Notes
Dam to DSM 20k, 2nd overall, 1:03:15 official time
Big time race for me this morning.... according to McMillan this is equivalent to a 1:06:54 half, which would be a PR by over a minute.
Got out well after the gun went off, Sammy and Adam just eased away over the first mile with Khan chasing them but we passed Khan maybe at 1.5. Baker and I were running side by side the first few miles with Jasko and Tyson chilling in behind us. I didn't really want to break 5 for the second mile, but it was only 4:59 so that was fine.
Things were going well... until the first water station around 2.5 miles. There was a guy standing in the middle of the road away from the table handing out water... and I tried to go to him to grab a cup. He dropped the cup before grab it though, and I panicked a bit and tried to cut back over to the table to grab a cup.... without checking where other people were and my legs ended up getting tangled up with Baker's and he went down. I immediately spun around to go back and pick him up to get him going again... but I felt and still do feel awful about it. I apologized maybe 5 times in the next half mile as we caught back up to Jasko and Tyson, he insisted he was all good and he looked fine running which was reassuring. He ended up getting 4th, which I was really happy about because I don't think the fall ended up affecting his placing. I was waiting for him at the finish and apologized again but he kept insisting it wasn't my fault and the water station people screwed things up based on where they were standing. It was definitely my fault, imo, but thank God Zach was really cool about the whole deal
Well back to the race... a little after 3 miles I picked up the pace and dropped the rest of the little pack we had formed. I wanted to lock in between 5:00 and 5:05 and that pace was feeling so good. Just tried to keep Adam and Sammy about the same distance ahead with hopes that maybe I could reel them in over the second half. A little after halfway we hit the Morningstar hill, which had no spectators on it... during Dam to Dam that hill was always packed with people so that was definitely a little bit of a letdown.
Running up Morningstar hill I realized Sammy and Adam were coming back to me. Once we crested the hill I let myself recover a bit before really trying to hammer the downs over the next 1.5 miles. Flew down the big hill on 6th ave and ended up with a 4:52 9th mile. After that mile those guys were very much within striking distance. I wanted to make sure I didn't blow my load just trying to catch them, though, so I just continued to slowly reel them in. Turning into Union Park Sammy dropped Adam and shortly after Union Park I passed Adam.
I caught up to Sammy near the Botanical Center with maybe a mile to go. He sounded and looked really easy, but going into the race this was exactly where I wanted to be with a mile to go, so I had to at least try to break him. I chilled behind him and when we passed the white Women's bridge I tried to move past him, but as soon as I made the pass he responded back and retook the lead. I was pretty much at my top gear at that point with a half mile left and I knew if Sammy had any sort of kick he would get me at the end.
We made the right turn onto Grand and he was gone, he put 8 seconds on me over the last 300 meters. Cruised it in for second in what I think is going to end up being a big break-out race for me.
According to McMillan this is equivalent to a 2:20:47 marathon, and this is now by far my strongest PR. I think I should be stronger over the marathon distance, and based on how easy 5:0x-lows felt today I'm excited to see how MP feels in a few weeks.
This gives me confidence that an OTQ at Grandma's isn't completely unrealistic if I have a good day....