Notes
USATF Grand Prix Race #3
Started the morning with Liz and I getting some stomach punching news. Just felt low energy all day. Liz encouraged me to head up to Hollis anyway to race. At least to get my mind off things and throw down some fast miles.
Traffic heading up was terrible. What should have been a one hour drive probably took two hours. Luckily I left enough cushion to still get my number and do the reverse course warmup.
Didnt really know what to expect out of this course. Add in the fact that I've been racing terribly lately, figured I could be anywhere in the 15's to 16's. Sean recommended heading out around 5's, so went with that plan.
Race started off fast as the grand prix races usually begin. Sean passed me around the 1/2 mile mark with good advice to find people who looked like they would be running consistent. I had been keeping my eyes open for some of the usual suspects who finish near me. Sean quickly pulled away and I aimed to keep the 5:00 pace consistent at least through the first mile and then re-evaluate if I wanted to push the pace as the race went on.
Mile 2 I still felt surprisingly good despite the much faster than normal pace. Sean still had a decent 5+ second gap for most of the mile, but we started picking some of the runners who went out too quickly. Just felt weird how easy the miles were coming. Dont get me wrong, we were pushing but just the thought of 5:00 miles seemed crazy.
At the 2 mile marker, Sean still had a 2-3 second gap but was able to close that down over the next half mile. Ran side-by-side through about the 1/4 mile-to-go mark and then threw in a little kick to move away from the pack. I liked how the race had markers throughout the last mile for the 3/4, 1/2, and 1/4 to go. Was starting to feel the pace by the end but the markers kept me focused to hang in there a little longer.
Was shocked coming into the finisher shoot to see the finishing tape being brought out and a ponytail in front of the me. Apparantly I had finished right behind the lead woman, I had never seen her the entire race. She crossed the line and looked pretty relaxed like she hadnt even tried. Amazing how fast some of the people are in the race. Lead woman coming in at 15:30, lead men coming in below 14. Larissa had a great race taking 3rd place in a sub-16 performance.
Tough debate is how the time translates to a flat or more "normal" course. It's obviously an artificial PR, but still good motivation given that my last two 5K's barely broke 17 minutes. This is the first time I've used the "exclude from PR" checkbox here in runningahead, I guess this is why they have it.
Garmin had slightly different results from the official timer. Replaced the main table with the "official" splits, but threw in the garmin/officlal splits below. Garmin has been put in parenthesis.
Mile 1: 5:00 (4:57)
Mile 2: 5:04 (4:57)
Mile 3: 4:57 (5:02)
Stub: 30.6 (36.4)
Original per website:
45 CHRISTOPHER KLUCZNIK 30 M 609 15:31.6 5:01 15:33 5:02 10:05 15:01 SOMERVILLE ROAD RUNNERS
Revised on website:
45 CHRISTOPHER KLUCZNIK 30 M 609 15:31.6 5:01 15:33 5:00 5:04 4:57 SOMERVILLE ROAD RUNNERS
7. SOMERVILLE ROAD RUNNERS
14:55 15:33 15:36 15:39 15:43 ( 16:20) ( 16:39) = 1:17:26
JACOB BARNETT 28 M, CHRISTOPHER KLUCZNIK 30 M, SEAN MCDONOUGH 30 M,
JOE O'LEARY 45 M, ALEX WHITE 28 M, BRIAN CULLINAN 33 M, CHRISTOPHER
SMITH 47 M