Capitol Bancorp 5k....Almost beat SUB 20! (Read 368 times)

Capitol Bancorp Run for Junior Achievement I lined up right near the front of the 407 runners. I think I was in the 3rd row on the inside lane which was a great race position to claim. A race volunteer saw a 10 year old up front and made him move back further. He glared at me and luckily he felt I looked fast enough so I kept my strategic position up with the big dogs. The mayor of Lansing gave a short speech then started the race abruptly by just saying 1-2-3 go! Luckily I wasn’t caught off guard by this and I started off at a fairly good clip. MILE ONE The 1st 300 feet was south on Capitol Avenue and I saw plenty of younger girls trying to beat me to the 1st right turn up ahead by going out way too fast. I could hear them laughing and saying happily to each other “Oh I am going to have to stop when I get to this corner I am out of breath already!” So I quickly found another gear and just barely managed to cut them off right before the turn. Now we were running almost straight into a 15 mph breeze from the west. Before the race I had tested this western breeze and knew it was going to knock some time off my race. I figured I would be lucky to break 20:40 today so I was going to try to draft off other runners on this stretch. Alas I really could find noone to draft with so I was caught in no mans land. Yet the breeze was now coming out of the WNW direction so more of a cross wind than a direct in your face wind. After about ¼ mile it happened. Forty-six year old Mary Ellen Stornant passed me and immediately moved right in front of me. The heavens had opened and my prayers had been answered. One of my plans today and at several past races had been to find Mary Ellen and stay with her for 2 miles is possible then pass her. Typically I had been far behind her in previous races but would pass her around mile 2.5 It was as if she was saying to me “Go ahead and get behind me. I will let you draft behind me” I tucked in behind her….fixed my gaze on her left shoulder and locked on to the pace. I noticed how she ran hard but the upper body was very relaxed. I tried to follow suit. I was so intent on following her I hadn’t noticed she was passing runners every 30 seconds or so as I just glided with her. Every move I followed that shoulder. We now pulled out of the wind and her pace increased. As we came upon more race traffic she would move in and out passing runners and I would start to fall back a little. I would put in short bursts to reel her back in. Around ¾ mile Jim Carter passed me and he filled in behind Mary Ellen. Jim was another mid 20s runner who usually is far ahead of me for the 1st 2 miles so I couldn’t believe my luck today. We came to the mile mark and I clocked in at 6:34. Ok not bad with the wind but that is above 20 pace. I still thought I had a shot to break my PR of 20:17. MILE TWO We made a sharp right turn and I pulled even with Mary Ellen. Then another right turn and I moved ahead of her for the 1st time. I saw another tough masters female Chris Vincent just ahead. I strided past her and could hear her breathing heavily. I felt good and tried to put Mary Ellen further behind. But just before the halfway mark Mary Ellen went past me again and I said “good job” We were now right at the halfway mark and Mary Ellen had about 3 seconds on me and was trying to pull away. I saw the start finish line and when I crossed on this 1st loop my time was 10:14. Okay so I will really have to fight to be in the mid 20s. But with the wind I was expecting this. We turned right into the wind again. Mary Ellen was getting a lot of cheers. I saw the 2 mile mark about 800 feet ahead as my watch read 12:00. I was thinking wow if I can get there close to 13 minutes I have a shot at sub 20. Surprisingly I still felt pretty good. There was very little thought process except to focus on the left shoulder of my pacer and go. Occasionally Mary Ellen would slow down and other times she would speed up to pass but most of the time she ran a hard even pace. We passed 2 miles in 13:06. I was amazed with that time. I had gone through the 1st 2 miles in 6:34 then 6:32. You couldn’t ask for a more perfect race. I have told myself if I get to 2 miles in 13 minutes I have a shot to break 20 by destroying the last mile. Seeing a 13:06 I really didn’t think sub 20 was possible but knew that a PR was very possible. MILE THREE I decided I owed Mary Ellen for her wind breaking help so I dug deep and found the confidence to pass her. I pulled in front of her as if to urge her to draft. I was going to have to use my own racing skills now to fight this last mile. I got hemmed in behind a slower teen runner but finally got some room to go around him. Now we had the wind at our backs. I started to gain a large lead on Mary Ellen. I smelled a record and that alone made me a monster among mere mortals who were just racing to finish. We came upon the walkers who were still on the 1st loop. I had to go wide left a couple times and this cost me several seconds. What can you do? It is what it is. I was even more determined to beat 20:17. We came to the clock for the mile mark which in my case signified the 2.55 mile mark…it was reading 16:38 or so and I really started to think there isn’t much race left…I can go hard and beat 20. There was a little over ½ mile to go. I was more determined than ever and just about barreled over a walker then I leapt off the course and ran through the grass in front of the capitol cutting about 50 feet off the racecourse by running tangents. Hey there were no cones so I was going to get the time back that the walkers cost me. 18 minutes!!! 3 blocks to go. A couple 5 year old boys had gotten loose and were walking down Pine Street right in the raceway. Their parents screamed at them…the younger one panicked and walked right in front of my path. I just missed bowling him in to the curb. 2 blocks left!!! 19 minutes!!! Its going to be close!! I put it in sprint mode. Just run 1 minute hard don’t think about the distance that remains. I saw people in front of me that were looking back trying to hold me off but I just wanted to beat the clock. I rounded the final turn at 19:34. I saw the finish about 500 feet away. It looks too far but you never know how far you can run as distances can be deceiving. It was an uphill finish. I saw the finish clock reading 19:45 and thought it is more than 100 yards away…I cant do 100 yards in 15 seconds ....STOP WITH THE NEGATIVES RUN YOU FOOL!!….then I saw 19:53 and knew I couldn’t quite get there. I got to the finish line in a painfully close time of 20:03. I needed 4 seconds. The walkers may have cost me the 4 seconds. I beat my old record by 14 seconds but what could have been. Mile splits 6:34 6:32 6:21 0:35 last tenth. 1st half of race run in 10:14, last half in 9:49 (astonishing 25 seconds faster on 2nd loop) Negative splits are the way to run…but 25 seconds is a bit overkill. Today was a classic case of Pace the 1st half...Race the 2nd half. I was 2nd of 13 in my age group and moved up to 2nd in my age group overall after 4 of 12 races in the Race Series. The guy that won my age group today ran a 16:38! I hope he doesn’t run too many race series races. The key of the race was having the confidence to stay with a runner I knew was faster than me. I got that confidence by increasing miles run the past few months. RACE SERIES RACES April 20... 20:47 ………..41/744 Overall, 5/35 Age April 27…20:30 …………59/1223 Overall, 7/66 Age May 2 …..20:49 …………46/ 659 Overall, 4/33 Age May 18 ....20:03.......... 32/ 407 overall, 2/13 Age