Race report: Dawn at the Don 8k

Racing shorter distances while training for marathons isn't ideal, but they are among the best workouts you can fit into your program. Tired legs, pounded by volume with little recovery, are asked to be recruited for a strong effort. But strong training can give you surprising results. I once ran a sub-20 5K a day after pounding out a 30K run.

(Dawn at the Don race results 2013 5K, 8K)

I put off a 5 mile tempo run earlier this week (did 5K instead) so I could put effort into today's 8K. Two days ago, I did my marathon pace run for a full 16 miles, and on top of that, put in 46 miles in the past six days. Tired legs indeed.

Before I headed out to meet my buddy Lee to get to today's 8K, I punched in a few calculations into my race calculator and was optimistic. Would today's race prove all the gains I've made in the past two months? It should, as it was really another tempo run.

Most of the 8K races I've done come early in the race season. This one, in July, comes as I am amping up the mileage and - this year - fitting in a lot of quality runs. My last 8K in April was a horrid affair, my body just not ready for true racing. In my head, using this race as a tempo run, I could target a 35 minute 8K, or 4:22 kilometres, which is around what I'm doing for tempos. I did check what 34 minutes needed (4:15 kilometres) and kept that number rattling in my head.

My PB for 8K was in 2008 with a 33:57. On a true race basis, I did a 5 miler early in the marathon training season (which is 8.05K) in 32:49 in 2008. 2008 was my first year going after that BQ.

This was my second time doing Dawn at the Don which is run by the organizers of the old Night Crawler 5 miler. It's set in Wilket Creek Park and features a basic out and back. The course is curvy with four uphills (and downhills) with a hairpin turn and tight corners so is a little more technical. The 8K had 200 runners and quite a quality field showed up.

Here's the start area.


View Larger Map

Lee and I did a 4K warmup, the first few kilometres of the course, to get a sense of the course, it was warming but not as bad as it can be for the summer.

Seeded myself appropriately and we were off.

1K: 4:12
Tried to keep things under control, we were sucked into the vortex that is a race start, I cooled it off after seeing my watch signal a sub 4 kilometre pace. Really focused on being comfortable, getting my stride in check and being mindful not to race too hard.