I was not expecting Hiro to pay any attention to my fantasy musings, but to my surprise he immediately decided to pace me to a 17:30, and on Wednesday Hiro arrived at the track determined to maintain this pace on my behalf. Oh no, I thought, all this obligation and pressure for such a fast time. Well, I better do my best.
So when the 5k started I I immediately tucked in behind Hiro and just hoped to hang on as long as I could. Of course the first 1000 meters was easy enough, even though we were slightly ahead of pace. But when we reached 2k at 7:00 flat, right on pace, and I was already starting to labor, I doubted I could hang on the pace much longer. Just stay with Hiro to halfway, I told myself. At halfway I told myself I to hang on until 3k - that would be a respectable effort. At 3k I told myself to just stay in moment and think about my form. I hung on until 4k, at which point I had slowed to a 14:03 split, and a gap begun to open up between us. Speeding up and breaking 17:30 seemed hopeless. Hiro turned around to exhort me to catch up with him and the goal pace. I gasped at him to go for it, in hopes he would finish at his own pace (and leave me alone), but he continued looking back at me so I dug down and sprinted back up behind him. We now only had 800 meters left, and Hiro kept telling me we could do 17:30. I doubted this right up until the final 200 when I somehow was able to kick to the finish ini 37 seconds and hit 17:26. Thanks to Hiro.
Here are the splits Hiro recorded:
400m: 1'23"00(1'23"00)
800m: 2'45"60(1'22"60)
1,200m: 4'10"36(1'24"76)
1,600m: 5'35"52(1'25"16)
2,000m: 7'00"66(1'25"14)
2,400m: 8'23"41(1'22"75)
2,800m: 9'46"30(1'22"89)
3,200m:11'10"80(1'24"50)
3'600m:12'37"71(1'26"91)
4,400m:15'26"16(2'48"45)
5,000m:17'26"79(2'00"63)
