters, which is more than three times as far. Besides yesterday’s race, I had two other
benchmarks in mind. The first was my
5,000 meter time from the Minnesota Senior Games last August. That worked out to an average pace of 9:55
per mile. The other was the 10:17 pace that
I averaged last month at the B.A.A. 5K race.
I expected my pace today to be somewhere between those two.
I placed fourth
yesterday, and I wanted to see if I could climb into the top three today. My top speed isn’t as fast as some of the
other walkers, but I was hoping my marathon training would give me more staying
power. Before the race, I recognized the
guy who won my age group yesterday. I
didn’t spot the second and third place walkers from yesterday’s race, but that
didn’t mean they weren’t here. Also, I
didn’t know if there were fast walkers in today’s race who didn’t do yesterday’s
race.
The course had two
turnaround points. Roughly 100 meters from
the start, we turned around a circle of cones.
The other end of the circuit went through a parking lot, and the
turnaround was much wider.
When the gun went off, I
started walking as fast as I could.
There was a lead pack of about seven walkers who reached the first turn
ahead of me. One of them was the guy who
won my age group yesterday. I didn’t
know how many of the others were in my age group. Since men from every age group were in the
same heat, I liked my odds of being in the top three or four in my age group.
Two men were way out in
front. The other five who were ahead of
me were in a pack. The guy who won my
age group yesterday was leading them. I
was surprised how close I was to his pace, but that was in the first 100-200
meters. Then I gradually fell farther behind,
although I could almost always see them.
There were at least six
race-walking judges spread around the course.
Except for the turnarounds, the course was basically out-and-back. That meant each judge could observe walkers
from both directions. On average, we
passed within sight of a judge every 100 meters.
As I was nearing the far
turn during my first lap, I heard one of the judges warn the walker in front of
me that his knee was bent. As we passed
near the next judge, he warned the same walker.
The next judge did too. As we reached
the end of the lap, he passed near the chief race-walking judge and asked her
something. I couldn’t hear, but he
probably asked her how many red cards he had.
It might have already been three.
The judge said, “I don’t have any information for you.” Then she added, “… but I’m calling you for
bent knee.”
As I finished my first
lap, I looked at my watch. I finished
that lap in 6:16, which put me on pace to finish in 31:20. That was slower than my time last August at
the Minnesota Senior Games, but it was faster than my time a month ago in the
B.A.A. 5K. That was within my
expectations.
I had established a reasonable
starting pace. Now I had to work hard to
sustain it. I still wasn’t that far
behind the pack of walkers in front of me.
I tried to tether myself to them.
Midway through my second
lap, I felt my watch vibrate as it recorded a split. My pace for my first full mile was
10:02. Again, that was within the range
I expected. I wanted to get my pace down
to 10 minutes, but I just haven’t done enough recent training.
As I neared the end of my
second lap, I looked at the board for red cards. I was looking for number 41. That was the walker who was right in front of
me in my previous lap. I had since
passed him, but I knew at least four judges had said something to him about his
form. His number wasn’t on the board
yet. Sometimes a judge will give you a
warning and keep their eyes on you in subsequent laps. If you can correct your form, you’re OK. If you can’t, they’ll give you a red card the
next time they see you. Apparently, this
walker was able to correct his form. Much later in the race, I saw he had one red
card, but I don’t think he ever got disqualified.
I walked my second lap in
6:13. That was three seconds faster than
my first lap. Unfortunately, I couldn’t
hold that pace much longer. It was in
the third lap that I began to struggle with the pace. I did the best I could, but I slowed down a
little.
The race was chip-timed
and there was a race official just past the finish line transponder who could
see our splits for each lap as well as our cumulative times. Each time a walker passed, he read their time
and their lap split. That proved to be
helpful when I finished my third lap.
When I looked at my watch, I saw my time, but made a mental arithmetic
error as I computed my split. I thought
I had sped up by one second. In fact, I
slowed down by nine seconds. I realized
by mistake only after the official told me my split. Then I lit a fire under myself to pick up my
effort in the last two laps.
Near the beginning of my
fourth lap, I got another mile split from my watch. It was 10:14, which was discouraging. I worked even harder to pick up the pace
again.
I saw that I was started
to gain ground on one of the walkers ahead of me. I knew he was in a different age group, but I
tried to catch him anyway. Near the end
of the lap, I finally reeled him in. As
I went by, I said, “Don’t worry about me.
I’m not in your age group.” As it
turns out, he had other worries. We
passed a judge, who gave him a red card.
After the race, I found out he was disqualified.
My fourth lap was one
second faster than my third lap. As I
started the last lap, I looked for the walker who won my age group yesterday. He was on his way back from the first
turn. It’s possible his lead wasn’t as
large as it had been earlier, but he was still at least 100 meters ahead of me.
After making the turn
myself, I looked for him and realized there were no other walkers between
us. I assumed he was winning our age
group. If he was, then I was in
second. That gave me the motivation I
needed to hold it together for one more lap.
I lapped several walkers
who were near the back of the pack. I
kept my focus on the one runner ahead of me who I knew was in my age
group. I knew I wouldn’t catch him, but
I didn’t want to lose sight of him.
I finished the race in
31:31.12. I heard the timing official say I
had sped up in my last lap. I did, but
only by one second. I went to the walker
I had been chasing and asked him if he had won our age group. He did, but as it turns out, he had been
worried about another walker who started even faster. That guy got disqualified.
When I finished, they
were still presenting the awards for the women.
They did them one age group at a time, and there were eight awards for
each age group. It took time to get
through them all. Eventually, they got
to the men, but I still had to wait for all the older age groups before they
got to mine. Then I finally got
confirmation that I won the silver medal for my age group.
I never noticed my lower
back during the race, but I started to notice it afterwards. It felt different than it did before the
race. I had some minor soreness near my
tailbone. I couldn’t do much about it
while I was at the race. When I got back
to the hotel, I took a hot bath and did some more stretching. After that, it felt much better.
I don’t have any other
race-walking events scheduled. In the
short term, I’m going to shift my focus back to running marathons. Walking will still be a part of my training,
but I can do longer walks at a less intense pace. If my back continues to improve, I may do the
walking events at this year’s Minnesota Senior Games, but those are still a few
months away.
No comments:
Post a Comment