Notes
Gordon put on the Mom's run race again this year and had been talking it up the past few weeks to help raise money for cancer research. Mother's Day plans for me were scheduled for later in the afternoon, so had time this morning to race.
I ran the course on Friday to get a feel for the layout. It was pretty apparant that this was not set up to be a PR course, just too many hills. It's a loop course starting at Dilboy Post and running up Summer Street with a left onto Willow followed by a right onto Highland. This first stretch is a gentle uphill until you approach Cedar and the hill steepens slightly. Race continues with a gentle uphill down Highland followed by another steeper section near Highland Kitchen just past Central Street. Central is the 1 mile mark. Race continues up Highland until Vinal, which takes the course down a very steep hill down to Summer Street. The race then takes Summer Street all the way back to the Post. There are a few uphill sections, notably from Vinal up to the first crest near a retirement home and then again from Central up to St. Catherines. Past St. Catherines, the course is then mainly downhill with a couple of flat sections. If you havent blown up by the downhill section, it can be a fast finish. Unfortunately many of the downhills are steeper where you just cant gain as much from the downhill as compared to what you lose on the uphills.
I started out quick to avoid the congestion since the first turn would come quickly. I then settled into 5:10 pace (around a 16:00 5K). I knew this would be aggressive and probably not realistic on this course, but nonetheless I went for it. A couple of guys came with me and could hear them off my shoulder. Slowly leaked away pace over the first mile over the series of hills. Ended up with a first mile split of 5:23, which was nowhere near my goal pace nor near my PR pace. I knew this was going to be trouble since there were going to be some tough hills ahead on Summer Street to climb.
As we took the right onto Vinal, it was pretty much me and Elliott out front and were running side by side. We hit the steep downhill and Elliott just bombed down the hill. He would have made Furhmeister proud. I took the hill more conservatively realizing downhills are one of my weaknesses. I figured I would have a shot to make up ground on the later climbs. This turned out to be a big mistake. Elliott made a smart move on the hill creating a sizeable gap on a short stretch. If he passed me on flat or uphill, I probably would have gone with him. By absolutely pounding that downhill, he broke contact and never looked back.
I then struggled on the climbs up Summer. There was just nothing in the tank to reach into. Normally I use the hills to my advantage, but just came out flat today. Felt like dropping out near Central Street but hung on long enough to reach the downhill stretch of Summer Street. Mile 3 consists of a 50 foot climb and 90 foot drop spread out. This turned out to be my slowest mile. Disappointed that I fell off pace even more on the last mile here. I like to finish strong but more of just limped in. As I approached the end, I could start to hear cheers for the guy behind me, so I knew I was likely going to get passed at this rate. Before I knew it, I heard Joe's voice telling me I had it. Not sure if he was just being nice and taking pity on me, or if he was just trying to avoid a sprint finish. Put in a half hearted kick to put an end to the painful morning.
Finished 2nd overall, a solid 15 seconds behind Elliott. Just didnt have it today. Plenty of excuses out there if I wanted to use them (marathon recovery, wet morning, hilly course) but disappointed in the time. Hope to start bouncing back with some faster races over the next month.