Hiro 5k

Two weeks ago I had mentioned to teammate Hiro that hitting a 17:30 was my reach goal for the monthly 5k time trial.  Having not raced at all, or really trained well this year, I was keen to make a strong effort for this time trial.

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)