Finally, an “A” race! One that months of training goes in to. Turned out to be amazing weather, I slept pretty well, didn’t rest as much as I’d have liked to the day before (partially thanks to the clusterf$ck that was the expo; we had to wait in line 45 minutes for our numbers), but all-in-all, seemed like a great chance to run fast… so I did. Oh and did I mention I twisted my ankle a decent amount yesterday? Yeah… Stupid.
I ran my first ten mile race in early January. I didn’t give it my all and finished in 1:12 something. I knew I had another minute or two in me, but it was just a training run/race thing that I like to do.
Fast forward another two months and I did another ten mile race up in Maryland. This time I still didn’t give it 100%, but I pulled a 1:07:18 out of nowhere. Since my goal for the end of this whole training cycle was 1:07:30, I was now done… But I couldn’t live with that.
Training continued, my training pace, mileage, and track times all picked up. Was I capable of a 1:05 (6:30 pace)? If you asked me yesterday, I’d have told you “probably not.” I planned on going out at that pace and holding it as long as possible. I figured that’d be seven or eight miles; plenty of distance to hold on for a decent time. Welp, this is how it went down:
Mile 1 – Find a friend, find more friends, stick together, deal with traffic. 6:39.
Mile 2 – Lose a friend or two who weren’t planning on 6:30 pace. 6:16.
Mile 3 – Lose my final friend to a water stop. He lost a few seconds and told me he’d slowly work back up. 6:17.
5K – 19:50 or so. Damn, going fast.
Mile 4 – Really in a groove, but can feel energy waning. 6:01.
Mile 5 – Still in that goofy groove, but energy waning even more. Pop a gel. Hold on! 6:22.
Mile 6 – Shoot, only 4 to go? Nice. 6:27.
10K – 39:30ish. Seriously? WTF? That’s a PR by two minutes… IN NOT A 10K!
Mile 7 – Less than a 5K to go. Feeling money, picking people off left and right. 6:24.
Mile 8 – Still feeling great. Have now passed all my “peers” from the club. Herd is really thinning and we’re heading uphill. 6:24.
Mile 9 – Had a lot left at this point. Two miles to go? Thirteen minutes of running? Let’s do this. Crank it! 6:18.
Mile 10 – Continued to be that guy that everyone hates who clearly has too much left at the end of a race, but I didn’t, I was just having a good race! Watch wasn’t set to show seconds over an hour so I have no idea how close I am to minutes. Had I known, I may have tried to give it a little extra something, but I really did give pretty near 100%. 6:16.
Mile 10.13 – Hey, it’s what my watch says, and according to a trusted source, all major races like this are a bit long so as to assure the folks for whom time REALLY matters for big prizes, records, and all that good stuff that they did run the proper distance. If a course is found to be an inch short, it’s illegal. An inch long? Cool. .13 miles long? Also fine. Anyway, I ran this tiny stretch at 5:26 pace. 0:43.
Total time? 1:04:03. Course was a bit long, but we all ran the same thing… 1:04, 1:03… Same thing.
I’m very happy. Demolished what I thought was a too lofty goal. I’ve been joking about a sub-60 next year, but having picked up eight minutes in the past three months… Is it really that far out there?
I of course head over to McMillan Running Calculator, throw my time in, hit submit, and it says that’s the equivalent of a 1:25 half (21 minutes to run another three miles… makes sense) and get this… a 2:59 marathon. Scheisse. Now I can’t be happy with just qualifying for Boston; I have sub-3 in me if I train for it properly. Unghhhhh. One step at a time.
My age-grade rating was a 69.7%, which I do believe is my highest ever. 70% is considered “local champion.” Of course, Ms. Caitlin, with her ridiculous 1:09:55 today scored a 70.6%… That little mug. Whatever, I own her at shorter distances. I bet if she had all this weight to carry around she’d be slower too! 
I was entered in the team competition on the DC Road Runners B team. We placed 6th. Had I been on the A team, which I should have been based on my performance, I wouldn’t have been a scoring runner, but I would have been able to say I got 2nd. Oh well.
To celebrate our accomplishments, we ripped out about five bushes and planted nine in their place the minute we returned home. We didn’t finish until 8 or so. Grabbed a quick shower, fired up the fire pit, popped a beer, and rot in the hammock. Gonna be sleeping well tonight.
On to marathon training and a ridiculous number of races!
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