Notes
This morning was the Chappaqua 10K, which I've been looking forward to for a long time. Unfortunately though it didn't go quite as I had hoped. Just before the start I noticed a guy who certainly looked Kenyan (and who I later found out graduated from Iona two years ago and now runs for the Westchester Track Club) lurking in the shadows near the starting line, and when the gun went off I found him to be the only person going out with me. I ran with him for the first mile or so (coming through the first "split" in what they claimed to be a 4:36, which obviously was short) and then had to let him go. I discovered that running track, even if you train in the Purple Valley, does not prepare you to race hills, and going up Hardscrabble became a bit of a challenge. However, I didn't lose sight of the guy until we were coming back down Hardscrabble and turning onto 120- when I got there he was nowhere to be seen, and I didn't see him again until I finished. Nevertheless, I tried to keep up my pace going up 120 which didn't happen at all and I was slowed to what at least appeared to me to be a very slow pace crawling up the hill. When I got to the top I was able to pick it up again though, only to be slowed down again by the Cross Ridge hill. Once I summited that, however, I was able to really pick up the pace and I ran the last 1.5 miles (which, of course, are all downhill) much faster to finish a little under 35 minutes. This just goes to show that I was in fairly good shape, being able to recover well and use the flats/downhills and really pick it up there, but the hills were absolutely miserable. I definitely need to make sure that those are a focus of my training this summer.
I was pretty bummed out that I wasn't able to win my 4th Chap 10K, though I feel like it would have been worse if it had been really close and I still lost (he finished in about 32:45, leaving Peter Sherry's course record intact). But even so, especially now that I'm in college I really don't win things anymore, and recently I haven't even been all that close (though hopefully this fall that will change). The 10K has always been a nice way to get some of that excitement of placing really well, and this was a real disappointment. But, there's always my senior year (since I won't be back from Switzerland in time next year), and I'll be back. Had a good time running it though, and it was nice racing back at home again.