OH-SIX

As I mentioned Friday, I could pretty much pencil in a 1:24 for this race. Now just add an oh-six to the end and you’re there; 1:24:06, course record (for me), 39 seconds faster than last year, 19th overall (out of 1,300 people), 9th out of 233 in the 30-39 age group. Complete results can be found here.

I think I could have run about a minute faster if the conditions were a little nicer. It was probably 15-20 degrees, which isn’t bad, but the winds were pretty stiff and gusty. It was hard to get a read on it too. This is an out-and-back course and I thought the entire second half would be a tailwind. However, there was quite a bit of crosswind to deal with during that stretch.

Overall, I’m really happy with my race. By about 2-3 miles I had hooked up with the women’s leader and another guy. We went through the halfway point in 42:25, which means I “blazed” a 41:41 second half. The three of us worked together until about mile 10. At that point there’s a pretty good climb and those guys gapped me. The guy must have been feeling good, because he kept extending his lead the rest of the race. Meanwhile, I was able to keep Melissa, and a few other guys that were coming back to me, in my sights.

Awhile ago I wrote about common excuses that I find myself using, like getting content towards the end of races. Normally, I’d get to mile 11 or 12 and I’d just want to be finished. I wouldn’t care about catching people in front of me or holding anyone off. Saturday was a different story. With about 2 miles to go, someone cheering said I was in 23rd place. I wouldn’t say I had a “killer instinct,” but I just kept working and was able to pick off 4 more people during that stretch. I think I passed about 10 people in the second half of the race. Not bad when you’re moving from top-30 to top-20.

Anyway, now I know where I stand with my base training. I’m happy with the results of this race, but I need to get back to focusing on mileage a little more. January will be below 290 miles and my next race is still like 7 weeks away.

Hmm, if I doubled my time from this race, I’d barely beat my latest interview. I have lots of work to do.

Quote of the day;

“I was doing my best to stay with the 2:47 pace group—I knew that if I dropped behind, it would be too easy to slow down, so I just forced myself to keep up for as long as I could.” - Erin Ward