I woke up race morning to some achy calves. I walked around the house getting laundry out of the dryer, getting coffee ready, snacking a bit, and basically just moving around to get the blood moving. After going through my normal routine of coffee and granola on the couch with the laptop, Eli, Raleigh and I were ready to hit the road.
Once we parked, I bumped into Jonathan and started a very laid back warm up. I was looking to keep my calves loose and the conversational two miles did the trick. Jonathan split off, and I ran a few more miles, then Elizabeth joined and we made our way to the starting line for drills and strides.
I lined up at the front, ready to go out hard. I know I'm in relatively new territory fitness-wise so my plan was to simply mix it up as long as I could. When the gun went off, I knew that two of the runners would be off on there own - and that's how it went for David Wilson and Bronson Venable (overall #1 and #2).I wasn't sure what to expect, but after those two I was in a pack of 6+ moving at a good clip.
I could feel different runners on my shoulder at various times, and I was focused on keeping them on my shoulder as best I could. An HFC guy, Stephen Curley made a move to create some separation early on, but not more than a few meters. We passed two miles in 10:30, and I felt pretty strong. I had quickly closed the gap, and then re-passed when Picklesimer passed me and created a big gap of his own (this may have happened before the two mile mark, I'm not sure).
I worked hard to keep the gap at a reasonable distance and I could feel HFC's Holmes and Curley on my shoulder. The course takes a sharp right followed by a sharp left about a mile and a half after the turn around - and sometime around here I put my head down and closed the 10 meter gap that Picklesimer had. It burned some energy, but I felt like I needed to close the gap or risk it growing. Once I was on his shoulder, I stuck there for a short while to recover. With TJ just out of sight, we had to yell "which way!?!?" twice in order to stay on course. Thanks to Curley and Holmes for not letting us take a wrong turn!
When we made our way over Scarboro Pond we went up a slight hill and I felt like Pickleman was hurting a little so I tried to make a hard move. After opening up the smallest of gaps, he quickly closed it on the subsequent downhill. With less than a mile to go, we traded spots probably three or four times. I had a slight lead going through the tunnel, but I was on the pain train. When we made our way on to Williams Street, Pickle made a really hard move. I knew I couldn't hold that pace to the finish and a gap of 10-15 meters quickly opened up. I focused on staying quick and light, and hoped he made a move too early. With maybe 100 meters to go, I switched gears and ended up just behind him - I clearly mistimed my kick, but he likely had something left if I came up on his shoulder...no way of knowing now!
I finished in a time of 26:52, good for 7th overall and I improved my PR from last year by 56 seconds. I'm happy with all of that, and I think there is more in store.
Elizabeth wasn't especially happy with her race, but she was only 5 seconds slower than last year - ans she had a fever and was in rough condition six days prior. She clearly wasn't 100%, but I thought it was a really gutsy run for her.
Results
Scott Mason Photo
The after party was fun as always. A good portion of the CSU crew was able to get a small section of the pavement to trade race stories. As things were winding down Kevin and Mariani were leaving, Kevin said, "I hate you!"...coming from Kevin, that's the highest of compliments. It's good to be hated!
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