Notes
felt pretty good. really tried to hold back on the first mile (goal was 4:55-5:00). managed to get a good start off the line, sitting around 15-20th when the women merged from the left. eased up once i knew i had good position and tried to "coast" as best i could. it was tough watching 50-60 guys take off in front of me. concentrated on running tangents, leaning forward, and landing as softly as i could on my toes. it really felt weird to be going so much faster than i've been training, seeing times i'm just not used to anymore... started passing people in bunches as we approached the first mile clock, coming through somewhere between 30-40th place. i knew it wouldn't be easy to pass anyone in the second mile and damn near impossible to pass in the third, so i really tried to get the next 10-15 guys before hitting the 1.5mi mark. (goal was 4:40-4:45 for mile 2). finally settled in with a group of 4 or 5 guys including david bedoya from baa. i've raced well on several occasions, by running near david. he's a smart/strong racer, so i figured this was as good a spot as any to hold my own and hope for a good kick at the finish. we only passed a few more guys by the end of the second mile. (goal for the third mile was to hold it under 5:00, and try to sprint like the devil for the final tenth into the finish). i was really starting to struggle at the 1 mile to go mark, so i kept trying to focus on keeping my form from falling apart; no "braking" with my feet, straightening out the back, and again landing soft out on my toes. sam fazioli caught me somewhere around the three-quarters to go sign and i began to have the really serious "give-up" thoughts, but i tried to shut them out and just hang on to him. he ran a really smart race, and i had to go with him to give myself a chance at holding off the pack just behind us and hopefully passing a couple of the guys just in front of us. i am just not used to the lactic acid burn any more... sucked it up, and convinced myself if i could hold on until a quarter to go, i could still break 15. i was barely holding off bedoya, but the team RUN guy just in front of us (bronson venable?) was more incentive to let it all out at the finish. i passed sam back, muttered something like "every second counts" and we passed the orange jersey together. i know we passed one more (maybe two guys) in that last quarter. felt good to blow out the tubes and bang a hard right into the finish. i ended up a few steps back from jose, with sam just a stride behind me. i knew alex (mcgrath) had run well, up in the top ten, and when we turned around we saw scott and jefferson not far behind. navas was close behind and dechellis, dowsett and ard rounded out a solid group under 16 minutes. GREAT team effort for the whirlaway... we could've won by a full minute or more if ruben had run (we were only 13 seconds behind GBTC), but it's still awesome what the guys can manage without him and nick k.
1mi @ 4:52
2mi @ 9:38 (4:46)
3mi @ 14:38 (5:00)
5k @ 15:06.4 (0:28)
whirlaway men's open finish 2nd out of 10!
17th out of 1500 individually