GMAA 15k Race Report

The 2nd Annual GMAA 15k in Burlington VT was my first ever 15k - it's nice heading into a race knowing that I'll be setting a PR.

On Saturday afternoon, Elizabeth and I got in the car for the three and a half hour drive and made good time, and had a little luck as well - we passed a cop as were driving 90mph on Rt.89, but he must have been looking at his smartphone as we cruised on by. This was also our first visit to Burlington and the views of Lake Champlain were pretty incredible. We enjoyed a picnic in the park and then some karaoke at a little dive bar with Del and Judy. And then we drove down towards the starting line and ended up parking in the library lot next to the high school and car camping for the night. It was mostly OK, though it's difficult to regulate the temp inside the car, and we had to adjust the windows and sun roof a few times thanks to the heavy wind and, at times, rain.

The morning of the race, I woke up feeling surprisingly rested. I walked Raleigh a bit to get the legs loosened up then drove down the street for some Dunkin'.  I only had a few sips after parking and bumping into Kevin. Once I grabbed my number and jar of pasta sauce I dropped everything off and went for a warm up run. We ended up running what wasn't even part of the course (whoops, that one is probably on me!!), but it was a nice warm up nonetheless. Surprisingly, it wasn't noticeably swampy at this point.

Once we finished the warm up we bumped into Terry and a handful of other CSUers and we all made our way to the starting line.

The first half mile was relatively quick before hitting a small hill, which was so early in the race that it went virtually unnoticed. We turned a corner and ran along a long straightaway with views to the right that were pretty cool. I tried to find a rhythm and hit the off switch, but there was a stiff head wind for those first 3 flat miles. On more than one occasion I found myself as the lead man taking the brunt of the wind, and I would attempt to pick it up and latch onto someone ahead of me, or at a minimum - make the people behind me feel the wind for a bit.

For those first few miles me, Terry, and Kevin kind of went back and forth. I think each of us were trying to settle in, and I can't speak for everyone, but I never found a great rhythm.

As we made our way into the hillier sections of the race, the wind lessened, but the weather felt more and more oppressive - it was like a steam room had been turned off and we were running in the light mist as it settled. That made for some swampy running. This may have been the first time that I've wanted MORE water stops in a race. It wasn't until the 5k mark that we hit a water station, and when I dumped the water over my head I could feel it go from cold water on my bald spot to hot water as it hit my neck.

During miles 4-7, I was holding position ahead of Kevin and Terry and would try to steal a glance back at every sharp turn. I caught glimpses of Kevin, but couldn't spot Terry, though I knew he was there. I ended up passing the 10k mark at 38:07, so I was pretty happy with that pace given the conditions.

It was somewhere in the 6th mile that I found myself in no man's land. There were guys not too far behind and not too far ahead, but no one was running with me. Running for a specific time was out the door due to the conditions, but I still wanted to compete. So I would try and get some songs in my head, or use the crowd for motivation, but it wasn't quite working. Then at one point I considered, "maybe I should slow a bit and run with the group behind me." Tempting as that was, I had another thought at the same time, "no, you haven't been running all these miles to ****ing drop back in a race."  That voice was more convincing, and it was right. Training hard to run a 'safe' race doesn't make sense to me.

I ended up holding my position fairly well from this point on. I was passed by one guy, who I later passed as he was dry heaving or farting or something...then he promptly passed me again a few minutes later (MAD RESPECT DOOD!). But other than him, I ended up picking off people as the miles passed.

The final mile+ goes downhill for roughly a quarter mile, then uphill for a bit, before turning towards the high school and turning again for the final 150 meters to the finish. There were very few people I could pick off at this point, but I made a solid kick to the finish anyways and was able to just get past another runner at the line.

I finished as the 82nd male, and the 1st CSU runner - which is primarily how I gauge success in the USATF Grand Prix races. It was a good race.

Splits:
5:59
5:56
5:57
6:29
6:09
6:10
6:08
6:05
5:57
2:13

Final Time: 57:07

Other Photos