After picking up our bibs, I ran into Kevin and Terry and we started to preview the course. Terry had a little printout and we made our way into some neighborhoods and eventually back to the starting line with time to spare. I did a few strides, some drills, and made my way to the starting line. I wasn't feeling especially great with a bit of mileage in the legs, but I felt I was capable of running hard and running a solid time.
Once the gun went off, I went with the top Pub Series guys and we settled into what felt like a pretty manageable pace. My legs were a little stiff, likely not quite warmed up enough from the two hour car ride, but my lungs felt great. After the long straightaway at the start, we took a sharp left going uphill for a few hundred meters then taking a right onto the main road. The uphill and sharp turns may have slowed us slightly, but the 5:24 split for the first mile felt conservative. And since I was only a few meters behind TJ and Lee, I was feeling optimistic that at a minimum it would be a very interesting race (little did I know!!).
As I mentioned, I previewed the course beforehand with Terry and Kevin. So as the leader (who was a non-Pub Series guy) and the lead cop car went past the left turn onto Seymour, I assumed that we must have taken a left one street too early during our warm up. So the leader, TJ/Lee/myself and a handful or runners who were in a pack about 10 meters or so behind me continued on. But as I approached 200 meters after Seymour, I looked at my GPS to see that I was roughly 1.25 miles into the race. I looked up into the distance and saw the leader had gone past two additional left turns, and the cop car had moved even further up the road to park and block traffic. The hampster wheel in my head slowly began to crank and I had a sudden realization...
I turned to look back, and saw that behind the chase pack, the entire race was taking the correct left up Seymour St. I slowed a bit, turned again, and said to no one in particular, "why is everyone going left!?" I knew the answer, of course, I just couldn't believe I had gone off course! After previewing it, for crying out loud!!! What a DOOF!
One of the guys in the chase pack immediately stopped and high tailed it back to Seymour Street, while another screamed out 'F**K! WHAT THE F**K!' which is what must have been everyone's internal reaction. I instinctively turned and chased after the guy who, in my mind, should have been behind me.
Seymour Street had a solid stretch of uphill, and though I was a reasonable distance behind the high-tailer, I made up that ground before we turned onto a flatter section of the course. From here to the finish, the race felt uneventful. I was absent minded about the fact that either Lee or TJ could've been chasing me. I figured that maybe the race would be scratched from the Pub Series, so I let off the gas a bit, but not so much that the guy I had just passed would re-pass me.
I saw some familiar singlets in the distance and thought to myself that I didn't drive two hours to simply jog it in, so I picked out folks here and there. On the final straight, I knew we still had a half mile to go, so I didn't make any sudden kick, but slowly turned the screws. With about 200 to go, I passed one of the guys I recognized from Doyle's, and he hung on my shoulder looking for a kick. I had enough left in the tank though, and eased away to maintain my place, whatever that would be (it would be 11th, in a time of 18:18, with an extra quarter mile thrown in there).
In the end, NERunner chose "to discount all runners not in the Series after McGrane in 3rd to Series Leader TJ Unger in 23rd (who looked to be the last of the lost tribe)." So, going off course would effect the overall standings, but it was lessened by removing any runners not actually in the Pub Series. This leaves me with 225 points, and I stay in 2nd place, but now 2 points behind TJ. In last year's final race, TJ ran very well at the Paddy's 3m to take the win in 15:12 while I came in 7th in 16:05. I am certain that I am in better shape, and running low 15s is a tall order, but I don't consider it unrealistic.
So I'll throw it out there now - I'm going for the win!
No comments:
Post a Comment