Notes
I met my goal of a sub-7:00 pace for 10 miles. I'm very proud of my effort and courage to run hard early. I feel like this actually represents an honest 100% effort. I'm even happier that I exceeded my goal at 66 degrees, 75% humidity, and 15 mph winds. It was a good day, but it didn't feel like a good day while I was running.
My plan was 7:10 for 2, 7:00 for 2, 6:50 for 4, 6:40 for 1, then ? for the last mile.
My first two were just slightly fast. I banked about 8 seconds ahead of my plan. I saw a female I typically finish a minute or so behind, and stuck with her and a few other guys for about 4 or 5 minutes. They were tending towards the slow side of my pace, though, so I moved on. An older guy with white hair and really skinny legs ran ahead of me a good way. He was with a friend I think, but the friend dropped off by mile 2. The first guy was walking all the water stops and still keeping up with me though.
Mile 3 involved crossing several pedestrian bridges and I hate the feeling of running on those. They sway and bounce slightly while people are running on them and it gives the very uncomfortable feeling of not being in control. It's like you're running on a sponge. I decided to use up some of the banked seconds on mile 3 just since it was still early in the race, it was warm and windy, and I wanted to make up time on the last half, not the first. Mile 3 and 4 I steadily passed people, but there was also a lot of bike and jogger traffic, so it was hard to keep track. White-hair was still a good 10 seconds in front of me.
Mile 4's 6:58 came a little more naturally since I think the end section was downhill. I was dreading running back up it, although it wasn't really steep. The effort level just felt high here and I wasn't sure I had picked a good pace. I just tried to think about the fact that an 8-miler at this pace was a normal long tempo workout when the weather was cold.
Mile 5 was very much like mile 4. White-hair still in front, effort level about the same. Just trying to keep coasting. More downhill meant this was a 6:53, so a little faster. After the turnaround I was worried about what was to come, since it felt like I'd been going downhill a while. I passed a muscular looking dude and someone who'd been sticking with him somewhere during this mile.
During the first part of mile 6, I stuck behind another guy I'd seen ahead for maybe a minute, but I could see he was already fading, so I rested a little after a hill and surged past. I was feeling fatigued, but trying to focus on the fact that I still wasn't in unknown territory yet, since I'd done this pace for longer (though in better conditions). I started thinking about after mile 6, I had to hold steady for 2 miles, then the REAL work would begin. The mile 6 marker came right at 6:53, and I passed white-hair at the water stop. He never caught back up.
During mile 7, I passed another guy and I could see the leading female just ahead. Everyone we went past going the other direction was telling her she was the leading female. It had to be a thrill for her. I stayed behind her for a few minutes, but still I could see she was running straight 7's and I was trying to hold to 6:50's. I had calculated that I was something like 4 or 5 seconds behind averaging a 7:00 pace for the race, so I knew I had to keep it below 7 from here out. I passed her right around the mile 7 marker and then I passed another gentleman just a few steps ahead while we crossed the pedestrian bridge. It wasn't shaking so badly this time with fewer people on it. After the bridge, I almost took a wrong turn off the course because there were so many joggers out I couldn't tell who was racing. The course guide was really standing in the wrong place. Anyhow, I caught a guy right after getting back onto Lawther and I could hear the guide telling us "great job!" I This part was slightly downhill around the marina and the pace was coming a little easier, actually. I was thinking once I hit 8, that was when the REAL pain and mental battle would start. I had wanted to run mile 9 in 6:40, so that was weighing on me knowing the time was approaching. I could see another guy in a blue singlet a good bit ahead of me for most of mile 8, and I was reeling him in very slowly.
I passed him just before the mile 8 marker, and began hating myself as I picked up the pace. I had wanted to make myself hurt really bad with still a mile to go, and I was definitely succeeding at making that happen. I wasn't sure if the fellow I passed was trying to re-catch me, but after saw my average pace readout registering in the 6:20's, I understood why I wasn't hearing him. This section of the race, and more generally this section of White Rock DRC races is always the hardest and everything seems to slow to a crawl. A quarter of a mile feels like 10 minutes. Plus, as soon as I'd hit mile marker 8, it was really dead quiet. I was all by myself with no one in sight, no water stop, no bands, and no crowd. Just me and my lonesome trying to hold it together. I looked at my overall time on my watch, and I think I saw something like 55:49 just after mile 8. I started to have doubts before mile marker 9 that I could hold steady to the end. I haven't flamed out in a race in a long time, but I knew it could happen. I just kept trying to delay it another quarter mile or a few minutes. Hit mile marker 9 in 6:37. Wow! Made some time, I guess.
Mile marker 9 had a water stop and everyone was screaming "Gatorade!! Water!! Gatorade!!" as if I somehow couldn't hear them. Not sure why they do that. I was THE ONLY person there, it's not like there was a crowd that was hard to hear over. I guess they don't realize that actually handing the water out is way more important than yelling about where the water is... Anyhow, I didn't take any water, since I practically never do except in a marathon. I started chewing on mile 9 and not thinking about how much of it was left. My average pace was still down in the high 6:30's. I had no reason to hold anything back, so I went with it. I wasn't sure where my overall time was at this point, and was too brain dead to check, especially since it didn't matter. I was going to die no matter what. I figured if I could keep this mile at least under 7, I'd have a shot at sub-1:10. There's always a little bit of difference between "Garmin" 10 and the real 10 mile marker. I passed the bridge about a quarter of a mile into mile 10 that I knew from my warmup was about .75 miles from the start. I ran the tangents and I was passing 5-mile walkers by the handful. I saw the 15k marker and glanced at my overall time. I didn't see the seconds, but I was in the 1:04's which would still be a 15k PR by a long shot. I tried to let my breathing be loud enough for people to hear me and move aside, because I didn't feel like yelling. I barely slipped by on the right of some women walking on the edge of the road. Pretty soon, I could hear the finish line barker and the music. I still had .4 miles to go or so. I ran the tangents and hoped any cyclists would watch out for me. I got to within .3 and I was just thinking "a little more than one lap of the dirt track". It felt like 5 minutes later I looked down at my watch and saw I had .25 left, so I thought "OK, exactly one lap of the dirt track.."I passed the policeman I'd chatted with earlier somewhere around .10 miles from the finish, and he said "good job, y'all" as I passed a walk/jogger trying to look good for the finish. I could hear the crowd really well, and just ahead I could see the finish clock switching from 1:08:59 to 1:09. I knew I'd made it with time to spare. I crossed the finish line and raised my arms in victory, but I'm not sure if I even lifted my hands above shoulder level. While crossing the finish line, I had my eye on a spot in the grass where I planned on collapsing if I could just reach it...
Official time: 1:09:12
3rd overall
1st AG (30-34)
First half: 35:15
Second half: 33:56
15k split (guessing): ~1:04:58
Both halves were faster than my time last year when I ran the 5-miler at this race! :)
After I finished the blue singlet guy (last dude I passed, around mile 8) came up and congratulated me. He said he thought I got 3rd. I said "3rd? You mean overall?" He said, "yeah, I think there were only two people ahead of me." Wow. I hadn't even thought I would place in the overall category. As it turned out, they only gave 1 overall place at this race, so I just won my AG, but still, 30-34 is one of the tougher AGs at these races. It's really vain and selfish, but I wished the awards for this race were more like at the smaller club races, where folks actually stick around to clap and celebrate. :) Oh well, those Lakewood Brewery Rock Ryder beers tasted reeaaallly good.