Notes
Not the result I was hoping for, but a great and fun race nonetheless. For about 87 degrees on the start line, I'll take an 18:25. I didn't feel overly good, but I didn't feel bad at all, and I finished feeling like maybe I could have closed a little bit faster, but I wasn't sure exactly where I was on the course until I saw I was about 50m from the finish line. I think I may be just slightly more fit than I showed yesterday, but it was really fun and I'm really glad I raced!
A few things I learned:
1. When starting in the USATF elite wave, and when men and women are starting at the same time, you must be hyper-sensitive about going out too fast. Jayne and I had planned to go out in about 6 min pace and try to cut down a little bit from there. We had a plan, but didn't execute it particularly well.
2. Remember Jayne Cole is a terrible pacer. Maggie you know this, and yet sometimes you forget. We had agreed on 6 min, and about 1/2 mile in I knew we were way under that and I backed off. In hindsight I should have backed off sooner, because I knew 200m in that we were too fast. But at the same time, I'm glad I had the wherewithal to back off after a 1/2 mile. Positives and negatives there.
I came through the first mile in 5:45, too fast for my first mile, and Jayne was about 10 seconds ahead of me at that point. So I'm not sure where her head was regarding 6 min pace.
3. Respect the heat. I don't think it would have made much difference, or any difference at all, but I should have done a better job of hydrating early in the day yesterday. I was way hot out there, and I was dripping by the time Anders and I jogged from our car to the start line to even pick up our packets. I also didn't take a sip of water at all between the time we parked downtown at 6:30 and the time we started racing at 7:25. Oops. Not that that's particularly unusual for me, but its something to think about.
I came through the 2 mile in 11:57, which would have been about perfect except for the fact that I had already slowed significantly from the first mile, so my momentum was headed the wrong direction, and I could tell my legs knew I had gone out too hard. Managed to hold together and finish pretty well at the end of the race, and I was really happy about that. Times online I think are wrong, or haven't been adjusted from the start yet. I ran over the start line probably ~20 seconds after the gun went off. I clocked myself from line to line at 18:25.
Really fun night, and I'm excited to race again soon, whenever and wherever that may be. Saw some Luther folks and heard some Go Norse yells along the course, and that made me smile. My dad came down to watch and I heard him about a 1/4 mile from the finish line. Had fun post-race hanging out with Jayne, Hobie, Demo, Lynx, Anders, and some of the RunMN guys Anders knows a little later. Definitely a fun race, and I'd definitely run it again. Plus, Anders got me a promo for a free registration, and it doesn't get any better than that.