Carlsbad 5000 ’22 Race Recap

Like many runners, I have my “runnerversary” race that I do every year to commemorate what got me into running. Some of us, ahem me, also have races we do annually to show love for specific distances – first half race, first marathon, first Turkey Trot, etc. I know I am not alone in this!!! I digress.

This past weekend was the Carlsbad 5000, which was the first race I signed up for way back in 2010. With all the corona craziness of the past couple of years, this was the first time this race was held in person since 2019. I was more than excited to be able to run this. As such, I really wanted to make this a tentpole race in my calendar for the year. The last couple of years I haven’t really focused on training for this distance. The race was always tossed in as part of my training for other races like Boston or Mountains 2 Beach. So with my calendar being pretty open, I figured it was as good as any to train specifically for a 5K and see what sort of speed I got left in the tank! To help with that, I enlisted the help of a fellow coach to put together a training plan for me. With my mental almost at capacity with programming for others and having raced and worked with Joe before, I felt comfortable in knowing I’d have a program I could follow along that would match my skills. #evencoacheshavecoaches!

Pulled out the light gear so I don’t have any unnecessary weight on me.

So let’s get to the good part! With training having gone pretty well and being intense at times, I was ready to mash on the gas pedal and go! A 7am start means getting up dumb early to get ready, drive the 45miles to the race site and have enough time to warm up to be ready to go! Got the race kit ready to go the night before, ate a solid, protein heavy dinner and turned it in somewhat early. It’s hard for me to sleep the night before a race still – too nervous, anxious, excited.

This race is ran in multiple heats throughout the day – the OGs (Masters 40+ year olds) run first by gender separately, then the 39 and under crowd, then the elite runners. So since I’m in that Masters age group, my heat is first. The good thing about being in the first race is that the porta pottys are completely empty and clean! #iykyk! Handled business a bit, talked to a few friends I saw and then it’s time to prep! Billed as the “world’s fastest 5K,” the Carlsbad 5000 is meant to be ran hard! It’s all about compressing the energy and effort that one put in a marathon into 3.1 miles. When you cross that finish line, you should feel like you just finished a marathon! The good thing is that once you find your lungs and put heart back in your chest, the recovery is quick and you get on with your day without walking like a baby deer! Since it is so intense, it’s all about the warm up to be ready to GO and hammer. I spend about 20 minutes going through dynamic warm-ups, getting some strides in at race pace, in general getting the heart rate up and blood flowing through the legs.

With the race having had some world record times ran on it over the years, it’s surprisingly not flat. Head out from downtown Carlsbad, hang a left down the coast on the 101, hit the turn around, go back up the coast, hit another turn around and finally hang a right back into downtown. The course is shaped like a “T”. It’s on that 101 where you can catch some speed on the downhills, but once you hit the turn arounds you gotta go right back up them on the other side of the street. In a marathon, you wouldn’t necessarily trip about these hills – they’re not that long, but when you’re redlining and maxing out your speed, these MF’ers hurt!

One last prayer before race start!

Off we go! I head out in the middle of the fastest wave group jockeying for position and a bit of running room. I take a few glances at my watch and I’m well ahead of my pace. Finally find some wiggle room about a quarter mile into it, and work on slowing down into my pace. I’ve gone out too fast on this course before and ended up having nothing left at the end. It’s tough to not want to go with the crowd, but tell myself, “run your own race”, and let the cheetahs go on ahead. Crowd is pretty thin now at this point as we’re on the coast and I find a good pack of folks to run behind and draft off to save energy. As we head to the mile one marker, the course runs downhill so I take advantage of it and move on ahead behind another, smaller group of people. Garmin beeps my mile pace – 6:00. Right around where I figured my pace should be. Downhill we keep going for what seems like forever until we hit the cone and downhill becomes uphill as we head up northbound back towards downtown. Uphill drags on even longer.

I like to think I’m a good hill runner, so I try to take advantage of it and keep on pace and pick off a few people here and there. As we head back into downtown proper and the spectator crowds get bigger, I finally hit that mile two marker. Garmin pops off again. 6:09 pace. Well the effort of a 6:00 pace was there if not the actual pace itself! No time to dwell on what should have been. Compartmentalize it and focus on this last mile. By now, legs are starting to burn from the lactic acid build up, heart rate is jumping from the climb and I’m breathing hard. I do my best to ignore it all and think about my game plan for mile three and the point one. As you cross the “T” past down town, the course starts to dive into another downhill. I’m still passing up people here and there, which is good motivation and distraction from all the effort. I’m thinking in terms of quarter miles as I start to eyeball the hairpin turn at the other end of the “T”. Glance at the watch and I’m right at three minutes for this first half mile of the last mile. I know once I hit the turn around, I have about a quarter mile of uphill before I hit mile three and turn the corner for the downhill finish into downtown. Hit the turn around and now it’s where I gotta muster up all the effort up this hill! I try to relax and adjust the breathing and manage to pass up another guy or two. It hurts! Ignore the pain. Just a bit more. Can’t! You can! The turn into the finish line seems like a mirage. The hill flattens a bit and finally I reach the corner! Past the mile three marker as I push hard. Point one left and it seems like the longest stretch ever! Really at max effort now and I’m pushing hard, trying not to slow up. Finally cross the finish line! I’m dead!

Bling Bling!

As I walk through the chute trying to breathe and recover, I see my old friend that I ran against in high school - Olympic medalist, and winner of the Boston & New York marathons, Meb Keflezighi, whose there to greet runners at the finish as he’s the new owner of this world class race. “Good to see you bro! Good job” he says to me as we bro hug it out. I nod my head in recognition, mumble something back and keep on walking. I know he understands how it feels after putting in all your effort. Finally get medaled up and get some water as I walk it out and slowly bring the heart rate back down.

I went into training for this race with a big lofty goal. It’s always been a target of mine to run a 5K under eighteen minutes. I came close a few years ago and missed it by eight seconds. I definitely didn’t get close to that goal this time! But I did run my best time since 2018. So I’m happy with that and at least I’m headed in the right direction. As training for this race wrapped up, I knew sub 18 was probably not in the cards and I adjusted my goal to give me a better target to work towards. 5K pacing is tough. Run out too fast early and you have nothing left in the tank to push and sacrifice ruining your overall time. Run too conservative early on because you’re worrying about blowing up and you have too much time to make up to hit your goal. For me, I felt like I nailed my pace well given my fitness so I’ll take that as a win as well! Running can be its own sweet science as well!

Time for a bit of a break of formal training before I start training again for the next tentpole race – Chicago Marathon! Stay tuned…

Finish time: 18:47, 6:02/mile pace

Doggy kisses make it all better!