Notes
This was intended to be my goal race of the three I was running at Disney this year. After 37:22 at XC Nats last month sub 37 sounded like a reasonable goal. Unfortuanaly I always forget how difficult it is to run well in a Disney race. Getting up early, lack of sleep, walking around all day, eating crap, drinking too much, sleeping in an odd bed, and so on... I should know better.
Despite that, I rarely know better. Did a good job getting to the race calmly, semi warmed up, and in a good position in the second row at the start. It was dark, foggy, humid, and raining at 5:30am. Fantastic conditions! Well, no.
Started off on pace with a 5:55 knowing that I'd only stand a chance if I was on pace. I wasn't ready to admit defeat. That was a very heavy opening mile and much harder than the same time was yesterday. I focused on relaxing, running smoothly, and hitting the tangents.
Mile 2 was even harder but I worked to keep the pace down as far as I could and was disappointed not to be under 6 (6:03).
During mile 3 I focused on 10K effort and staying relaxed. Again slower. I rolled through the 5K in 18:40 and was surprised to be only 10 seconds under goal pace considering how I was feeling. I was at my limit and couldn't get it under 6 pace. At this point I was passed by the lead woman. I couldn't really breath. The cold and humidity were real assholes to me.
Fortunately I stayed strong, or at least steady, during mile 4. This was despite the pouring rain and the slick walkway around epcot where the ground was painted. With two miles to go I figured I could hold steady and still get a solid time not far from my PR.
As I hit mile 5 things really started falling apart. The race had thinned a lot and I had held my position up to this point but the mile started with getting passed by two young guys, immediately followed by two older guys who clearly looked over 40. I struggled not to completely fall apart this mile and focused on staying relaxed and hitting the tangents through all the turns. By the end of this mile somehow I got my act together and was regrouping.
In mile 6 I noted the old guys ahead spit up. The bald guy moved ahead and the semi-grey headed guy was steady in front of me, about 15-20 seconds. I made it my mission to not give him any more ground. Halfway though the mile I made it my mission to catch him. Right as we passed under the big epcot ball I caught him.
With .2 to go I dug deep to drop the guy I just caught and held him off by 2 seconds at the line. Knowing how hard I was working makes it clear that he wasn't just letting me go. It was real work and it later turned out to be the effort needed to win the age group. The bald dude ahead was 50 and the only other master ahead was in the top 3 finishers so he won top placing or top master. Looking up the guy I held off revealed that he recently wore a 1400s bib at Boston and is a legit racer.
37:50 was the time. I wasn't supper happy with the time or almost falling apart in the 5th mile but, again, running well at Disney is so damn hard. Few can do it. Looking at how I ran in the conditions, coming off a cold, and in the humidity, etc.. and combine it with some actual racing at the end I'm pretty damn happy with how it went.
Place Name Bib Age Div Place Gender Place 5k Split Clock Time Net Time Hometown
14 CHRIS HANCOCK 60052 42 1 13 18:40 37:53 37:50 MELROSE, MA