Notes
The weather was excellent and the course was very fast. Perfect combination. I'm guessing it was around 41 degrees at 8am with a little breeze that was a non-factor. Ran in shorts, tech t-shirt, a long-sleeved cotton shirt, and gloves.
My focus was starting slowly and building into pace as my slowest miles were 1 & 2. I also wanted to negative split and I accomplished that. I walked to the starting line with zero warm-up and just a few leg shakes to get things going. Not sure if that's the wisest approach but that helped me go slowly.
Mile One – 8:25
Mile Two – 7:56
Felt very good. Relaxed and even a little slow. It was during the second mile that the first water/aid station was placed. I had already run two 10 milers in training so I wasn’t planning on taking any water but everyone around me slowed to a walk and I flew through all the silly newbies. But it got me thinking that maybe I should be drinking a little water during the race. It would help (I thought) and what could it hurt?
Mile Three – 7:40
Bad news. Much too fast. Hopefully I wouldn’t pay for this later.
Mile Four – 7:44
Mile Five – 7:58
Five Mile Split – 39:43 (17 seconds ahead of goal)
Just after mile five was the second aid station. Most everyone else stopped to a walk while drinking but how hard could it be? So I grab a cup of water, pinch the sides down, maintain my pace, and go to drink. Unfortunately half of the water went up my nose and the other half went down my shirt. So now I’m coughing and trying to get anything into my mouth with my second attempt which is proving difficult. I finally get a nice mouthful but as I’m trying to swallow I can’t breathe which is key after five miles. So I finally get one drink down but now I’m gasping for breath so I just threw the cup down onto the ground. I need practice.
Mile Six – 7:45
Mile Seven – 7:39
Mile Eight – 7:53
Mile Nine – 7:40
Mile Ten – 7:36
Five Mile Split – 38:33
Total Time – 1:18:16
Average Mile – 7:50
Not much happened during the second half. As odd as it sounds I just kept running and tried maintaining my pace. There were two pockets of spectators during the final 1.5 miles and they helped immensely with little kids giving out high-fives and even a few grown-ups. I felt okay that each mile was under 8 as I was running but I was still pretty cautious with going out too fast. Overall a great race and a very fun time. I finished in 287th out of 1199 and the post-race spread was excellent as I snagged two PowerAdes, some Power bars, bagels, yogurt, and some candy bars. I was the fourth fastest guy from Wisconsin so I have that going for me.
Last four weeks – 32 – 23 – 30 – 31
Next four weeks – 30 – 31 – 33 – 33
Next race: Kansas City’s Hospital Hill Half-Marathon on June 7th. The first big test.