Race Recap: 2024 St. Paddy's Day Dash

Rewind to the start of 2024, and on paper this was my goal 5k race for the year, I had plans to dip under 18min. But, life and work had different plans for me. While I did get training in, it wasn't enough of the right type of training, and I knew going into this race that was nowhere near sub-18min pace, especially on this course.

So I had to adjust and set new, more realistic goals for myself.

The Numbers:

• 18:34 - 5k
• 5th Overall Woman
• Strava
• Race Results (bib 2317)

The Gear:

• Saucony Endorphin Pro 3
• Garmin Fenix 7s
• Garmin HRM Pro
• Stryd Footpod

the race

Let's start with understanding this course....

I raced this same race last year and went into it completely blind, which resulted in some middle of the race surprises. This year, I was prepared.

1. Fact 1: The race attracts many elite runners because there is a cash prize
2. Fact 2: The first mile is noticeably downhill
3. Fact 3: At 1.5miles there is a "half-pipe" hill, steep downhill that rolls immediately into a 90s steep uphill
4. Fact 4: After the "half-pipe", you will continue to run at a slight uphill grade the rest of the way home

This course is a recipe for disaster if you aren't prepared for it. It teases you into going out fast, zaps you with a strong hill right in the middle, and then beats you over the head the rest of the way.

While this is nowhere near the most difficult 5k course you may come across, it is a sneaky bastard if you haven't done your research.

the plan

With last years learnings in mind, along with my best guess at current fitness level, the plan was to negative split. Start at 6:05 and walk my way down to a 5:55 final mile, which would hopefully land me somewhere around 18:40.

On paper, this goal time is about on par with where I started the year. However, when adjusting for course difficulty, this would net out as a solid improvement over January.

Another note, in January I barely finished the race 😬, it was a struggle and all I could do was to hold on till the finish line. Hopefully, this time around I would feel controlled and able to finish strong, pushing harder in the latter portions of the race.

the execution

I believe the outcome of this race for me is entirely the result of being diligent about sticking to my race plan.

For the first mile I was practically glued to my watch ⌚. The excitement of the start, coupled with the downhill and being surrounded by other fast runners meant running by feeling was useless. I felt like I was running easy and controlled, but my watch reported 5:50 pace early on, so I slowly applied the breaks until I settled back into roughly 6:05 pace.

Coming through the first mile marker I started to apply a bit more pressure on the pace. Nothing dramatic, just enough to help move me closer to 6:00 pace. I was still fairly glued to my watch at this point. I didn't want to speed up too much because I knew the hardest part of the course was yet to come. This was another place where if I had run according to how I was feeling, I would have sped up too much.

The hill at 1.5miles was as bad as I remembered, but I also felt physically more prepared for it this year. I had been doing my Tempo workouts over a hillier course around my neighborhood and I think that really paid off.

My hill strategy for this race was very conservative.

First, I did not push the downhill portion of the "half-pipe". While I did let gravity take me, mostly I focused on recovering, making sure my breathing was in check and trying to pull my HR down some.

For the up hill portion, I also did not push. My entire goal was to manage my effort so that I could get to the crest of the hill having burned as little energy as possible.

For this portion of the race I did not look at my watch at all, instead running entirely by feel. The data table below is interesting, especially as it reflects the result of my estimated effort output.

Segment	Avg. Pace	Avg. HR	Avg. GAP
Leading into the "half-pipe"	5:59	183	6:01
Steep downhill of "half-pipe"	5:43	180	6:18
Uphill of "half-pipe"	6:15	185	5:45
Next minute after "half-pipe"	6:00	185	6:01

On the downhill my average pace ultimately matches my grade adjusted pace on the uphill portion. Additionally, my grade adjusted pace on the downhill matches the average pace of the uphill portion. To me this indicates a similar effort level was maintained on the downhill vs. the uphill.

This portion of the race manages to average out right around 6:00 pace despite the wide swing in paces observed.

For the last mile of the race things were certainly hurting. I was evaluating every step to see how much I had left in the tank. But I was still focused on maintaining my negative split and having a strong push to the finish.

About .4 mile out from the finish was where I started my final push. It was really motivating to reach this point in the race and know I could push from that far out. It didn't feel good, and I had a healthy amount of fear I wouldn't make it all the way to line, but it was still nice to have the option to push instead of just hanging on for dear life.

the data

The fun thing about doing the same race year over year is getting to compare the data between them.

lap breakdown

Mile	2023 Pace	2024 Pace	2024 GAP	2023 GAP
1	6:03	6:03	6:05	6:03
2	6:16	6:01	5:55	6:08
3	6:47	5:51	5:48	6:38

I was noticeably more prepared for the race this year, not only in my strategy but also in my overall fitness. Last year's finish time was 19:49 compared to 18:34 this year.

baseline comparison

Below is a comparison of this same race from last year, my two most recent baseline tests, and this race.

Date	Race	Seconds Per Mile	Avg. Stryd Power	Avg. Garmin Power	Power/Weight	Garmin Est. VO2	Strava Fitness Score	VDOT
03/11/2023	St. Paddy's Day Dash	381	245	--	4.38	52	56	50.5
01/07/2024	Hotcake Hustle 5k	362	251	337	4.49	57	60	54
02/09/2024	Plano 5k	376	250	320	4.49	57	59	52
03/16/2024	St. Paddy's Day Dash	357	257	339	4.52	57	66	54.5

You'll notice the baseline test from February was a step backwards. This reflects missed training in January and a particularly bad work week leading into a bad race day.

The stars aligned for that race to suck 🥵.

So while it was a type of measure of my fitness at that time, I did not consider it completely accurate. This February data point was one of the things that made it particularly difficult for me to guess what paces to choose going into this race.

next steps

The next race on the calendar is Bay to Breakers in San Francisco where I'll be racing a 15k. An odd distance, but the plan is to transition into half-marathon focused training starting this week.