Notes
USATF Club Nationals 10K, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
I built my entire season from the beginning of July for XC and this race. Plan was solid 200+ months and then a big build up in the fall. It all worked out. Our masters team won the series, I ran strong races and scored well int he series, I peaked for New England's running much better than last year, followed it up with a 5K PR on Thanksgiving, and managed to bridge the fitness through to San Francisco and ran 10K on a rugged XC course just 5 seconds slower than my outright road PR for the distance.
Leading into this I was starting to feel stale and going into my usual 1 month running slump following a big season of racing. Training had been sporadic and I had some illnesses so I didn't know how this was going to go. I was confident I'd not take it out faster than 6 for the first mile but once the gun went off that was out the window with such a strong field. Bucci and I took it out like a 5K but it felt in control so we rolled with it. I think I recall them calling out 5:40 or thereabouts for the first mile. The second mile for this 10K was another good 5K paced mile and I recall they called out the time as 11:30 something. At this point I was starting to get nervous that I was going to pay for that effort badly at some point. Still, it felt in control despite the pace. We hit the 5K at 18:40 after going up a tight and steep section that robbed runners of momentum and speed. That was about the end of lap 1. We repeated the same course for a second time. This go round things seemed much harder and I felt the weight of the effort. A little after mile 4.5 I lost contact with Bucci. I needed to pace myself through the upcoming technical second with elevation gain in control in order to dump what I had left on the final level run in. I hit mile 5 in 29:35 and was blown away with the time since it was almost equal to what I ran for the 8K in the New England Championship. I knew I'd manage to pace myself under 38 at that point. After the final climb it was a chore to regain momentum. I hit the lap button on my watch to see if I could use it to help me get back under 6 pace because I didn't want to try and peg my pace on the runners around me. I got the pace down and thought I was gaining on Bucci but once he hit the final straight it was obvious he found his afterburners and that was that. I paced myself in and was so spent I don't recall passing or being passed by anyone. When the clock came into focus it started I could read 36:--. WTF. I momentarily thought I might have a shot at my PR so worked hard but missed it by 5. I'm not sure where I'd have found that 5.
So happy to have finished with that time as it was much better than I had expected. The last three races have recalibrate what I think I can do and I'm looking forward to doing it all again.