I was disappointed with my performance
in this race. It was one of those races that can only be explained by either a lack of mental strength or an aftereffect of
a week of training in warm, very humid weather. I ran this race last year and thought I should be able to beat last year’s
time of 44:10 by 15 sec/mile. The weather was about the same as last year on race morning and I’ve made progress (PR’s)
this year in every distance I’ve raced. And, I had a very good session of 8x880 at a 4:00 pace earlier in the week.
Although this course is fairly hilly, I didn’t think a sub-43 (8:35 average pace) was out of the question. It was. After
9 seconds to cross the start line, I ran 44:10 net....8:50 average pace. Exactly the same time as last year.....but a very
different race.
The race site is only 3.6 miles from my
house. So, just as I did last year, I ran to the race site at a comfortable 10:19 pace for a good warmup. I timed it to register,
make a potty stop and stretch just in time for the start of the race.
The course is rolling. The first half goes
out through a shady suburban neighborhood and the second half comes back on the B&A Trail, where I do all of my training.
Gently uphill 1st mile. Roller coaster 2nd and 3rd miles with a few steep hills. Mile 4 is
a nice downhill mile to set up a tough finishing Mile 5. The last 5/8 mile is uphill, except for the final 30 yard sprint
to the finish line.
Half way through the first mile, which
feels mostly flat although there is a slight overall rise in elevation, my right shoe came untied. First time that’s
happened in 15 years. I always double tie my shoes for races. Forgot to this morning. Stopped to retie it. Still, my split
was 8:38....30 seconds faster than last year....and I was feeling comfortable. Very encouraged at that point. I knew the hills
kick-in during miles 2 and 3.
With only a couple of short downhill reprieves,
mile 2 is all uphill. Short, steep hills. Long, gradual hills. And one long, steep segment. This should easily be my slowest
mile in the race, but it wasn’t. My split was 9:16 compared to 9:08 last year. OK, so I ran the tough mile a little
more conservatively than last year. Still 22 seconds ahead of last year’s time at that point. I was working hard because
of the hills, but felt like it wasn’t any worse than last year.
Mile 3 starts with rolling hills, but is
overall downhill. There is an excellent downhill stretch of about 3/8 mile leading to the Trail at about 2.7 miles, then flat
on the Trail to the 3-mile marker. My split for this mile was 8:29. I can’t compare it to last year’s split of
8:48, when the 3-mile marker was misplaced making mile 3 long and mile 4 short. I still felt OK.
The fourth mile is gently downhill for
the first half and flat for the second half. It’s the fastest mile in the race. And, now I was on turf on which I train
all the time. My split was 8:10. However, my split for miles 3-4 was 16:39, compared to 16:38 last year, decreasing my “edge”
over last year’s time to 21 seconds after 4 miles over a stretch where I expected to pick up some time.
My total elapsed time after 4 miles was
34:33 with a tough finishing mile coming up. I knew something was wrong. It should have been faster. This was my first “positive”
sign that things just weren’t going right, although I wasn’t struggling. I felt quite tired, although I didn’t
feel as if I was dying. I simply couldn’t or, more accurately, didn’t want to push the pace any harder. I knew
then that I was having an off day mentally and would be disappointed with today’s race; yet, I couldn’t do anything
about it. At least I still had a good shot at beating last year’s time by a little bit.
I didn’t. The wheels simply came
off my cart in the last mile, which includes a tough 3/8 mile uphill grade....one of the three longest, steepest grades on
the B&A Trail....that is part of just about every one of my training runs. I ran it in 9:37 compared to 9:16 last year.
Very disappointing! I did manage a good finishing kick for the last 200 meters, which include one last little diabolically-located
hill, or I wouldn’t even have matched last year’s time.
Differences between this year and last
year. Weight is about the same. This year-50.2 miles this week, last year-67 miles. This year-a warm, humid week leading up
to Dawson’s, last year-cool, dry weather all week. This year-a set of 8x880's 5 days before Dawson’s, last year-a
set of 10x880's 4 days before the race. This year-a 16 mile LSD 2 days before Dawson’s, last year-a 22 mile LSD 2 days
before the race. This year-an off day before Dawson’s, last year-an easy 6 miles run the day before the race. This year-no
race the week before Dawson’s, last year-a 10-mile race 7 days before Dawson’s. Last year, I started fall marathon
training a month earlier than this year. I structured it to MCM with Philly planned as a second marathon. This year, my program
builds to Philly with MCM as a training run/race. So I was further along at this point last year. I guess I can take some
solace in that and be encouraged that I ran as well this year with less training base. Also, I think I was a little weakened
and, maybe, a bit dehydrated from a lot of warm, humid running the week before the race. I hope those are reasonable explanations.
After post-race refreshments and ceremonies,
I jogged 3.6 miles home at a comfortable pace of 10:32. Now, I have to figure out what to plan for next week’s half
marathon race.
Jim2
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