Sabrina Little's race report from last weekend

Three notes:

1. No Rohan today, nor Nikolas, so I was all alone (save for the lead police cruiser) for essentially the entire race (the runner-up finished exactly 90 seconds back).

2. Big upset in the women's race, as Avery Cunningham (age 14) was beaten to the finish by 9 seconds by her friend Sarah Sykora (age 16).

3. I'm sure glad I collected my towering trophy last year, as for the same accomplishment this year I merely received a small gold medal with the Kiwanis K on it and the engraved text "Crofton, Maryland Annual 10k". Blank on the back (meaning it was the exact same thing that every age group first place finisher won).

And yes, it was humid --- but not raining (though there was plenty of that during both the long drive up and the longer drive back).

I did my a race in WV this weekend and was really bad.  Like my average pace just under 12 minutes bad.  Right after starting the race I remembered that I don't like technical trail races.  My team took First Place in the mixed division (you needed at least 2 females).  There were six of us, I was the second slowest.  The other 3 males on the team were very good.  One of them was a HS Track stores who clocked a 4:24 in 1600 this past track season, another was a recent graduate of the Naval Academy (where he ran on the team his freshman year) who had recent clocked a 34 minute 10K two weeks ago, and other guy was the guy I train with who runs about a 3 hour marathon but who is very good at technical trail running.  The first two guys both ran slightly sub 8 for their legs and my friend ran just over 8 minutes per mile for his legs so that shows you how bad I am at trails.

The only excuse I have is about 13 out of the 16 miles I ran were at night (with a headlamp) which was the highest percentage of miles run at night of any team member.  I would guess running at night adds about a minute per mile to your time.  A lot of people who had run Ragnars said they didn't think running at night would affect them because they had done so at previous road race Ragnars and it didn't bother them with the headlamp, but that the trails are a different animal because even with the headlamp there was not enough visibility on the trails to run normal.  The trails were more technical than St. Mary's River State Park.

Congrats to DR on the win, and to Phil on running at night on technical trails.

Congratulations to DR and Phil!

This is lewdly late --- and any later and it might be too late!

Though I was able to relive the glory in a sense by defending my title, the 2012 Crofton Kiwanis 10k Challenge remains my greatest racing experience ever, both for the valiant victory against fierce foes and the powerhouse PR (the 35:30 I ran last year was 80 seconds off my previous best 10k time). Thus an entirely epic race report was warranted last year. Yet as for this year … yes there was again victory, but I was virtually uncontested, and I missed setting a new PR by 53 seconds. Mainly, aside from perhaps not being at my best due to injury recovery, the two main factors that helped propel me last year --- it being unusually crisp out for June and having a couple eager runners along to keep my pace honest --- were rendered the opposite this time around:  it was a smotheringly humid morning and, as has been stated, I was pretty much on my own. So there unfortunately isn’t a whole lot to note about the 2013 Crofton Kiwanis 10k Challenge, which means that a more succinct summary is called for.

Ante-race:

Right up until a couple minutes before the commencement of the race --- even as lined up participants were being dealt the customary warning to avoid running over the race photographer who would be bravely standing at his usual post facing the oncoming stampede of runners --- I was frantically looking all around for any sign of Rohan Meredith (2OA in both 2011 and 2012) or Nikolas Korbelak (1OA in both 2010 and 2011, 4OA last year). Learning on Friday via athlinks of Rohan’s recent running advancements (i.e., a sub-1:17:00 half-marathon) had caused me to fret that defending my title would be nigh impossible, yet he was nowhere to be seen. Nor was Nik. Meanwhile an immigrant man also standing near the front asked me if I thought it might rain, and I replied that it almost looked like it was trying to get sunny. Though while rain during the race was a diminished threat, the humidity continued to steam.

The early going (roughly miles 1-2):

Last year I got out to a reckless start as I dueled with Nikolas the defending champ, leading to a 5:27 opening mile. Within seconds of the blastoff this year, however, it was clear that there were no rabbits in our midst. Thus I thought back to Joe's advice to begin relaxed and indeed went out at a hard cruise --- though I still pulled promptly ahead nonetheless. Yet even though I managed a 5:38 opening split without much of a rush, things still caught up to me fast; the instantaneous pacing on my Forerunner was already starting to slip over 6:00/mi in the 2nd mile. Plus a couple looks back confirmed that there were indeed other runners in this race, which made me marvel how mortifying it would be if I were to blow such a wide early lead by allowing someone to close the huge distance on me.

The middle marches (approximately miles 3-4):

Heading up that long hill on the Crofton Parkway before the right turn onto the lollipop loop section was the time in the race at which I felt the most vulnerable, as I'm surely not as hill resilient now as I was a year ago (considering that most of my miles now are on the treadmill and not the constant ups and downs of my old 'hoods). Yet after taking the two quick right turns onto Harwell Ave and Harcourt Ave (both of which involve continued uphill running), I looked back and beheld that no one was even close to turning onto Harwell. Last year that was the point at which me, Rohan, and Nikolas fell into a tight pack (with a looming threat from Luis Navarro, who ended up besting Nik and finishing 3OA in 2012). Yet this time it's where I knew for sure that I'd be on my own for the rest of the way. Ah, and then I totally failed to exploit the fact that mile 3 ends on a long downhill (before the course turns right back uphill as Harcourt reconnects with Harwell), and I'm quite shamed by that non-sub-6:00 split. Passing the easy running folks face to face before turning right back onto the parkway provided some semblance of a reminder that I was truly in a real race with others.

The final thrust (basically the rest):

That damn police car. Look, I may have had a devastating incident back in 2010, but since then I pretty much have the course memorized. Yet I feel sorry for anyone further back in the race who had any uncertainty over where to go, as the lead cop car ended up being there solely for my benifit. And time and time again I came close to running right into the back of it! Especially on the turns, and there were a couple moments when I was running alongside the car rather than behind it. This may sound absurd, but I think that police car may have actually slowed me up along the way. Furthermore, a combination of the sultry humidity plus the way I dumped a couple water cups right over my head led to my clothing being drenched and getting  all stuck up on me. This was quite an annoyance in the final minutes of the race. Then in the very final stetch, I wished to summon a worthy kick but, according to my Forerunner, the pace of my final 0.24 miles was no faster than the pace of my opening mile. I tried to put on a tiny bit of a showing for those gathered by the finish, though, and it wasn't until passing through and catching a water bottle thrown to me that I realized I'd neglected to hit stop.

Epilogue:

Things just didn't feel the same this year. A solo cool down, and then no breakfast at the old Nautilus Diner. Though of course there was the requiste Chick-fil-A breakfast sandwich to quaff down.

Training for the LPRM '14 is technically underway.

Who were these fast "sons of Jen" who battled Perry at Lancaster yesterday? Who won the women's race?

Training for the LPRM '14 is technically underway.

 

Who were these fast "sons of Jen" who battled Perry at Lancaster yesterday? Who won the women's race?

My advice is to remember is that hard 16 or 18 milers are tough on the body too.  I think going into your last cycle you went in thinking something along the lines of 24 miler  at say a 7:30 pace is hard on the body but a 16 miler at some 6:45 is not that tough because I have been doing those.   However in reality those two runs are probably about equally tough on the body and need an equal time to recover from.