Notes
Pretty good race today. Going into it I felt like I had done less specific prep (long runs, hard long runs, hilly long runs, anything long run) over the last couple months but I thought I could still run substantially faster based on how training has been going lately. My plan was to run in the mid-5:50s for a while and then see what was left.
We left Teddy's a bit late, 6:45 or so, so there was really not much time to warm up at the starting line but everything felt good. The Bostons hadn't felt great on training runs but they felt good on the warmup and through the whole race today.
Race went out fairly quickly but I was pretty comfortable. Kept an eye on the watch but didn't ease up much because there were probably a dozen or so people around and I didn't want to give much up this early.
Miles 2 and 3 I was just hanging out making a point to stay relaxed. I was sitting in 8th behind Lyons, the eventual second place dude, a couple 10k runners, the 2 top women and the Eastern CT State kid. I figured some of them were running the 10k but had no idea for all but 1 runner who told us he was running 10k. I was hanging out 10 meters back from the 2 top women and ECSU.
At 5k the 3 ahead of me came back to me pretty much all at once. I wondered if they saw the 5k split and slowed down based on the time, but I kept my pace steady and left them pretty quickly. ECSU came with me for a half mile or maybe a bit more and I told him I was trying to hit 5:50s and he was welcome to join. He didn't like the hills along the river and I heard him behind me for a while but he didn't do too well on the hills.
Nothing notable was really going on for a while and I felt pretty darn good. I was applying just a little pressure, thinking I could run a little harder early on than I remembered doing last year. The hill up to halfway was definitely a hill, but Lyons cheered me on as he came down which was encouraging and then I saw that I wasn't too far behind 2nd. Really worked the downhill to make up for a little slowing on the way up and that went smoothly.
I anticipated that 8.5-9.5 would suck and tried to conserve just a little for that. It did suck but I kept telling myself that the rest of the race would feel easy in comparison. Got through pretty well although it felt terrible, but I started picking it up as soon as I was back on the main road and felt solid there. Came through 10 miles in 58:52 and I was pumped about it after being just over 60 last year. In typical Dan-racing-mentality I yelled internally "Fuck you 60 minutes!"
Looks like I hit mile 11 pretty hard? I feel like I would remember this and I really don't, but I think I was trying to pick it up pretty well.
Mile 12 was really tough. Had nothing on the hills and started rigging a bit. Started giving a little up on the hills but really working the downhill.
First 600 or 800 of mile 13 was was still pretty hard and I just wanted to get to the downhill so badly. Maybe the oncoming runners could tell because a handful gave some encouragement and honestly it really did help, so thanks strangers. Once I crested the hill I gave it a big push. Just after the bottom of the hill I happened to see the mile split on my watch at 5:35 which made me feel a bit vindicated in hurting a lot and then I closed it out weaving through a few 10k runners.
I was pretty gassed and leaned on the fence for a few seconds before walking out of the chute. I then turned around to grab a spot on the fence to wait for Frank and Teddy. Sat down, got the Nuun tablet in the water they gave me and untied my shoes which felt pretty good. Frank came through around 1:23, dude killed it! I was fairly certain he could run that after talking to him and Teddy. This guy could be a real good runner. We went back to the fence and chatted and then Teddy came in at 1:31:30! 17 minute improvement from last year and a 9 minute PR, holy cow. Great to see him nail the race and have his training pay off.
Overall, great day. I was 24 seconds back from 2nd place but I don't think I could have caught him in the last few miles. Maybe if I hadn't fronted him the time early? He seemed disappointed with his result and called it a shit time or something as we received our awards.
Training takeaways: I'm pretty strong right now despite no crazy long workouts. Running slow a few days a week doesn't seem to have taken anything away from me and probably only added. I feel like I can't take much more time off without a bit of a step up in training. I think I need to bite the bullet and commit to slightly more volume year-round if I want to take another significant step, but I wanted and planned to do that anyway. It seems like the Achilles problem is well under control and I was almost as thrilled after the race that nothing felt especially bad (except a slightly twinge-y left hamstring at first) as I was with the PR. Body is holding up really well these days.
Time to take a couple days off and then try to hit the track hard for a few weeks!