Did not feel great last night, so I went to bed early and ended up skipping morning practice to get some more sleep. By midday my throat was feeling better and I knew maybe I still had a chance at running the race. I drank some EmergenC and hoped for the best.
After work I headed to the gym and ran a 4.5 mile shakeout run. Legs did not feel great and I knew then that if I was going to place top 10 at the race, I would have to rely completely on my grit and determination.
Tried to take a nap after eating a bit of dinner, but nerves prevented me from getting any real rest.
Showed up at the race a bit early and got some warmup in with some of the other competitors. Saw a snake on the warmup, which I know rattled some of the other guys, but I didn't let it get to me. I grew up in this neighborhood and know the course well--a definite advantage as I probably ran the subtle tangents of the course better than anybody else.
Race started at pretty close to 10. I lined up at the front of the start line, but even still when they fired the gun I got passed by swarms of people who went out quickly but then faded after the first 400 or so. I ran a good steady pace and ended up catching the lead pack before reaching the first turn on the course. It was mentioned that a couple of other runners were ahead of the pack, but those runners must have ended up dropping out or something because I never saw them or sensed their presence ahead of me on the 2nd lap. Sam T caught the above mentioned snake, but carrying it ultimately cost him (I don't think he had the upper body strength needed to really carry it) and I never really saw him after the first lap.
Before you knew it, Bam!, we hit the first mile in 7:46. Right on pace. There was still a large group of 15 or so guys, but I knew a lot of them would fade in the 2nd half. Just after the mile mark there was a family passing out otter pops, but I knew with my marathon training that my body was adapted and that I didn't need to take in calories so early in the race. Some of the guys who peeled off for otter pops caught back us to us, others fell off the pace and never really regained contact. At this point I looked around and started evaluating my competition. Lots of them were talking and laughing and acting like the pace wasn't hurting them, but deep down in places they don't like to talk about I knew they were suffering just as much as I was. Before long the bright lights of the finish line came into view and lap 1 was almost complete. Everything went into a blur for a moment when we passed underneath the bright lights and came by the roaring crowd. I missed getting my split for lap 1 but I did manage to grab a cup of water. I drank some, then threw the rest on Jaiden as I knew that would psyche him out and make it hard for him to stay with the pack on lap 2.
Just after the finish line I threw my cup to the curb and Logan yelled at me for littering. This was my first clue that he wasn't feeling well--he was trying to project his negativity onto me--but I wasn't having any of it. I knew Logan would want to win this race (he tapered almost all of last week in preparation for it) and with Holt not there he probably thought he had a chance, but I also knew he hasn't done all the speedwork I had and that if things went crazy the last mile I would have an advantage.
I settled down into a rhythm for the 2nd lap. At some point just after the church a short stocky dude came up on the pack and slowly passed everyone on the inside. At this point Jaiden was nowhere to be found. My water dump trick had worked. The short stocky dude kept surging here and there and slowly built up a 20 meter lead. At this point I realized he could prove a challenge to chances of winning. I decided that I had to keep in contact with him and not let him build a bigger lead. Right about then we hit mile 2, 7:45. Perfect. Even pacing. I run all of my best races of even pacing. As I concentrated on keeping up with short stocky dude (SSD) the pack started to bifurcate. The stronger runners stayed with me, but lots of others fell back into a slower pace. Logan, Tanner, Sage, Scotty--they all couldn't handle a slight faster pace and slowly faded behind us like a setting sun slowing hiding behind the mountains.
Entering the 3rd mile we started to encounter the walkers who were being lapped. Lots of our pack made the mistake of trying to pass people by going out into the middle of the road to go around them. I maintained my inside positioning, running in the gutter lane whenever I had to pass people. Every time we passed a big group, I had like a 5-6 foot advantage because of this strategy. Just before we hit the end of Lizzie Lane I looked around and saw that the lead pack was now down to 8 guys. We had caught SSD, but he was still running with us. By this time I was starting to feel the effects of my running without calories strategy and I really hoped the otter pop family would still be around handing out otter pops or red bulls...........but when we got to the corner they had nothing.....nothing at all. Speaking of nothing at all, my legs had nothing left and I knew if I let myself, I would ended up fading. It was at this point I decided to just go for it.
As we rounded the corner on to St James Lane, I surged, taking the pace from probably 7:30 pace to what must have been about 4:25 or 4:27 pace. Once I picked up the pace my legs actually felt great--I probably should have just run the race at this pace the whole time and I probably would have done better. I was still weaving in and out of slower runners which started to wear on my legs after a time. The pack caught back up to me. I noticed Jaiden was with us now--he must have cut part of the course to catch back up, because I hadn't noticed him the whole 2nd lap. Brigham was there and I worried about his kick. Joe and Boston started going with about 400 to go and for a second I gave up. Brigham passed me. Bryson passed me. Gibby passed me. 2 or 3 other guys got a few meters on me. I was just about to coast in when I decided just to lay it all on the line. I got my turnover really high and started flying. I passed Gibby. I caught the other guys. I passed Brigham like he wasn't even trying. I almost caught Bryson and the others, and would have if there had been another 100 meters in the race, but I just ran out of runway.
In the end I think I ended up 4th. The clock said 22:25 when I crossed the finish line, but once you adjust for the heat index, altitude, the hilly course profile, and the late night start time, I think the effort was more like a 17:25. I'll be back next year to take another crack at it. Next year I won't make the same mistake and will just hammer it from the start.
| 