Notes
17:10 - 16:29 officially, 16sec PR. Very good race, probably 2nd or 3rd best road race in any distance. Fun day! Was really cool to snag a top local spot and some $$$ behind Chris and Neil. Got to see and chat with a bunch of friends, and nice having a group to meet up with beforehand. And Ronnie did great as well - 58:47 PR despite thinking she didn't have a shot at under an hour this year!
And now for the long version...
Splits ended up nearly identical to 2016 except for the two main bridge miles which I really wanted to push this year. As usual, it was easy to sucked out pretty fast but I was trying to avoid having mile 1 be the fastest mile of the race for the THIRD time so made sure to adjust and relax. I was hoping to come through 5k closer to 17 flat, but I was at least encouraged by my mile 3 split since it was a good deal faster than I had ever run that tough mile before. I had a couple seconds on Eric A at the 5k, but he was tracking me on the downhill and made a pretty hard move past me right around 4 that I wasn't quite ready to match (he did give me a little wave to follow which was appreciated). Miles 5 and 6 felt pretty ugly. I lost some of my mental edge on those miles and really think I should have been able to push myself a few seconds faster, but I guess that's always easy to say from the couch after the race. Eventually on 6 I could tell Eric was coming back along with (I assumed) the top USA female. With about 1/2 to go I had regained contact and right before 6 I pulled even. I waited until we made the turn for home to go past them HARD, and I felt a little guilty for doing so and bummed I had so much left for a kick, but /shrug. Picked off 1 or 2 more in the last stretch. Looks like only 1 guy who was behind me at 5k beat me, but I moved up at least 5 spots.
I always have a hard time deciding what the effect of the bridge is. I'd like to think it's in the ~30s range but I have no good basis of comparison because this is by far the most competitive 10k I ever run, and even so there aren't really flat ones around here anyway. We'll just have to wait until I get the chance to race a flat one with some good company I guess.
36th overall today after 35th in 2015 and 36th in 2016 also. Was shooting for top 30 this time but I can't control who shows up! Ended up 3rd local behind Neil and Chris which was awesome. I thought it would be pretty cool if us 3 took it and I thought there was a good chance (I was the only question mark really), but I didn't know for sure until they announced it! I didn't think Eric was eligible but it sure gave me a little motivation to get past him just to be safe! Neil and Chris killed it.
Conditions were pretty good today. The wind was pretty reasonable on the bridge; it was present as always, but it wasn't ridiculous like I know it can be. I can't really remember how previous years compared. The skies were clear as we warmed up but just a few minutes before the race, clouds and fog rolled in out of nowhere. The fog was really cool on the bridge! Visibility was probably hardly more than 100m and you couldn't see the diamonds until you were just running through them! I definitely preferred the cloud cover as it kept temps manageable. Very humid, ended up soaked, but no biggie.
Sure, I was hoping for a bit faster but hey when am I not. I think I underestimated the shape I was in for 2016's race (and I guess 2015 for that matter). Or maybe this wasn't as good of a race as it feels like it was? Ha, I think I just got too used to 1min+ PRs recently. This was definitely a good one and I'm very happy with it. It doesn't change a whole lot for me heading into Boston. I'll be ready to roll in 9 (?!?) days.
2015 - 17:27/16:35
2016 - 17:15/16:40
2018 - 36:16/30:20 ;)
2019 - 17:10/16:29