This was a beautiful day to run hard. Elizabeth elected to stay home, while I carpooled with Terry, Bill and Rahul up to Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester. The ride up provided a good opportunity to talk goals, weather, upcoming races, and in general get amped up for the race. I didn't get quite the long warm up I was looking for, but it was enough to have me feeling ready to roll, with adequate drills and strides. As always, it was fun to have a big CSU crew during warm ups.
The course was slightly different from previous years, and after the gun went off we were going up a short & fairly steep hill that in years past would be the final stretch. That first quarter mile, I was primarily focused on not getting tangled up; we were squeezed in tight at the start. As the pack stretched out I fell into rhythm and tried to find my target pace of 5:25/mile. I wasn't looking at my watch for feedback, and I was pleasantly surprised to see the clock hit 5:25 on the dot as I passed the first mile marker.
SRR runner Patrick Haneberg had overtaken the group I was in at the early part of mile two, but ended up yo-yoing just a bit and he settled back into the pack. I was running evenly and soon found myself leading a group of about six or seven runners. I was happily surprised to pass the second mile marker in 5:25 on the dot - good pacing so far!
With the new course, I didn't know what to expect. It wasn't too hilly, but it wasn't flat either and I felt myself working hard when the pack approached a short but steep hill as we neared the 5k mark. I was worried that the I could potentially lose contact on the hill. Instead, as the runners around me shortened their stride up the hill, I seemed to power up it and I found myself back at the front of the pack. My garmin read 5:30 for the third mile and I took note that my 5k split according to the race clock was 17:02. It would be a challenge to hit my 'A' goal for the day.
I didn't want to let up, and cresting that short hill gave me confidence that I was running well relative to the pack. There were a few moments during the 4th and 5th miles when the pack surged ahead of me, and then slowed to come back. I stayed steady and remained in contact on the first surge, and when they came back (or I surged to catch up?) I kept the pace even. We passed the 4th and 5th miles in 5:16 and 5:30 respectively (could be a garmin error or elevation?).
During the final stretch to the finish the pack splintered. There were two runners who started to pull away, but not by a significant margin. As we were on the 'pre-straightaway' I worked extremely hard to catch up, and as we turned towards the long stretch to the finish we passed a lot of runners battling home. One of the additional benefits of running in that pack was that each of us wanted to beat the other just that little bit more. I'm not sure how it all ended up except that a Green Mountain runner was able to outlast me to the finish by just a hair.
But since I finished in 33:51, I didn't really care as much about my overall place considering the depth of the Grand Prix.
1m - 5:25
2m - 5:25
3m - 5:30
4m - 5:16
5m - 5:30
6m - 5:20
.29m (garmin) - 1:21
Final time: 33:51
Overall: 57th Place
NER Photo
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