Striving for that perfect race

Abhainn

Have many of you succeeded in pulling off that perfect race? When everything went exactly to plan? You have achieved a PB and you think you will never better it.

Perhaps Roger Bannister felt so after he broke the 4min barrier for the mile or when Lothar Leder became the first athlete ever to break the 8-hour barrier in the Ironman. .
Or maybe even the Roadrunner in his PB at London on Sunday. Could he have gone faster even though “he had executed his pre race plan to perfection”? Could he have found those 5 seconds to run a 2:46?

When you do achieve that perfect race what keeps you motivated?
Comon’ tell us all about it

cfitz

I'd say when most of us run a great race, we like to think that if we increase the workload we will be able to run even faster next year.

Peckham

I don't think there's such a thing as the "perfect race", except in the sense that you met the objectives. Would imagine no matter how fast you run, you'll always think you can go one step better. Would imagine the first person to do a 1:59 marathon will immediately identify ways they could go 1:58.

My "perfect" race was DCM 2007. Had a miserable experience in 2006, learned my lessons, came back and cut 20 mins off my 2006 time (and 3 mins faster than my target time for that race), ran perfect splits and a fast final 6 miles. However, I knew straight away that there was better to come, and that sub-3 was in my sights.

TFBubendorfer

I had pretty much the perfect race in the Cork marathon last year. I ran the second half a tad faster than the first half, despite it being much hillier. The last quarter was the fastest, the last 2 miles were the fastest, and to top it all up I bettered my ambitious time goal (sub 3:10) by nearly half a minute.

In comparison, half a year later Dublin didn't go to plan when I hit the wall on the climb up to Fosters Avenue, and I suffered badly over the last 6-7 miles. But you know what? Dublin was still 4 minutes faster, I just didn't reach my (over-ambitious) target.

I think that even if you have the perfect race, you still want to run faster next time. There is no such thing as "you have achieved a PB and you think you will never better it", at least not immediately. You'll probably only know years afterwards that this was it.

Racing Flat

Abhainn wrote: »

Have many of you succeeded in pulling off that perfect race?

4 times.

These are races where I ran a great time, i.e. surpassed my expectations AND it felt easy.

I look back over training logs time and time again to see what led to these races.

Race 1:
Took 90secs off a 5mile PB. When you set out to run 29.59 and you run 28.30, you feel it was perfect. First mile split was 5.51, I remember thinking, 'damn, bit fast', next mile a bit downhill, 5.45 or so, so I put it down to the hill. When the next mile was 5.38 as I wasn't wrecked I decided to just hold the pace as long as I could, and I just seemed to get faster and faster (I didn't because there was some uphill) but it was so enjoyable. The key: (it was a long time ago) I had preceded it with 4 weeks in a row of 6 days a week running. Before then I had never managed this consistency. So I like to stick at the 6 days now...


Race 2:
Hoping to break 5.00 for 1mile, pb 5.08. First lap 75secs, felt grand but everyone slowed down then. So I went to the front as some friends in the crowd shouted at me not to. Next lap 75. 3rd lap 75 and I'm feeling fine. Not too difficult, but feeling so happy with myself that I've got the pace right. At the bell about 6 go past me. I tuck in, then with 200 to go gradually speed up, no reaction from the first few I pass. at 100 to go, 2 lads are putting up a bit of a fight, I kick hard at 90 and I can sense one of these lads looking at me, knowing that he can't respond. They chased me down the home straight and although I won by mm's I felt that there was no way in a million years they were going to beat me. We were all going at the same pace, but the difference was, they were struggling, I was cruising. Finish in 4.55 so the pacing, the time, the execution of tactics and the win made it the perfect race for me. All relative I suppose. The key - Twice a day running a few times in the prior 2 weeks - by accident - I was working away and there was nothing else to do, unable to leave the hotel at night so ran in park in morning and on treadmill in evening. Haven't replicated this back at home, but time permitting I'd probably build up to it.

Race 3:
10k. Main thing was that the race started at a fast pace which was surprisingly comfortable, 4 of us in a group. At 10 laps to go I stuck the knife in, only 1 came with me. Knowing I had a better finish, he went past me with 800 to go. I was seriously struggling, but put in a burst with 400 to go to claw him back and put 7secs on him in the last lap for the win. What made this perfect was the negative split based on a strong first half, but also coming back from the dead at 800 to go. A few reasonably experienced people in the race ran 5k pbs in the second half, it was fairly unreal. It was just the perfect weather night, most people not within a minute since and it was a few years ago - I wonder did we run 24 laps :eek::D...The key - perfect conditions, but also perfect pacing. A group of 4 of us decided to take 2 laps each at a predetermined pace, so you just did your 800, then tucked in and forgot about everything (obviously have to trust your fellow runners big time) until 6 laps later you were up again. Before we knew it 16 laps were over and it was time to race. Hard to get fellows at the exact same level for this, but if you can I'd recommend it.

Race 4
Strike that. It wasn't pefect because I should have won and didn't :mad:. A tad too cautious at the beginning meant a big PB could have been better. But maybe I'm being greedy. Anyway, the key was solid consistent endurance training for 6 months followed by 4 months of hardening over cross country and then 2 months of sharpening on the track. Nothing new there I suppose.


For fear of people thinking I'm wallowing in glory, if this was titled 'non-perfect races' I could regale with tales of my other 150 or so races where the outcome wasn't as good.

Stupid_Private

Abhainn wrote: »

Could he have found those 5 seconds to run a 2:46?

Have to laugh at that... you always hear something like that if you run just over a given minute. Years back when I ran a 59:01 10 miler I was baffled when I was asked could I have gone that bit faster and got under 59. Why? I hear it all the time and it really puzzles me. I met mrak after a race a while back and I'd mentioned it to him before the race - he pointed out how we were both lucky to have finished just under 56 (him) and 57 (me), so no one would wonder could we have gone sub some random number!

RoyMcC

Stupid_Private wrote: »

Have to laugh at that... you always hear something like that if you run just over a given minute. Years back when I ran a 59:01 10 miler I was baffled when I was asked could I have gone that bit faster and got under 59. Why? I hear it all the time and it really puzzles me. I met mrak after a race a while back and I'd mentioned it to him before the race - he pointed out how we were both lucky to have finished just under 56 (him) and 57 (me), so no one would wonder could we have gone sub some random number!

A bit like Moorcroft's 13.00.41 in 1982 which no Brit has come near since, but he is still criticised for lack of effort :pac:

But an interesting concept about attaining one's ultimate potential and whether or not you instinctively know, at the time, that you'll never again equal it.