Notes
Charleston Distance Run, CHAMPION!!
At this point in my life, this is the most gratifying race/win of my life. This was totally unexpected and physically I didn't even know if I would be able to finish. As of Monday I had no plans to try it. But then Gary Smith messaged me saying they had a hotel waiting for me. I still had doubts and told him at least had to get through a tempo run test Wednesday before knowing for sure. The test went well but then came 2 days of pre DEXC meet prep. I had back to back night (Wednesday and Thursday night) of not getting to bed until after 2am. So even Friday I had my doubts as I was tired, not properly trained to run 15-miles hard, and my nagging hamstring in the back of my mind. But I made the drive to Charleston to try it. That night seeing and chatting with Bob Tate, Glenn Baldwin, and Robert Smith helped to settle my doubts as it was great to talk to running friends! So by 8:30pm I was out and didn't wake up until my alarm went off at 5:30am.
I woke up feeling really good. I grabbed a small breakfast bar, 2 cups of coffee, and lots of water. By 6:30 I was driving to laidley. I started my first warmup jog of 6-minutes followed by stretching, some drills, and hydrating. Whether I'm in peak shape or like today far from it..I always have cramping problems in long races. So much that I wonder if longer races aren't what my body is suited best for but anyways even though it was cool/overcast day I wanted the body and especially my hamstring and both calves to be well hydrated. I ran another 5-minutes around laidley and then picked it up to run over to the start in front of the capitol.
I quickly found Brian Floyd and we headed to the line to hopefully run most of the race together. As the gun went off we came off the line in a jog but were quickly in a pack of 3 and in the lead which was an early surprise.
The first 4-miles felt very easy which I needed. With no long tempos or hard long runs I needed to feel as easy for as long as possible. We hit the hills 5-7 and I was holding back as much as possible while not letting Brian get more 2-3 seconds ahead. By the screaming downhill 8th Mile we were back to a pack of 3. Coming off the hill and crossing the south side bridge and the nice crowds gave me a bit of a boost but as we hit the flats I could feel the lack of long distance race preparation creeping in as I still had 7-miles to go. Miles 8-13 stretch was a battle..,both Brian and Gerod would get 2-seconds up on me and I then I would surge up to their shoulders to mentally keep myself in the race and also sort of let them know I wasn't "done" yet. This is how that entire stretch played out. Miles were 5:51-5:57 through that stretch, which was our fastest running to that point other than the downhill Mile. I look back on this stretch now and feel had it not been that we were battling to win, that I might have gave in and backed off until the finish. But the chance to win and the feeling deep down that I had one hard move within me kept me fighting.
As we hit the 13th mile with 2-miles to go Gerod seemed to be cracking so for the first time in 5-miles I got parallel with Brian and felt a bit of adrenaline come into me...for miles 8-13 as I was digging deep to hold them close my thoughts was get to the dip (very misleading tough part of course) just before 14 and then try to make one hard surge to see if it breaks them (or breaks me). But all of a sudden I felt I needed to go earlier. So as we crossed the Mile marker I surged hard dropping the pace to 5:30 and just tried to get to the dip. At first I thought I had gapped Brian by a bigger margin but as I looked back on the right hand turn after the dip, I could tell he was still within 10-seconds and I was HURTING and still had a Mile to go. My one move was done and I felt done. But I wanted this one, the next 3/4 of a Mile was grinding/digging deep for everything i had. If I could get to the stadium with the lead I could win. As I approached the stadium I gave one big long look back and could see I had actually stretched the lead and barring disaster I was 300m from winning the Charleston Distance Run AGAIN! The last 300m was more a defensive stagger than a run Constantly looking back to make sure I had it. I crossed the line with roughly a 10-sec winning gap and was on the ground spent but as the 2017 CDR Champ!!
The combination of being a father, age, where I'm at in life with my great job, and the summer long hamstring issue that prevents long hard effort (until today!!!) this race will probably go down as my personal most gratifying race ever. I was almost 10-minutes slower than my best CDR but I would take this race over that CDR PR anyday!! Had I ran with the deep down guts then that I had today, that 1:22 would actually probably been quite a bit faster.
I'm going to soak this one up for a long time and remember it forever! I'm so thankful, humbled, and very shocked. It was a special running moment for me.
I hope to be back next year but with my body that is no guaruntee!
This was my 7th time in the top 5 and second time winning. I'm still just one of two WV natives to ever win it.