A good and bad race. The good part was
the forum encounter. The bad part was the race itself. No, it wasn’t just bad.....it was very bad for me. A personal
worst (PW) by 2:22 and the first time in 82 10k races I've run slower than an hour.
The forum encounter was great and included
folks from the RW Beginners, Marathons and Masters Forums. JenB and her husband (John) arrived from Pennsylvania midday and we spent
the afternoon dodging thunderstorms in Annapolis. Scottydog
(Texas) and Lauren (Virginia)
got here later in the afternoon. We all had dinner together. Sunday AM at the race site we met William (Bill) Allen (Geetah),
Wayne Pruitt and DaveP, all of whom are local to the Annapolis/DC area. Jen (hip
pain) and Dave (foot surgery) weren’t running. Jen spectated and Dave volunteered at the finish line.
The weather was bad for a race. Very
warm and as humid as it could be. In fact, a brief shower 30 minutes before the race assured that the humidity was topped
off at or near 100%.....very muggy. At least it was overcast so there was no sun to make it even worse.
This was my first race since mid-March,
I’m 10 pounds heavier than I was then, and I haven’t run much since March until the last couple of weeks. So,
I really didn’t have much basis for goal setting, except that I knew I’m running slower than I have in over two
years. But, as I usually do, I did set three race goals.....floor - beat my PW time which I ran here 2 years ago of 57:59.
Optimistic - beat my time in this race last year of 56:11. “Realistic” - about 57:00, which was based on my recent
2-weeks of training. I didn’t even come close to the floor goal.
I knew during my warm-up that I was in
trouble. It just didn’t feel good. I told Bill Allen just before the race start that 59-minutes was probably more realistic
for me today instead of 57-minutes. At that point I was still optimistic about staying under an hour.
This course is deceptive. Not really
hilly, but not really flat either. At least ¾ of it is on some kind of incline. Otherwise, it’s a nice out-and-back
course with the first and last 1.2 miles through a quiet residential neighborhood and the middle 4.8 miles on the B&A
Trail. Miles 1, 2, 5 and 6 have rolling hills. 3 and 4 are the flattest part of the course.
The field size was advertised to be about
700. That’s getting a bit large for a trail race, but congestion wasn’t much of a problem. Although, it might
have been if I had been able to run further up in the pack.
After 12 seconds to cross the start line,
my splits were 9:31, 9:39, 9:53, 9:48, 10:19, 9:41 and 1:30 (7:01 pace) for the last 0.214 mile for a final net time of 1:00:21.
Just like last year, I think the 6-mile marker was misplaced. I pushed mile 6 a bit, so that split should have been a little
faster, and I know I didn’t have a 7 minute/mile finishing kick, even though it was a little downhill.
After the first mile, I knew I was running
for my floor goal. At the halfway point, my time and the way I felt told me that I was almost certainly going to run a new
PW. By the end of mile 4, I knew that it was even worse. The next mile buried any hopes I might have to avoid my first ever
10k slower than an hour. Bill Allen and a friend of his, Steve Smith, who had long since finished, came out to meet me with
about ¾ mile to go. They ran in to the finish with me, which helped me to push the last mile a bit.
The odd thing was that my breathing wasn’t
all that hard until mile 6, but I just couldn’t push myself harder today. I’m out of touch with the mental part
of racing. Plus, I did run 10 miles Friday, including 10x1/10 mile in the last two miles at 8:00/mile, which is much faster
than my current 5k race pace. That probably “deadened” my legs a little.
I didn’t even try to catch
and pass people in the second half of this race, as I usually do to motivate a second-half push. The one positive note about
the race was passing a local guy my age, also named Jim, just before the 4-mile marker who I know from training on the trail.
Jim usually beats me by 2-3 minutes in a 10k. He was walking when I passed and said, “Come on, Jim.” He replied,
“It’s too damn hot for me!” It was mildly satisfying to see him cross the finish line 2-3 minutes after
I did. J
This will go down as one of the low points
in my racing. I hope there isn’t another like it for a long while.
However, this weekend will also go down
as a great forum encounter. In addition to an “old forum friend”, Scottydog, spending a few days with us, I got
to see another “oldie”, DaveP again and had the pleasure of meeting several “new forum friends”....JenB,
Lauren, Bill Allen and Wayne Pruitt.
Jim2
Return to Race Log
Return
to Personal Race Reports
