For the third weekend in a row, I laced up my shoes to race and this third and final race was the Paddy's Shilaleigh Shuffle 3 Miler in West Newton - the final race in the NE Runner Pub Series (their write up).
With the increased mileage the past month+, the morning of the race was the first time in quite a while that I didn't wake up with an achy Achilles, or tight calves - a good start to the day. After a cup of coffee and some granola Eli and I hopped in the car with Raleigh in the back and made our way to the race with enough time for a lengthy warm up. I think I've determined that I require about a 4m warm up in order to race well. Long enough to get the muscles warm, work out any aches and pains, and to burn through nervous energy. It was a bit chilly on race morning, but with an 11:30 start time the sun brought the mercury up enough to stick with simply a singlet and shorts.
On the straightaway at the start/finish area, I did a handful of strides and noticed that my legs felt very good. I lined up next to Terry and Kevin, and with over 1800 runners - this was a packed race! Terry, btw, had on a cool yellow singlet indicating he was a man to be reckon with. Per usual.
My goal for the race was to run hard, don't look at my splits, and just race. I was hoping to hang close to the leaders and just see what happened. When the gun went off, I went out hard for the straightaway, then settled in to a hard pace. I was with the leaders for maybe a third of a mile, and TJ and a guy in a blue singlet went out really hard. I wasn't going to stick with them, but there were plenty of guys around me, so I stayed at my hard pace. I wasn't red-lining during the first mile, but it certainly felt like a dang good hard effort. I was somewhere in the top 10 when I hit the mile marker at 5:18. Oddly enough, in my head I was thinking it would be nice to run under 10:40 for the first two miles, which I'm not sure if I've ever done. That preoccupied my mind for a very short time, until I snapped out of it and got a feel for the runners around me. The lead group of four had a sizable lead, with a chase pack of three not far behind. They were followed by myself and Andrew Holmes, and then there was a small gap behind us.
I passed the two mile mark with a 5:24 second mile, and I noticed that the group of three ahead of me had strung out just a little bit. I could see a BAA runner, then a Whirlaway runner, and they were close enough to provide a bit of a carrot to chase while Holmes was probably about 5-10 meters behind me providing ample motivation to keep the pace hard. Or as Kevin put it, "fear behind, hope ahead."...so poetic!
I think I did a good job of focusing more on effort than pace and the third and final mile was tough, but, oddly, relaxed. I took note of how far ahead Doug Martyn, the Whirlaway runner, was and increased my pace to close the once sizable gap before we hit the final straight. The gap was closing, but I was also running out of real estate and I was probably 10 meters back by the time we turned on to the final straight. When I was finally pulling even, we were very close to the finish and I increased the pace just a bit more. Martyn must not have heard me coming, and by the time I passed him I had a gained enough momentum at just the right time and he didn't have room or time to react. We finished with the same finishing time, 16:05 - but the timing of my kick worked in my favor.
7th overall in a large field, and a 17 second improvement from the 3 miler two weeks ago. I'll take it!
Splits:
5:18.66
5:24.63
5:17.40
5.93
Results
Scott Mason Photography
A great showing this year by CSU in the Pub series:
Final Pub Series Standings Men (4th overall for me)
Final Pub Series Standings Women (7th overall for Eli)
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