The night before the race I could feel some sort of cold coming on. My sinus had that dry achy feeling, and on top of that my left foot was really really bugging me. With each step, throughout the day, I had moderately painful clicking and a minor limp (never a good sign)
So, race morning I woke up plenty early to have some coffee and a light breakfast. I felt pretty crappy, but not bad enough to scrap the race plans. Eli drove me to the start where I was able to get in an uneasy warm up. The whole time my equilibrium felt off. I wasn't so sick that I was weak, but it was enough to have me slightly concerned. The good thing, though, was that I didn't see any obvious fast guys on the starting line. There were a few younger guys, and one runner with a singlet that seemed like they could be quicker, but I felt confident in my chances.
When the gun went off, there were the typical 3 or 4 kids that bolted from the line - only this time they had some company - me! I went out quick and I wanted to establish a fast pace. This course has some brutal hills, and I aimed to run a faster first 2 miles. That went mostly to plan, though mile 2 was slower than mile 1 due to a quarter mile(ish) long hill in the middle. It wasn't a totally draining hill, just enough slow down the split. Through this point I had led the entire race and was feeling pretty good.
Bean Hill Road is the start of mile three, and it's a real ball buster. Uphill for nearly the entire mile, it gains something like 350 feet of elevation (at least according to gmap-pedometer) with lots of false flats. I was lucky to run a 7min mile here, but once the road leveled out my legs were not cooperating. The road still had a very small incline and I couldn't get any faster than that 7min pace and back to my sub 6 pace. I took a peak back and noticed the two runners behind me gaining on me. Once the road started to make its gradual decent, I was able to open up the stride and hit my pace, but Bean Hill left me in tough shape.
Miles 4 and 5 are a little bit up and down, but generally downhill. All through this section of the race I made it a point not to look back. I didn't want to give the guy behind me any fuel to make a hard surge, and I was also making it a point to vary my pace and so I was throwing in 15+ second surges every minute or so with the occasional very hard surge lasting ~60 seconds.
With about a half mile to go there is a really nasty steep downhill that lasts a quarter mile +, and I could feel both my quads and my left foot barking at me. I basically ignored both and made sure that he would have to run semi-out-of-control to have a chance to catch me. Before hitting the final uphill and turning towards the finish I took a peak back to see that I had put a comfortable distance between the two of us. I went up the final uphill at a very controlled pace, allowing some of the distance to close, but making sure I could have a killer kick if necessary. Once I turned the corner I threw down a quick blast of speed, took another look back, and coasted across the line - winning my first real race ever.
Splits:
5:33.04
5:57.69
7:00.30
5:51.85
5:14.88
http://www.coolrunning.com/results/14/nh/Oct11_Warner_set1.shtml
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