1. I had been confined to the treadmill while working in New York for the week before the race.
2. The weather forecast for Saturday (race day) was rain and storms, and I thought I'd be more likely to run a race hard than I would be to drag myself to the track for my speed work.
3. My 8K PR of 41:30 (8:20/mile) from 2009 was laughable compared to my other more recent PR's
Liz, Jack and I went downtown to register the night before the race and we decided that they wouldn't come down to watch the race as it was going to be rainy and the 3pm start time was in the middle of Jack's afternoon nap.
On Saturday, I arrived downtown at 2:30pm, parked and then began my warmup. For a long time, I had never bothered running more than a few hundred yards as a warmup for a race, but I had had good success with the Run for Young and Run for the Roses after I had run a couple of miles as a warmup that I wanted to keep using what seemed to be working.
I ran a couple of easy miles, stopping occasionally for some stretching and got to the start line 3 minutes before the start of the race, warmed up and ready to go.
I knew there were plenty of rolling hills on the course and that the last mile was more up hill than any of the other miles, so I wanted to leave enough in the tank to finish strongly. Taking that in to account, I thought I'd be able to break 35 minutes and have an average pace of 7:00/mile or faster.
I don't remember a huge amount about the individual miles, but here are some thoughts that I do remember:
Mile 1: (6:39) I wanted to start quickly but not too fast and the slight uphill start followed by a nice steady downhill section meant I was able to get off to a good start and around some of the turns (there were lots of turns on this course!) before we came to the first of the rolling hills. I remember telling myself to relax on the uphill part and then run the downhill part harder instead of using up lots of energy going uphill and having nothing for the easier part - this is something that I think most runners struggle with, but I think I am getting better at it.
Mile 2: (7:00) This mile was rolling hill after rolling hill as we twisted and turned our way through Raleigh. The runners had spread out by this point, but I was in a little group with 3 or 4 other runners and I found it interesting that I was the only one dropping off the back of the group on the uphills and rejoining them on the downhills
Mile 3: (7:02) The course began to loop around the Oakwood Cemetery at the start of this mile and was mostly flat which was a nice change.
Mile 4: (7:12) As we completed the loop of the Cemetery we descended to the lowest point on the course and began the climb back to the finish. The climb was about 70ft over 0.6 of a mile and as I there wasn't much downhill left on the course, I knew I had to run the uphill harder or I wouldn't be under 35 minutes.
Mile 5: (7:14) The last mile was tough. The climb continued another third of a mile before a short downhill section and another quick climb as we made the final turn on to Blount Street. I knew my pace was dropping but I was about 10 seconds ahead of where I needed to be to break 35 minutes when the finish line came in to view. I waited until I had about 400 meters to go and kicked as hard as I could while watching the clock tick up. It seemed to take me forever to get to the finish line but the official clock was still in the 34:40's when I crossed.
Official Time: 34:43 (6:59/mile)
Overall: 56/2135
Age Group: 8/145
I had achieved all of my goals for the race - I broke 35 minutes and even ended up with a 6:59/mile average. I also ran a race where I had just enough for a finishing kick and ran most of the hills intelligently, so I was very happy with my afternoon's work!
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| Very tired about to cross the finish line! |
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