Notes
DRC Loop 15k
Official time: 1:08:04
This was a new PR, although it would have been at least a minute faster if there hadn't been so much wind. There was steady 12mph wind throughout, with gusts that felt more like 15 or 20 mph. I made a good HR-guided effort despite the conditions and I'm relatively happy with the result.
The weather was too cool for my singlet, but I wished I had packed a short sleeve shirt instead of a long sleeve as my backup. It was really not quite cool enough to need the long sleeve while running.
My original plan would have been to aim for 7:20 or below from the start and progressively work lower and try to hit at least in the 1:07s if not 1:07 flat. The wind changed my plans so that I just went by effort and HR. The first 3 miles were slow because they were more into the wind, although they weren't as bad as I thought. Having some crowd at the beginning may have helped cut down on the wind. By the end of mile 3, I was pretty close to my finishing place. At this point, I was behind two guys (friends?) that were running almost exactly my pace. I stayed behind them, but they pulled about 20 seconds in front of me by mile 8. I passed maybe 5 or 6 people (mostly women, a few men) between mile 3 and mile 8, and one guy passed me around 7.5. I felt like I was on the threshold of uncomfortable just before mile 5. I was careful not to push too hard because it would have been easy to burn out with that much distance left. I tried to take advantage of the downhill from ~4.5 to ~7.5, but the wind made me cautious. Somehow, I still was running into it. Maybe the lake makes the wind change directions? I felt like I never got a good tailwind on the course.
There was a little out-and-back added to the course just before mile 7, and that turn added a few seconds. I was cruising pretty well and passed some folks, but the two guys from earlier were slipping away. The hill just before the 8 mile marker really cost me some time, but I was afraid of burning out. After the turn around mile 8, I pushed really hard to try and get solidly sub-7 for my last mile or so. I was down around 6:25 pace for the first part of that mile when the wind just whipped me. At the same effort, I had probably slowed down to 7:30 pace. I pushed really hard and managed sub-7 for the last full mile and a decent burst on the last quarter mile. I could see that I was catching up to one of the two guys from earlier and I finished just about 3 seconds after him. Chip time-wise, I may have beaten him.