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hmm. i hate when i screw up the "save draft" feature.
i had mostly typed up a decent race report from this morning when minimm woke up from a nap. thought i saved the draft. alas, it is nowhere to be found.
regardless, i ran a 10k this morning, having decided to do so at midday yesterday. we woke up this morning with just enough time to get there and get me registered before teh gun went off.
i started out about 10 or 20 back from the starting line - i wasn;t feeling fast, and wasn't sure i wanted to go out with the rabbits. plus, i'm still hesitant about the calf, and this was a hilly course. there was a 5k and a 10k running concurrently, with the 10k running essentially two loops of the 5k course. there were some deviations, but that's the general layout. the crowd ahead of my thinned almost immediately as about 50m after the start, we turned and went of a short, steep hill, the first of many. the uphill terminated at a turn and a lnog steep downhill. another turn, and we embarked on the out-and-back section of the loop. it started sharply downhill, but then was mostly flat. the turnaround was just before the mile mark. i hit it in 7:07. my pace was definitely aided by all the downhills, as we'd just dropped 160' in 0.4 miles, and i was not looking forward to going back up. there was a water stop and i walked for 30 seconds. a few people passed me, and i caught a bunch of them.
we climb back up some of the hill, 100' in 0.3 miles, to another water stop and another 30 seconds of walking and then we hit the two mile mark. 7:53. i'm now thinking pr, which had been set in 2008 at a 7:54 pace. i knew the third mile was going to be awful, with a huge hill, and i knew the sixth mile wasn't going to be much fun either, but if i could hold on to some energy and run a good 4th mile, i'd have a fair shot. in the next 0.4 miles, we drop 100'. i hold back a little as i don't want to burn out my quads, but i'm trying to hold off a few nearby runners. at the bottom i try to open it up a little, to gain some space, but we immediately start to climb. 190' in 0.6 miles, starting out at a slog, but steepening at the halfway. happily, there was a water stop there, and again i walked for 20-3 seconds. at the top of the hill was the 3 mile mark, but i missed it. i was too busy high fiving minimm in his stroller.
and then we went back down the hill.
i'd been jockeying with a few runners at this point, where i'd pass them while i was running and they'd catch me at the water stops. we go down the first steep hill, and i use it to catch and pass them. there were two guys, i think, and one woman. i was leading as we turned to the out-and-back. its downhill had two steps down. my competition was braking down teh hill in an attempt to recover or conserve energy. this is a mistake. i opened up a little on the first downhill, but after the first step i realized i'd left them too close, as they started to gain on me in the interstitial flat. on teh second decline, i opened up my stride and just cruised easily down the hill. doing so doesn't cost any extra energy, though it does run the risk of burning you out with a pace you can't keep up on the flat. but my goal was to dissuade them from following by opening up a good lead.
it mostly worked. i continued to push towards the turn. i hit the 4 mile mark with a 2-mile split of 15:53 - pretty good considering the hill. i'm starting to tire, but i know they're still back there. so at the next water stop, i grab my water and keep running. i could tell i had a good enough lead on the men, but the woman was hanging on. she was wearing a running jacket that i could hear, so i didn't need to expend any effort to keep tabs on her.
as the flat drags on, i too start to drag. but i think i've lost her, as i stopped hearing the jacket. we get to the first of the hills to get back out. near the top she draws even, but can't hold it, and drops back going over the top. she makes no move on teh second as i maintain a consistent turnover and draw myself up. i grant myself a brief 15 second walk at the water stop at the top. she catches up, but based on those hills i figure i've got her in the bag if need be. but i'm also tiring. mile 5 clocks in at 8:20, and my overall time is 39:16. i try to do the math for how fast i need to run the next 1.2 miles, and i realize i have a fair shot. we reach the low point of the race, and its time to start climbing again. happily, the final lap cuts the big hill by half, inserting a quarter mile flat just before the finish. my quads are fairly burning, and i sense the woman also dropping pace. as we approach the turn onto the flat, she's drawing closer. at this point, i'm thinking, ok, i've been running most of the second half of the race with this woman. do i really want to be that guy and try to out kick her at the finish? she seemed like she was flagging a bit, and i drop speed just a touch to keep her in contact. there was nobody ahead of us to chase, and even if there was, i don't think i would have had enough to go after them. there was nobody behind us either. i hit the 6 mile mark with a 8:09 mile, and a minute-thirty to my pr, but the finish seems awfully close. like, way closer than a quarter mile. it looks half as far. and it was.
she out kicked me at the end. i don't mind. i invited it. but i also made a good effort to not let her outkick me by too much. her speed actually surprised me. but if i hadn't been letter her get closer, i don't think she would have caught me. but i might have burned myself out too. it was nice having fleeting moments of understood camraderie and competition.
i finished in 48:20, a pr by 35 seconds. i think they had the 6 mile mark in the wrong place, or i was late in clicking it, as my 6th mile seems to have taken longer than it felt.
in the 10k, i took 23rd overall. i also placed 2nd among males aged 30-39. i'm pretty happy about it.
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