Notes
Um, wow. I thought going in if things went well, I'd have a shot at 1:16 based on the 10 miler. Halfway, I was thinking it would be tough to hit, I'd need to negative split, and was starting to feel the grind. At 10 miles, I was thinking I'd have to work for the 1:16, but then I found a gear that I didn't think I'd have that last 5k.
First half 38:07, second half 37:12! 10 miles in 58:01 (pr), last 5k in 17:17!
Yesterday my parents and brother came up, met up with me at Harkness after the races, explored the park a bit, then went back to Worcester. Went and had dinner at Texas Roadhouse, and just had a really nice day. On race day, breakfast was a bagel with some peanut butter on it. Hunter, Maria, and Joe came up to Lowell with my family so I had a pretty awesome support group.
I got a short warmup in, just to get the legs moving, and felt pretty good. Chris saw me while I was doing strides near the start, He saw I was in the zone. I got my spot up by the starting line, we were talking about what we wanted to run, some guy said he wanted to go for 5:50's and that seemed about right.
The first quarter mile was fast, then I brought it back like usual. Basically for the first 3-4 miles I was in a group of people sitting 5th to 9th, with a guy up ahead in 4th, and the top 3 out of sight. Here I knew I was going faster than I had planned, and my quads were feeling the pounding so I wasn't sure how long this joy ride was going to go for, but aerobically I was feeling great.
The fifth mile, I was trying to push a bit to close the gap on the guy in 4th, and near the 5 mile mark was where everyone was cheering for me, so I rode that through the downhill after the 5 mile mark to get up with the guy in 4th, one of the other guys in the group I was with came up, so at this point we were 4-6.
I came through halfway in 38:07, and I dropped off a bit into 6th behind the other 2, one of the water stops around here didn't seem organized when I could have used some water and got Gatorade (which I dropped). Somewhere around here, I made a decision that saved my race, and got right back with 4th and 5th place. In the 8th mile I started commanding 4th place, and someone said I was in 4th, so that was a pretty big lift mentally. I used the Rourke Bridge after the 9 mile mark to make a gap, and then just kept rolling. I took a 10 mile split which was a 58:01 pr.
Then the last 5k, I was lapping a lot of people and I knew that I wasn't going to crash, so I just stopped looking at my watch, and was just making sure that I was consistently passing people, and was counting down the miles to the finish, saw the 23 mile mark, only 3.2 to go, 24 mile mark, only 2,2, mile to go, .2 miles to go (there was a 26 mile mark), and I guess I absolutely rolled the last two miles. When I saw the clock, I was surprised at the 1:15 low, and I had a pretty strong kick.
I felt good across the line, aerobically things were good. But I was in shock with how well that race had gone. I'm glad everything worked out, I need to keep in mind how I trained for this race, how I approached the day, how I tapered, Everything worked how I wanted it to, and well, I historically haven't been very good at the end of training cycles, so I need to figure out why what I did was so right.