race over 1 mile since the Assault on Mt Hood in December, along with my first 10-mile race - so I could simply shoot for a PR. Based on my recent workouts and hearing what Tom and Kevin were aiming for, I decided it would be wise to approach the race looking to run the about 6:10/mile. This still felt a little aggressive since my 10k PR pace was 6:08/mile, which was set in September...
I felt pretty good on my ~2 mile warm up. Jogging with Tom, Kevin, Gordon, and Kent - I felt like there was a blessing from the running gods when we stumbled upon a random port-o-john after the restroom lines at the Amherst high school were excessively long. And the portoJ was clean! Probably the most important part of race day prep in my humble opinion.
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| Photo Courtesy of KrissyK |
Splits:
| 1 | 06:03.2 | 6 | 05:55.0 |
| 2 | 05:55.8 | 7 | 06:02.6 |
| 3 | 06:55.0 | 8 | 05:47.4 |
| 4 | 06:17.2 | 9 | 06:23.4 |
| 5 | 06:17.1 | 10 | 05:30.9 |
| 31:28.3 | 29:39.3 |
I'm glad I stayed conservative, because mile 3 was pretty brutal. According to the Garmin, there was 250+ feet of elevation gain, and 0 loss. I just sort of went into a grind, but made sure I wasn't redlining - I didn't want to burn out my quads with 6 miles to go.
By this point I was somewhat alone. I wasn't going to try and make up that ~30 seconds on Kevin as it would've crushed me. So I settled in. The next few miles were a little slower than I would've liked, but the course was iced over mud. I wasn't slipping around, but I could tell that each push off my foot would slide back ever so slightly.
I hit the halfway at 31 and change, and felt good. There were a few short climbs during miles 5 through 8, but it was for the most part it was downhill. I would keep the legs churning comfortably on the ups, and open up no the downhill. This led to a lot of back and forth with a handful of runners I had been running with, but that was fine by me. One thing I did notice though, is that there was maybe 1 or 2 runners that passed through our group up until mile 8. During mile 8 I was able to open up a bit thanks to the course, and I could tell I was going to finish strong.
During mile 9, I caught back up with a few runners who had passed me earlier in the race, and I began passing them plus a big handful of others. There was about a 120+ feet of elevation gain, and I was feeling good. I was hearing other runners mumble and curse at the climb: 'feck' or 'ahhjeeezuz' or simply breathing heavy and grunting. I pressed hard and was cursing the hill in my head, but more along the lines of 'eff this hill.' My pace wasn't killer or anything, but I was getting stronger going up the incline.
The final mile was great. I just picked out runners ahead of me and pressed hard to catch up. Then I'd pick another runner and try and catch them. I still felt I had a kick in me if I needed it, but the hill seemed to sap the energy out of anyone I would've enjoyed a friendly kick to the finish with. A ~5:30 final mile is nice, but it leaves me wondering how much time I left out on the course. Perhaps I was too conservative...
En route to a solid 10 mile debut, I also split new 5 mile and 10k PRs. The second half I ran in 29:39. That's a 1:18 knocked off of my Carver time - and I did this during the second half of a 10 mile race...The Garmin also shows a 37:34 10k split, which is a 25 second improvement over Lone Gull in September. Overall a very encouraging race for my fitness as Boston approaches.
Time: 1:01:08
Results: http://www.coolrunning.com/results/14/ma/Feb23_40thAn_set1.shtml
Photos of CSUers:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.673864705996472.1073741831.416678988381713&type=1
