Normally the Good Neighbor Day Race is my annual 10K to run my age, but with my goal race being the 12-hour run at Northcoast 24, I decided to step up to the 15K. I had another 10K selected in April to go for running my age. Unfortunately I never got to the starting line on that one because I missed too much training while ill in March. I figured it probably wouldn't make any difference either way since I expected to reach the 10K split well under 66 minutes.

In the two to three weeks leading up to the race I ran some extremely challenging workouts. That proved to be my undoing because one of them was basically a race effort that left me exhausted. Just as I thought I was recovered, I'd have another long or high quality run that set me back to the point where I took off the three days before the race entirely with no running at all because I was physically tired and mentally unmotivated.

Race day morning was warm and humid though not as hot and sunny as the previous two years. I had my normal breakfast and drove the short distance to the race to pick up my bib. I saw a few friends before the race, chatted a while and had a very short warm-up. After three days of no running and being tired, my legs did not feel like running, much less racing. With all that along with the heat and humidity I made some drastic revisions to my goals and planned or hoped for pace. In the beginning of the year when I scheduled this race I had hoped to run 1:33 to 1:35, maybe even flirt with 1:30 if my training went well. Now I planned a very conservative start with the hope that I could finish under 1:40.

With the 5K, 10K, and 15K all starting at the same time I expected to be way in the back, so that's where I positioned myself. Walkers had a separate start so they weren't a factor. With all three races there were over 1300 runners, but about 1000 of those were for the 5K. From where I was it took over a minute to reach the starting line, and it wasn't until then that there was any room to run. Despite all that planning and with most of the entrants running the 5K, I still found myself behind a lot of slower runners and moved up steadily passing people for at least the first mile. I think a lot of runners also underestimated the effects of heat and humidity because I was catching and passing 10K runners on my second of three 5K laps.

The courses and splits are certified, so I will reference Garmin mile splits adjusted to fit the certified split times. There was roughly a 6 second differential between the Garmin splits and the adjusted splits, about what I expect from Garmin error.

Despite or because of the crowding and congestion in the first mile, my split was 10:41, close to the slow end of what I'd hoped. Though not pancake flat, there's nothing there I would call a hill. The only significant slope is a gentle but long, steady hill approaching the 2-mile split which I see again at 5 miles and 8 miles. My pace varied slightly with the hills but I came through the first 5K in 33:09, a 10:40 average. With the vast majority of runners to the left finishing the 5K, the field thinned considerably. Just a short way ahead of me were two runners from my club who were in the 10K whom I could finally see without the crowds. It didn't take me too long to catch and pass them with a word of encouragement along the way. At this point I was still only trying to hold pace to at least the halfway point. I was still feeling okay after I reached the top of the hill and I think also unconsciously increasing the effort as I passed 10K runners getting ready to finish. Miles 6 and 7 were 10:24 and 10:26 which brought me through 10K in 1:06:13 (33:04 for the 2nd 5K). Now I'm on the final lap, so anyone I can see ahead of me is a 15K runner. My competitive persona starts to take over and I'm trying to see how much I have in reserve and can I catch any of them. Despite that mile 8 is slower at 10:37, but I still pass 5 or 6 runners. Mile 8 finishes uphill though (remember that hill I mentioned earlier) and that's when my legs started to give out. I gave back one place and was trying to hang on when all I wanted to do was stop and walk. I could hear voices behind and I gave back three more places when they passed less than a half mile from the finish. I'm checking my watch and the last mile was over 11 minutes. I'm going to have to pick up the pace and kick in the last .32 miles to keep the time under 1:40. At least this race was chip timed so when I saw the clock go over to 1:40:00 I knew I had some time to spare and still finish under that. Final time 1:39:29 and final 5K 33:16. That gives me only a 12 second spread from slowest to fastest 5K. Not bad on a day with warm and rising temperatures. More importantly to me was that I didn't end up in the medical tent like I had the previous two years. Depending on how you look at it I also placed next to last in my AG or second.

Great job, George!  Your training has been going well.

GReat job!  I find it odd that they just had everyone do 5K loops up to their race distance.  It sounds rather confusing.  Anyway great job in the heat and crowds.

I love that you're picking up distance, and training for the NC24.   Do you have anymore races between now and then?

You paced yourself beautifully and I am in awe at your ability to adjust your goal based on the weather and your physical state on race day. Years of racing experience must help, no doubt, you were right on in your estimate! Congratulations, George. Your training is going great!

Nice report, George.

That does sound like a poor way to set up the different distances, good luck at your next events.

It's not so much confusing as it is bothersome when faster runners in the 10K have to run around or between slower 5K runners all finishing at the same time, especially when the 5K runners have no clue what's going on and are chatting away in family groups and clusters of friends blocking a direct line  to the finish for runners going twice as fast and often battling another runner for an award place. It's usually obvious when someone does finish a lap early "breaking" the world record or world best for his AG be several minutes. Each lap is also certified and chip timed so there's a clear record of what a person has run.

 

I have two more training races scheduled, The Endless Summer 6-Hour Run in Annapolis on July 27th and the Self-Transcendence Marathon in Nyack, NY on August 23rd. I do miss the 5Ks and summer track meets but they would interfere too much with my training.

IOI. We have a race like that here except it's 5k, 10k, half and marathon. It is a little annoying to pass the same cluster when they don't give any consideration to much faster runners. The fastest guy was doing the marathon on a 1 mile loop. That must have got old until the slow pokes finally exited.

Congrats on the even splits and reaching your revized goal. 15k is my favorite distance, an opportunity I don't present itself much these days. Shame so many chose to opt for the common place shorter distance than one of the less common 10k / 15k. You're the 1st that expressed a goal of running their age in a 10k. Is that common among Masters or something you came up wiith? Noticed your mileage has increased as you point toward NC 12/24. Good luck with that.

That was mentioned several years ago on the RWOL BF or Masters forum. I don't remember who brought it up, but I've done it every year since I turned 40.

Great job wc. You're one of my heroes on this site. (probably said this 10 times already but whatever). Keep running strong. Looking forward to future triumphant RRs. Also love the fact that you know how to run all these sort of non-standard distances.