Notes
Frozen Shamrock 3 Miler, part of the Wild Rover series. My plan was to get out hard and see how long I could hold it. I was told there was a big hill in the second mile and another one in the third. Turns out the big hill was how the first mile finished. Got out decently hard, stayed aggressive and out in front of the other two guys with me. Joe was right with me and Jose caught up probably halfway through the big hill. It was a long hill in that first mile. And the split showed it. 5:50, ugh. Time to make up some time. On some flat for a bit then turned for a downhill. I flew down that downhill, it was super steep. Onto the flat again where it remained for the rest of the race. 5:15, that's more like it. Of course I kind of expected it to be that fast with that downhill. Now let's see how the third mile's hill is.
Continued to push through the second mile and into the third. I knew the second mile was a little before the bridge so after I got across it I wouldn't have much left. As I was coming across the bridge I saw an uphill looming across it. That must be it. But Jose was right on my tail so I kept pushing hard. Got across the bridge and I got flagged left! I warmed up this way, it's all flat from here!! I was pretty motivated and sped up further to keep my lead.
The flat almost lasted until the end. The road before the pub I got flagged right. Up a huge hill. Ugh. Don't get passed, don't get passed. Kept pushing up the hill towards a cop at an intersection. Was this the left to the finish. The cop thought so; she started flagging me left. But I saw Jake up ahead, further up the hill. I made hand gestures to the cop to tell her about Jake, because I didn't have much breath. She turned around and was like "ohh" and started pointing me uphill. There's only runners that just passed you and several more cops farther up the hill. If you're getting paid time and a half you can at least take your job seriously and know which way to point for 30 minutes. Sheesh. Farther up the hill I go, still having decent momentum but tiring. Finally I got to the left onto the flat, accelerated hard, turned left again and careened down the hill. I heard the announcer saying "fourth place is hot on third" and I booked it even harder. No way I was losing that spot now. I saw the clock come into view saying 16:07. Nice, thought I'd be slower. Straight through the finish at 16:19.
Course was a little short at 2.94. Equates to a 17:15. Not bad. That hill was terrible. Both were. That really felt like my best race effort to date. I would say that was the most determined I've been and where and when and how I pushed where really solid. Time is probably on par with what I've been doing. Not bad considering the variability in my consistency. I think being back at 50 is helping and the residual base is staying put. I think one more week at 50ish and then I'd like to start adding a workout a week in. It's time to start getting fast again.