Notes
CPC with (part of) the OFBOC! Not thrilled with the race but had a lot of fun in general and I relish any chance I get to do races with Pat or Rob!
Once again, this is objectively a very good result for me but I'm disappointed with it! At worst I'd put it at my 8th best RR (33:56 - 1:15:19 - 34:02 - 1:15:40 - 52:39 - 16:10 - 26:51, more or less in that order) and I'd probably bump it over that 8k (not certified, GPS slightly short) and maybe the 5k too (not certified, no GPS, though way more confident in that one). I have a little more reason to be upset about this one than the HM though seeing as I missed my PR by 9 seconds and was beaten by Rob by 8!
But more so than any of that, I just didn't feel good... in fact, I felt pretty bad. Before the race had the same old headache-fatigue-tiredness as the past couple weeks but was trying to convince myself it would go away once I started like it seemed to in the HM. But this time it didn't really and I was wondering if it was in my best interest to drop out. Eventually it got better but never went away... in the last couple miles I was worried I was pushing myself too hard, but hey I got to the finish without incident. Got some blood results back but not sure what any of it means except I don't have Lyme or iron deficiency. Past that, I'll need some doctor explanation.
But I digress, and I don't mean to blame the race on that. Hey, I'm here running PR or near-PR times so I can't even say it's slowing me down at all. Head stuff aside, legs just didn't feel great. Rob and I were shooting for a lofty goal of 52' with a plan of 5k @ 5:40, 5k @ 5:35, and 5k @ 5:30... ambitious, but seemed possible. Rob and I ran the first 5k together and, as tends to be the case, we had worked our way past most of the 5kers by the time the race split and had a gap to the top 15k pack. At this point, Rob started to pick it up and I wanted to but I just wasn't feeling it, so I had to let him go. In retrospect that was a mistake but I felt BAD there. I'll shamefully admit I was entertaining the idea of stopping on that mile, but the pace was still ok so I kept on. That was pretty much the story until the end... the miles felt bad but the pace was ok, so I just kept grinding. Finally by 8 I started to find my legs a bit and was maybe creeping a bit closer to Rob... a few minutes later I was sure of it. By 9 I had worked the gap from ~13s back down to ~6s but it was too little too late and Rob summoned a mighty kick to put me away for good.
I always get a little irked when I'm not able to close a race faster than a previous year even if I end up faster (see: CRBR16), so I'm certainly irked that I closed slower AND finished slower this time. Most of all, though, I just hate feeling bad for a race, especially when it seems to be something more than just an off day. Oh well, we'll keep at it and see what happens.