Notes
Ouch. PR by about 7 minutes, but heartbreaking nonetheless.
more later when the results are in...
Split times:
10 Km: 40:52 Pace: 6:35
8.9 Mi: 57:38 Pace: 6:29
Half: 1:27:09 Pace: 6:39
17.5 Mi: 1:57:23 Pace: 6:43
20 Mi: 2:15:00 Pace: 6:45
21.1 Mi: 2:22:47 Pace: 6:47
So you can see those last few were tough for me.
Age/Grade: 68.60% Place: 284
Finish: 3:02:05 Pace: 6:57
Tag Time: 3:02:05
Gun Time: 3:02:08
Report:
Well, I felt like I started out pretty good,, near the front of the pack . I don't like to rely on them to keep my time, so I tried to get out ahead of him, and stay there. I figured if he catches up to me in the end, then I can use him as a pace.
I ran with a small group of folks who seemed to be doing about 6:30 to 6:45 minute pace. Ahead of schedule, I stuck with them as we hit some windy points and I thought the drafting was only going to help. I was well aware that I was above my pace, but figured the last few miles would be tough, and that a couple extra minutes to spare would only be helpful.
I hit the hill before the St. Johns bridge, and just tried to keep the pace up. At this point our pack of four or five broke up pretty quickly. I hit the 17.5 mile point (the peak of elevation) right at the time I was shooting for, and kept it up to the mile 18 time check. I didn't look at mile 19 (which appears to have been a bit short, just looked at mile 20 which was a bit long, and I was discouraged at seeing a nearly 8 min/mile pace. I kept on moving, trying to keep the pace up and not get passed too often. Mile 22-23 started to get real tough, and seeing someone's sign that read "just keep running" kept me going for a bit. The 3 hour pace guys passed me at mile 25 on the Broadway bridge then I struggled to keep up on the downhill. They slowly got away from me, and by the time I turned the final corner, the timer was reading over 3:01. I gave it what I had, but couldn't quit make sub-3 hours. I had some decent training, and some distractions (HTC and a pregnancy), but next time I think focusing on the speed workouts and the mileage, and I'll be ok.
Though a little dissappointed that I didn't make the 2's, I am pretty happy to have shaved off 7 minutes from the PR, and a 3:02 is a pretty damn good race. Also nice to be in the top 2% of the field, and have a pace that is < 7:00 min miles. Next time.