Notes
Small invite hosted by Oneonta, well groomed grass course with two big flat lower field loops and 2 smaller upper field loops with a hill going up to the upper field. Very windy on one long stretch on the lower field.
Another pretty mediocre race, I'm not too mad at myself though and I don't really know why, definitely very frustrated though. Didn't get any splits (other than the first 400, lol) so I don't really know how it was paced, but I know how it felt. Honestly thought I executed my plan pretty well, wanted to run very relaxed for the first half of the race and then run hard the second half. Start went well, ran comfortably up the first hill and then after 1 mile settled into a group with Bashir, Garrett, Barrett, and co. Very relaxed down the windy straight, tucked in behind some other randos, feeling good through mile 2. Mile 3, started to build as planned. I thought I was in a great spot, I could Steve Hammar and other guys I would like to finish with not far ahead of me and I was ready to go chase. Going up the hill the second time hurt and some guys put some ground on me but I was planning on hitting the 3 mile mark at the top and then going hard. Which I thought I did, hit the downhill pretty strong and picked up the pace & effort heading into mile 4. The rest of the race pretty much sucked. I thought I was running hard but I couldn't make up any ground on anybody. Kinda caught in no man's land going out into the wind and didn't catch anybody, hit the 4 mile mark and could see guys who I should be with not that far ahead, man I felt like I was running hard but I made up no ground. Not running fast enough, legs were dead.
Hmm not what I was hoping for at all. Fast course, not the fastest of conditions, but still thought I could do better. I thought it was a much better race than Saratoga, and was in some respects a better race than last week even though it was a worth performance (time & place). I felt like I was more focused in the second half of the race than last week, I was a mentally engaged and telling myself "cmon you have to go get someone keep pushing" etc but I just didn't have it for some reason. Never got any momentum going, I was pretty much all alone for the last two miles didn't catch or get passed by anyone. It didn't help that it was a smaller race I suppose, but I think that today I needed to be a little further up at 3 miles so that I had people to work with, I guess I let the group I was with go too easily going up the 2nd hill.
BUT like I said for some reason I'm not as upset with myself this race and I am ready to get fired up for the next race. One more week of hard work and then time to have a great last two races. Season goal is to improve from race to race and run the best at LLs and I think I will be ready for a big performance.