Notes
What to say? Very happy with the outcome here! I ran the race that I wanted to and beat the person that I was targeting. Unfortunately, there were three other people that weren't on my radar. My time last year would have put me in 6th place overall and I would have won the masters division handily. Oh well!
So, for the specifics. I think everything pre-race was fine. Got up around 4:15 and went down to the fitness center and did an easy 5 minute walk on the treadmill. Went outside to check the weather and it was just as forecast -- mid to up 30s and windy. Grabbed a banana a shower and then caught the shuttle to the race. Ate my pop tarts on the way and had half of my Dr. Pepper while waiting. Slowly sipped on powerade during the time. Nervous bowel syndrome, but nothing some bathroom intervals wouldn't take care of.
Headed to the start. Spotted Jeff Mescal from Indiana who had won the masters a couple of times in the past. Target on his back. Didn't see Tom Tisell. There were a couple of other masters, but I didn't pay too much attention to them (MISTAKE).
Race got out and everyone was pretty much sprinting out of the dome. Was waiting for the GPS to finally lock and just tried to stay easy. Goal was 6:25 to 6:30 for the first 5 and I think I nailed that pretty well. Jeff was moving away from me, but I was going to stick with my plan! Tried to just lock into that pace/effort and see what it was bringing me. Somewhere between mile 5 and mile 10, I decided to stop really focusing on my splits and just focus on effort. I was picking people off and moving up. My HR was right where I wanted it to be, so I just started competing. Had a few faster miles around mile 10 because I was putting in a move on another master and getting separation.
Miles 11 through 20 was me trying to move. Caught Jeff at mile 18 and surged fairly hard to get more separation. Caught a few more over the next few miles and there was one more guy out there that I was chasing. Felt like I was closing, but just never got all the way in touch with him. He ended up beating me by 19 seconds and was the 3rd place masters -- ugh. Fell off a little in Miles 22 -- 24, but I was still moving up, so I am just going to accept that. I accepted the bad stretches of the race (needing to pee -- ignored it, thinking I needed a sit down biffy -- ran through it).
So, going into the race I had my standard goals:
1. Complete the race and be healthy -- Check!
2. Don't run stupid -- Check!
3. Negative split -- Check!
As for quantifiable goals:
Goal A -- 2 hours plus my age in time -- CRUSHED!!!
Goal A+ -- Pie in the Sky Goal -- 2:44:48 -- missed this one by a little bit, but Age Graded I demolished my PR from 6 years ago. I think that I managed my effort and competed better in this race than I ever have in the past!!!
What next? Let's have some more fun!!!
Age Graded: 84.47%