Notes
Maine Track Club Mid-Winter Classic 10 miler, suggested by Caroline that we do this and we got a solid GBTC contingent to register (the morning after Philly!) Fun race! Very convenient for me since it was in Cape E and I was planning on watching the Superbowl there anyways. It was cold (20s) but weather was nice - sunny and no wind. After warming up I decided I was fine to race in just shorts, singlet, gloves.
I was pretty confident going into this after the 15k last week + a solid workout on Wednesday, and I thought there was a chance I could run even faster than last week. That ended up being obviously mistaken given the temperature and the course difficulty... I told Shannon that it was all downhill after the 2nd mile (and even thought this myself) but that wasn't the case at all! There weren't any major climbs, true, but plenty of rolling inclines.
Started off easily enough, hung in the back of the "fast" pack that was up front. We had 7 GBTC guys + a big pack of Dirigo runners and a few other guys, e.g. Ian Nurse. I thought we were going a little slow from the start, but there was a big downhill in the second half of the first mile (early parts of the course kinda mirrored the Turkey Trot 5k course) and ended up coming through the mile in a fine pace, still with a big pack. At that point Jerry + 2 guys in blue broke away off the front, I was a litttle tempted to go with them but smartly decided that was unwise. I wanted to put myself out there a bit more than last week, but didn't need to do anything totally stupid... I hit the "big" hill at mile 2 pretty hard I guess, and by mile 3 when I looked back I was "all alone" with just a few of the Dirigo guys in the chase pack... Jerry + 2 were a ways up front and the rest of the guys were somewhere behind. Stayed relaxed and confident and grinded out the rest of the race... I was fairly uncomfortable from early on (didn't feel like I was cruising like last week) but was o.k. with it. Had fun putting in some extra effort up and over the hills and fighting to stay focused and on pace. The last few miles were a struggle after being on a 5:30 average for the first half - I think the 2nd half of the course was probably a little easier than the first half, I was just tiring. Still, held it together pretty well and had enough of a kick in the last half mile around the parking lot to hold off Shaun & Eric! Didn't know for sure that they were coming up on me, but I had a feeling...
Well, Jerry is a 2:30:00 miler, Shaun & Eric 2:32, and the other 3 GBTC guys I beat all ~2:36... so pretty happy with my finish. Can't read toooo much into it, and not declaring myself a 2:32 marathoner yet, but I plan on rolling with Shaun & Eric at NB for sure. Same pace as my HM PR today, but an official 10 mile PR by 34s over OFTM last year, so feel good about that... hopefully I am not doing too much hard work or running too little! Planning to translate this road fitness into a shiny new 5k PR on Saturday night!