I was a little worried about this race. It had obviously been on the calendar for quite some time, but so had day-1 of the ultimate frisbee tournament, which fell one day prior to this race. So, in the weeks leading up to Pub Series race #4, I was doing my best to put in hard workouts prior to ultimate games. Not an easy task in the summer heat, but I think in the end it worked out.
Elizabeth and I were lucky to not have 90+ degree heat on the day of the tournament. It was warm and we played three full games, but we weren't left terribly sore and dehydrated. A quick side note - I really enjoy the fact that all my running leaves me, generally speaking, never tired during ultimate. While a lot of players were gassed for the third game, I finally felt like I was warmed up!
Anyways, the morning of the race also had me worried and excited for different reason. My legs felt ok, but the 11am start time meant we'd be racing in some very hot and humid conditions. We arrived a little bit late, and I spotted Terry and Kevin just beginning their warm up. Elizabeth wanted to do her own thing, so I joined them for a course preview. Immediately I could tell that the strategy I used at the Corrib race would be a bad idea - I would not be going out fast.
On the line, we all enjoyed hearing the race director, his buddy, and their thick Boston accents talk about how the race was back where it belonged in Union Square. I was glad to be momentarily distracted. When the gun went off, there were a handful of runners who went out super hard, but had the familiar stride that left me focusing on my Pub Series rivals. I was hanging with the lead pack for probably three quarters of a mile before I started backing off. I passed the mile in 5:20, feeling warm, but not in danger of overheating.
As the lead pack gapped me, I looked back to see who I could potentially run with and it was none other than Pickle-man. His normal strategy of sneakily waiting to pounce was out the window! I slowed just a bit to make sure we were even, and we started working together to keep the distance between us and the lead pack manageable. Mile two had a sharp turn and a gradual hill that kept us working, and we passed the marker in a 5:36 mile.
Up ahead we could see Wallace was pulling away, Klucznik was running strong, TJ was falling back from Klucznik, and Lee was falling back from TJ. We both were staying steady, but just as we entered mile three, Pickle-man made a hard move as we were going uphill. I began to cover it, and realized I actually felt alright. His move ended up being short lived and as I passed him he shouted words of encouragement to "go get him!" I don't know how he could manage to speak - I was hurting!
I was closing on Lee, but I felt like I was running out of real estate. I made a hard 20-step push to close as much of the gap as I could - squinting my eyes, I began to count every left-footfall. As I approached his shoulder, I made as much of an effort as I could to continue to tighten the screws. We turned a corner to approach the finish, and a spectator said something to encouraging to me then I looked back to see Lee and the same spectator said, "he looked back! Lee, you got him!" HA! I certainly heard that, and said to myself "not today!" I hammered the downhill as hard as I could while trying to keep myself from biffing it. I did the old Dmukauskas windmill and felt my toes get red hot from the friction. Finally, at the bottom of the hill I could see the finish and kept going hard straight through the line - good for 5th overall.
Worth mentioning that Elizabeth had a very solid showing, averaging 7:03/mile off of minimal training. Since the race, she has been getting out there a lot more frequently though - so I'm looking forward to see how she fares in the next Pub Series race.
Results
Pub Series
Pub Series Standings
Strava
No comments:
Post a Comment