Coming back from my honeymoon, I figure, "I'll be well rested!"...right? Maybe yes, maybe no - either way, the race did not go well. I got in a decent enough warm up, with no indications of the oncoming struggle.
I lined up next to Kevin for the start, and I felt fairly comfortable for that first mile. It was a bit downhill, but nothing crazy and the mile passed in 5:49.49. I was hoping I would be able to hold this pace for most of the race - I've been putting in a solid mileage base this summer - but that was the only mile I would run under a 6min pace for the day.
I hadn't realized quite how warm it was at the start, but early on in the race I was noticing the heat and as the race wore on, I felt it more and more. I also didn't realize how hilly the course was until we turned off the main highway. I started to recognize the terrain from a triathlon I had done a few years ago, but even then - I didn't recognize that those hills I had previously ridden over on my bike would be much more difficult on foot.
Miles two through four left me with a growing fear of the distance I still needed to cover before finishing. I felt like I was moving OK, but eight miles to go felt like a LONG way. Still, I was hoping it was just a quick bad patch.
It wasn't. Not only was I starting to hurt VERY early, I also had hot spots on the top of my feet starting at mile two that turned into nasty blisters by the end of the race. The course was very hilly, and I noticed the downhills more than anything else thanks to the blisters. They were quite steep, and my feet moved inside my shoes ever so slightly creating some excruciating friction. Essentially from that point forward, I was altering my stride on the downhills and trying to...I'm not sure how to describe it...I was almost tip toeing the downhills. I would try not to slow down, but I was also very conscious about limiting the chance that my feet would slide around.
My splits don't show the struggle nearly as much as I felt it. Aside from my feet, which were an issue for the remainder of the race, I was seriously huffing and puffing like crazy from mile five through ten. I specifically recall passing the 10k mark and really considering dropping out. The pity party had officially started.
I don't know exactly when, but at some point I could feel Kevin on my shoulder. I'm not sure how I knew it was him, but I had been expecting it and when I finally turned and saw him I assumed he had been there for some time and was about to lay the hammer down. I was in a pretty rough spot, and all I could think was, "just put me out of my f*****g misery." What I said was, "go get 'em Kevin." I'm amazed to see that my splits during that portion were ~6:30. I felt like I was crawling. Kevin put about 40 meters on me during one of the uphills as he caught up to a small group ahead of me.
After I saw the split at mile ten, I knew I basically had a Fresh Pond lap to go (~2.5 miles). I had been mired in a mental slump for miles, and I started to curse at myself and imagine random spectators cursing me and telling me to "pick it up" or something perhaps a bit more colorful.
I played the "run hard for ten left footfalls" game and closed the gap slightly during the 11th mile, and kept that going until I counted the gap ahead as 7 seconds. Once we turned onto the road for the final ~1.5 miles was hurting, but the lure of the finish line was great. I started randomly yelling every once in a while to clear out the fog that was continually forming in my head, and with perhaps 3/4 of a mile to go, I caught up with Kevin. There were a couple of other guys just ahead of us, and I focused on reining them in and hopefully creating a bit of space.
I ended up catching a few of those guys, and finishing in a respectable time of 1:17:47. I think I'm capable of running significantly faster, but I'm not disappointed. I was having a terrible race and thanks to Kevin for unknowingly calling an end to my pity party, I gutted it out. I still have soreness in my calves two weeks later, and hopefully that's 100% in time for the Lone Gull 10k on Sunday. We shall see!
Splits:
5:49.49
6:10.89
6:07.51
6:03.77
6:17.81
6:09.65
6:17.39
6:24.66
6:33.09
6:32.08
6:17.00
6:02.70
2:58.51
Results
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