On Sunday morning I woke up early and drank a delicious cup of coffee, and ate about half a bowl of oatmeal before heading off to the Lone Gull 10k in Gloucester. Elizabeth decided to come along and I wish she felt ready to run again, but I can understand not wanting to race unless you're ready. Anyways, with Eli in the passenger seat and Raleigh in the back we got to the parking lot with not as much time to spare as I would've liked.
The beach parking lot had a fairly long line of cars, but it moved quickly and then the men's room didn't have any wait. Unfortunately, the line for club-runners to pick up their bib number was slow moving, and so I was only able to get in about 2 miles worth of a warm up, and limited drills & strides.
On the starting line I saw Terry about 15 feet away parallel to me, and Kevin and Jonathan a few rows behind me. My right foot felt a little tight during warm ups, but other than that I felt prepared. I backed off the miles the previous two days and was looking forward to improving on the 37:59 I ran here last year.
When the sirens sounded the crowd awkwardly shuffled along, unsure of whether that was the start or not, and once we got moving there was quite a bit of jostling. One guy cut me off, and another guy elbowed me - neither was a big deal, but that always annoys me just a little bit. Do they do that to everyone they pass? I mean, we aren't fighting for position on the rail...I'm not sure I really see the point. Anyways, it wasn't long until the crowd started to spread out.
I don't really remember much of the first mile, I just tried to keep the pace quick and find a comfortable rythym. The garmin buzzed and showed a 5:37 first mile, and I felt good about that. It wasn't too fast, and I felt I could sustain that had it been a flatter course and less windy day.
Mile two was a bit more challenging. I started to let myself get too comfortable, and I think having a limited warm up didn't help me. Shortly after taking a right into some neighborhoods Terry came up on my on the right and a small group formed around me. I matched Terry's stride, but it got a little crowded so I swing wide and caught up to him so we could run side by side. This lasted only a short while, and soon there after we hit a downhill that I wanted to take advantage of and I ended up opening a small gap. After that we were running alongside an inlet or something, and it started to get a little windy. Not too bad, but enough so that I noticed it.
A large handful of Lowell runners passed Terry and I on our left, and I was a bit surprised as we were a couple miles into the race and they seemed to be hammering it. It's not like Terry and I were backing off either. Then a guy on a bike kept giving EJ (a Greater Lowell runner) a hard time - "gotta get the monkey off your back!" etc. etc...maybe that was spurring them on? I would've been like, "back off dood unless you want me to push you off ur bike!"
I was moving well and felt comfortable as I hit 5k in 17:58ish. In this nice little neighborhood there were a lot of sharp turns and the road was very undulating. Looking back at my splits, it looks like I really sucked during the 4th mile. But I don't know, sometimes the course can slow you down.
Once we got back to Atlantic Road for the final section of the race I hit some brutal headwinds. I don't even know if it was hilly or not, I just felt like a giant sail. I had the "pain face" on for virtually the entire final stretch, which also means my eyes were half closed. A Somerville Road runner was drafting off me for a short stretch, and he mentioned that he'd fight the wind for a bit, but it he started to slow after only 100 meters or so - and so I went back into no man's land to fight the wind alone.
I kept glancing back to see if the group behind me was catching up, but it looked like I was neither gaining on the folks ahead of me nor was I losing any ground. That was good, but I tried to bear down and make up some ground on those ahead of me for the final push. I ended up just getting past a runner I normally don't beat just before the crest of that final short steep uphill. I then made a solid push for the finish. I was cruising well, and noticed that a BAA runner was trying to kick past me. I had plenty of room and I started to kick and easily put about 8 meters between us. Stupidly, I slowed as I felt kind of dickish kicking in past the lone female ahead of me. Just as I slowed I could hear the BAA runner again and I needed to kick it back into to gear to stay ahead of him. Which I did.
Splits:
5:37
5:49
5:36
5:57
5:49
5:58
1:22
Final Time: 36:10
http://www.coolrunning.com/results/14/ma/Sep14_Eighth_set1.shtml
So, last night at track Kevin asked me, "so, are you happy with the race?" And, at first glance I am. But the question got me thinking a little bit more about how I view the race. Yes, I set a big PR, and I was able to finish as the top CSU runner. I am happy with both of those aspects of how the race went...but I can't help but be a little disappointed. I thought I was capable of running faster. I think I know what the problem is...NOT ENOUGH MILEAGE!!!!!
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