Hey hey - surprised myself here. What a fun race and great morning. Having now done this race twice, I find it to be one of my favorite road races out there. Why? The course is cool, it's cheap, long sleeve tech t, late start, i love the course, and it's run very smoothly.
Last year it was sunny and cool, this year it was rainy and cool. By rainy, I mean that it lightly sprinkled throughout the race, but not heavy enough to ruin the experience.
my fuel for the day was 1.5 chocolate chip pancakes with peanut butter on top, and drizzled in syrup. For drink I had a Gatorade and a Dunkin' Doughnuts small coffee.
Warm up was just over a mile in 8:30's pace. Got up to the front, about 2nd row from the starting line. Legs felt good, and I felt rather quick and light, thanks to my Lunar Racers. Took off and settled into the race the first mile in 6:05-10 pace. Allowed Jason and his group to get up in front, and was able to watch Mitchell go out with the leaders - or right behind them anyway. Came through the first mile in 6:12 and felt fine. The course begins to climb and I tried to overcompensate to stay on pace. Cresting the hill I found myself at 6:15-20 pace and begin to adjust to get it back down towards 6 flat. The hill downward helped. Here, the course lets you out onto the long straightaway hilly country roads where the bulk of the race takes place.
Came through mile two a tad faster and feeling fine. Jason and his pack were slowly coming into reach, and the next long climb was upon us. I think it was around 2.5 miles when I caught up to Jason and his pack as we elevated up the hill. Initially I passed, then he passed right back, then we kind of grouped up, them right off my right shoulder.
After we peaked on the hill, the older gentlemen (John Anderson) in the pack went around me and sped up until he got a couple meters gap on me. At 3 miles I stayed even from mile two on the pace, and managed not letting this new member of the pack I just passed, continue to build on his lead. My focus was on him, and not the other people in the pack I had just passed. I kept him in contact that third mile, and as we sped along at a slight decline, our 4th mile quickened, especially when I made my move to pass him just before splitting 4 miles in the race. As we approached the last mile, around 3.8 miles, I told myself to work on passing him and ride this stretch into the last mile's pickup. Basically I decided to make my move before a mile to go, and not relent. The slower start allowed me to feel ready to attack, and I was focused on putting as much ground between the people I had passed, and not letting them get back to me. While I was doing this, a guy in front of me (Joseph Willis), who had been too far out of reach for me to worry about, started to come into view. I was telling myself to keep going, not to let up, and mentally was breaking down the last mile into quarters as I visually pictured getting closer and closer to being done. The last half mile of the race gives you a reprieve from the final hill you just climbed, and descends down into Catawba College campus and winds you to the entrance of the stadium. A few sharp curves are present here, and during this stretch I passed the guy who had been long in front of me the whole race. Again, he initially passed me back, then I made one more strong move, right before being let onto the track, where I passed him back. I was in top gear at this time, and just had 300 meters to go. I was determined to not let anyone pass me back, and just drove deep and tried to get onto my toes and turn my feet over as fast as I could. I glanced up at the scoreboard and saw the official race time tick up. As long as I ran the last 200 meters in under a minute I would have broken 30 mins for the race, something I wasn't sure I could do going into the race. I held on and finished strong and came in officially at 29:40 - good for 6th place. My friend Mike Mitchell was in 5th place, but had finished more than 2 minutes earlier.
I had a blast out there. It was especially enjoyable because I started off conservative, and was able to really pick it up the last couple miles. Finishing strong is always the best thing, and it doesn't always play out like that. I loved the camaraderie of my friends being out there, and BBQ in China Grove after was a nice cap on the event.
Great Race to Jason too - check out his recap
Race Time: 29:40
Pace: 5:58
Splits: 6.12, 6:01, 6.01, 5:50, 5:34
Place: 6th
Link to results
miles for the day - 8 - 1 mi w/u, 2 mi c/d
Week in review: 15 miles on 3 days running. 2 short runs, and 1 race.
No comments:
Post a Comment