I have not heard of this Service Day 5k and am very interested in seeing whatever flyer or ad there might be for it.

Perry, I had the impression Oak Ridge was shorter than 3 miles. I see that you have it down as 2.63. I didn't think it would be that off.

I ran in your backyard. I'd hesitate to call it a race, though.

I ran in your backyard. I'd hesitate to call it a race, though.

Okay, that made me laugh out loud. Anyway, yes, I ran both. Invisible Children was *supposed* to start at 0800, but they goofed around (they get a new college kid as race director each year, apparently, so they never really know what they're doing), and got it started at 08:15. I thought for sure I'd be late for Oak Ridge, but I ran Invisible Children pretty hard -- caught the erstwhile leader at about mi 2.5, and judging by the final results (1min gap behind me), I went faster and the previous leader faded over the last half a mile. That's the only race I've ever won. I immediately jogged to my car and drove for Oak Ridge. Got there just as people were gathering to start (09:30). Invisible Children was lovely overcast weather. Oak Ridge was windy, rainy, and chilly -- but at least the course was wet, muddy, and hilly - and had two little stream crossings. So I felt like a hardcore trail runner out on it. The rain was light. We did a group warmdown afterward and the rain increased to light/moderate. Then Joe and I went back out for another mile, and the rain was moderate/heavy by then I think. I thought the course was short -- but Sierra claims it is the SMAC course, and I don't imagine a SMAC course would be wrong, or very far wrong. I emailed Dave Walser to ask his opinion. If we ran the exact SMAC course, then I'm going to revise my stored workout to 3miles.

I will guess I will give my impression of the 10k. I lined up with Rick and we discussed what time we hoped to do the first mile in. I said I would like to do 6:50, but may end up going out in something like 6:40 because of the adrenaline. Rick said he wanted to do something in the 7:05 range and that he probably wouldn't follow me out if I went out in 6:40 because that not his type of race. The police sirens then sounded and we were off. We didn't start super fast, more just weaving through people, I noticed DR bolted pretty hard at the gate. A quarter mile into DR probably was 10-15 seconds ahead of Rick and I. At around the quarter mile mark, I picked it up a little, mostly out of adrenaline rather than strategy. At the one mile mark I actually closed on DR. I was at 6:30 and I would guess I was 5 seconds behind me. I don't think I looked back for Rick at this point and I was thinking he was a half minute behind me. The second mile was a struggle for me. DR widen the gap from about 5 seconds to 12 seconds or so in the second mile and I got passed by about five people without passing anybody. I was a little discouraged. I assumed I had at least 30 seconds on Rick which turned out to be erroneous. It was right before the end of the second mile when I looked back and saw Rick was 8 to 10 seconds behind. That disappointed me, I assumed that my hard start could hurt me down the line, but that for the present I had created a 30 second cushion. The start of the third mile was also pretty rough, I was not feeling great and didn't feel like I had momentum after mainly being passed during the second mile. Even though DR was well within eye sight, I was more focused on Rick at this point. At about the 2.3 mile mark, I got just the jolt I needed. A female runner went to pass me, she blew by and was soon 5 meters ahead. I probably would not have responded except once five meters ahead she seemed to settle in a little and slow up. She was still moving faster than me, but it looked like a pace I might be able to keep up with. So I absolutely made up my mind at that point, I was going to try to stay with her as long as possible. I did so for about a quarter of a mile and then we hit a downhill. The night before I had googled had to run downhills and when I hit the downhill I leaned forward and focused on keeping my feet on the ground for as short as possible and taking fuller strides. It was a great downhill to run. If the hill is too steep you can't run them aggressively, this was just steep enough that gravity was a huge helper, but gradual enough that you could lean forward without going out of control. I passed her right back . This started the rolling hill part of the course. It seemed I was even with her during uphills and straightaways, but picked up time on all the downhills. On the uphills I focused hard on form, small steps and really swinging my arms, on downhills on leaning into and letting gravity help while staying in control. Every uphill and downhill all I thought about was my form, for example on an uphill I would just tell myself "swing those arms, swing those arms" on downhills I was making a conscious effort to lean forward more than I usually do. (My natural instinct is to lean back to maintain control, but that slows you up) At the three mile mark I looked back and the woman was maybe 3 seconds behind me and Rick 8 to 10 seconds still. I can't remember exactly how much DR was ahead of me, but my guess is in the 10-15 second range. The fourth and first half of the fifth mile seemed to go by well. I was gaining on the pack ahead of me which had DR in it. At about the 4.5 mile mark I pulled to within 5 seconds of the back of DR's pack and maybe 8 seconds within DR. I also passed and couple of stranglers from the DR's pack who fell back. When I looked back at the four mile I saw Rick but it was hard to judge distance, but it didn't feel like he was breathing down my neck anymore. My four mile split was almost exactly 28 minutes. After we turned of Ceder lane on the route 5 I counted the seconds between me and DR. He passed a cone and I timed it. He was about 10 seconds ahead of me at this point with 1.5 miles left. I was definitely contemplating how to make a move on him, when something interfered with my decision. I started running up the hill not expecting to have troubles, but midway through the hill I realized I was in trouble as a couple people I had passed repassed me. I wanted to walk, but that was more of a thought to distract me than a realistic consideration. For the first time, my race tactic of focusing on form on the hills failed me, as I couldn't maintain discipline and focus on form when people were passing me because all I could think about was being passed. Realistically I was pretty devastated because that was when I realized I didn't have enough in the tank to try to go after DR. If I had more in the tank I almost definitely would have gone after him and given it my best. I probably only lost a few seconds to DR on the actually hill, but it took me a quarter mile to recover from the hill and by then there was probably only half a mile left and I was down by something like 18 to 20 seconds. This is about the time when I started compulsively looking back for Rick (as I was leaving the community college) to see if I had troubles. When I looked back though it was a 60 year guy and the girl I was seeing immediately behind. The 60 year old guy made a hard move and passed me. I decided he was not going to lose me so I just followed him. If he had meant anything to me, I probably would have passed him back right away to make a statement, but he didn't so I let him set the pace. He really ran hard the last 200. Not sure if I had really wanted to if I could have caught him, but just following I passed another 10k runner and almost passed another. When I finished DR was with his parents. Rick seemed to finish within seconds of me. I think DR's mom gave me a bottle of water. Some time, but not a lot seemed to pass then Joe came in. I still had no idea what Joe had ran. Then Alden came in. He was looking strong until right before the finish he had a smoker like coughing fit. I was half talking to Alden half watching for Val when I hard Rick yelling for her and saw her come in looking strong. I missed Emily coming in because with Val in I was thinking all the runners were in and started thinking about the food. Also I half assumed she beat DR and I in as a lot of walkers were ahead of us and in the way coming in. Emily said she came in around the 54 minute mark. That was my memory, what do you guys remember?

I had a good race, but didn't hit my time goal. Went out pretty fast. Three kids settled out in front (Leonardtown xcountry I was later told), and then there was a pack of about 5 of us (myself, Tyler Robinson, Mark Converse, Rob Fritz, and a guy with headphones I didn't know). We stayed that way to the downhill, where Tyler & Mark flew ahead of me, but then I passed both on the uphill, and after that I don't know what happened to any of them except Tyler, who stayed with me and outsprinted me at the end. I just saw the 5K results -- one of the three kids out front is missing, dunno what that means, and also they credited me ahead of Tyler, which is feasible -- it took me a second to cross the start line, and he probably started right on the line. So surprisingly I'm credited with 3OA -- but there is a xcountry kid missing it seems from the front.

Nah, they were substantially under 6 pace.

Only the people on the starting line really have a chance of sharing the same chip and gun time. I spoke to each of you only briefly before the race started. Phil and I did a brief jog together to warm up. I decided to stop by a port-o-potty after the jog and waited in a small line. According to my watch, I had almost 20 minutes. When I got through the line and out, my watch said I had about ten minutes, so I walked over to the start line. I was a bit surprised to see the starting chute loaded with people. I stretched a bit and looked around for some of you, but didn't really see anyone. Emily came running over to me from somewhere and yelled at me to get in line. I was like, "Well, which race are they starting first?" She tried to explain to me that all of the runners were starting. "Oh." So I went into the crowd and looked at my watch, which said we still had six minutes. I found Alden and Valerie, whose watches gave evidence that mine was about five minutes behind. We briefly discussed what sort of pace we planned to run. I said about an 8-minute per mile pace, which Alden was cool with. There was also another guy we shall refer to as Runner X who supposedly ran 8-minute miles. I had met Runner X before and so there was some added value to competing with him if the opportunity presented itself. The race began. None of us noticed this. I did not hear a sound. There was some motion in front of us and then I could see bobbing heads in the front further away from the starting line than where they had been moments ago. We started moving only to see a wall of people come to a sudden stop in front of us and then resume again as if it were a wave crashing on a beach and receding into the next coming wave. Alden and I virtually stopped ourselves to let an alley form in front of us before crossing the start line, which probably gave us 1 or 2 seconds worth of a better chip time. And then we passed about a hundred people in the next few seconds. I believed we were running faster than an 8-minute pace. I commented on this to Alden, but I'm not sure he cared one way or another, as it did not entice him to slow down any. I later commented, "Well, we won't know how fast we're actually going until we hit the first mile and then at least we'll have another 5 miles to make up the difference." We were moving faster than I had planned, but it didn't feel bad, so I kept up with Alden. Alden stayed a few feet in front of me for most of the first mile. At times, he would slow up slightly and then continue. I almost thought he was slowing the pace so as not to leave me behind so early. We ran a 7:30 first mile. Around the mile mark, Runner X passed us. Alden recognized this and picked the pace up ever so slightly. We then watched Runner X put a considerable distance on us over the next mile. I figured he was trying to take me out of the race early and that he would certainly slow his pace down at some point. The thing is, if he passed going at a 7:15 or so pace, would slowing down mean 7:30 or would it mean 7:45, because the former would probably be too fast for me to catch that late in the game. I pointed out to Alden that I could sure use a two mile marker. I was also very envious of Alden's water bottle, though I was content to take water wherever stationed. We looked ahead and saw a white marker-like thing and I was a bit disappointed at its distance. And then the two mile marker appeared behind some people a few feet in front of us and we realized the white thing in the distance was moving and a shirt on someone's back. My watch revealed the second mile had been run in a 7:40 pace. I figured I would get more fatigued as the race went on and that if I added 10 seconds to my pace every mile, then hitting my goal of an 8-minute pace would be within range and rely on my final mile's effort. At this point in the race, I still thought an 8-minute pace was about what I was capable of. I started to pull away from Alden, which surprised me. I expected he and I would be together for some time to come. I couldn't see him, so I could only hear his breathing, which struck me as being somewhat heavy. The heavy breathing grew fainter as I continued running. I did not look back to see him, but rather ahead to Runner X who was perhaps 200 meters ahead. I planned to slowly close that distance over the next few miles and try to pass him on the big hill. It was vitally important to me at this point to stay below 7:40, but not to make the mistake of being impatient and catching him so early that I blew all my energy halfway into the race. I did not get my exact splits after this, but I ran a season PR in the 5k. I felt very good at that point and believed I could actually maintain a 7:30-7:40 pace the rest of the race. I then focused on a slight increase to my pace and I began to pass many runners who were tiring. Having left Alden, I was a runner all alone. The runners in front of me had grown complacent in their packs. Runner X looked complacent in his group, all of whom were slowing slightly. I picked off the stragglers around mile 4. I spent most of mile 4 into the preliminary hills growing closer to Runner X, who noticed me gaining on a turn. Then the turns came quickly and we were thrown to the Route 5 downhill. He looked quite a bit in front of me at that point, but I knew I had to go now or it wasn't going to happen. I had planned to make my move on the hill. I also had to be ahead of him before the finish was in sight so that he'd be more likely to fade without a challenge. So I took the downhill rather hard. I passed a guy or two. And then I took the uphill rather hard. I did not take it as hard as I wanted, but that was mostly irrelevant, because every other runner near me did not share my strategy and so I passed half a dozen people on the hill. I turned onto the college campus and closed on Runner X. Part of my strategy was that I knew the rest of the race would be flat, so the course would be cake after that hill. I passed him just before we turned right onto the highway and I made that turn going about a 7:00 pace. Having passed him just after the hill and turning away at such a speedier pace, he did not try to keep up. I passed one or two people on the way to the finish and that was that. This race would have been completely blown for me if I had started at my intended pace. It would have also been blown had I tried to make up 200 meters between miles 2 and 3 instead of between miles 2 and 5.5. A combination of luck and good decision making really made the race great for me. I don't consider myself a veteran 10k runner, so being able to maintain the 7:30 has much more to do with my training than to do with me planning well. I have two main things to thank from training: 1) a long run of 15 miles and 2) routine speedwork faster than my goal race pace. Having planned to run an 8:00 pace, there's no way I could have run six consecutive miles around 7:30 if not for having done 800s and an occasional mile at a low 7s pace. It's also important to note how competition helped here. I realize now that in future races, even if I have nobody around me, I need to make it a point in the last half of a race to always be gunning for the next pack. It's easy to ignore that if you don't know/care about anyone in that pack. DR had little incentive to catch anyone. Phil had DR to catch. Rick had Phil to catch. I had Runner X to catch. Alden had more incentive when I was nearby for the first two miles. That made it a bit easier on each of us at one point, but what happens when nobody you care about is near? It's too easy to get complacent. I thoroughly enjoyed the race. I felt like I was going faster than I've run in a long time, because I was, and it's astonishing to me to think that you guys were going at a 7-flat pace for the whole thing.