I wasn’t mentally ready to race today. I’ve been fighting the stomach flu for 2 weeks and I just haven’t felt speedy in quite a while. I started feeling better on Thursday so I figured I didn’t need to hold back during the race. Warmed up with an easy mile and discovered a top secret out house. After a 40 minute delay and an unapologetic race director making the final announcements we were on our way down the canyon. I tried lining up close to the starting line but ended up a few rows further back than I would have liked. It was very congested but I was able to get a clear path after a few minutes. My plan was to start out at 6:30 pace and try to hold it as long as possible. The first half of the race I felt pretty good and was able to hold a good pace. My average pace for the first 6 miles was 6:24 which was exactly where I wanted to be. Starting at mile 7, the course became more volatile (some uphill then some downhill then some flat) so my splits were all over the place. I also felt like I was asleep during the second half of the race. I just couldn’t convince my body to move faster. My legs were tired but not so much that I couldn’t have pushed harder. I was able to pass a few runners between miles 7 and 10, though. Somewhere around the 10 mile marker, I got behind another runner and followed him for the rest of the race. I kept thinking to myself that I need to make a move and pass him but the desire to move to the next level of pain just wasn’t there. I hung behind him until the 12.5 mile mark and then decided to pick it up and finally pass him. He ran just off my shoulder for a while then passed me. I mentally gave in at that point. As we passed the 13 mile marker, I decided to kick it in to high gear and pass him and one other runner once and for all. I was moving pretty well down the final stretch and saw 1:23:50 on the finish clock. I knew that I was going to come in under 1:24 and was pretty happy. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that my running partner for the last 3 miles decided to turn this into a real race. I tried to keep up but he just nipped me at the finish line. His finish time was 1:23:58.9 and mine was 1:23:59.2. What made it worse was that he was also in my age group.
I have mixed emotions about the race. It is a PR by almost 2 minutes and about what I expected to run which is good. I am a little disappointed in my lack of concentration. I really feel like I could have run at least 1 minute faster had I been more focused.
Here are my splits according to my Garmin which came consistently 0.15 after the mile markers starting at the 3rd mile.
| Mile | Split
| Note
| 1
| 6:22 | A little fast but not too bad considering the
amount of downhill
| | 2 | 6:27 | | | 3 | 6:16 | | | 4 | 6:26 | | | 5 | 6:30 | I started to worry a little that my pace was
consistently slowing | | 6 | 6:21 | | | 7 | 6:42 | Included a water/GU stop and a little bit of
uphill | | 8 | 6:34 | Another Gatorade stop
| | 9 | 6:16 | | | 10 | 6:48 | I have no idea why it was so slow | | 11 | 6:38 | Falling asleep
| | 12 | 6:39 | Can't wake up
| | 13.1 | 6:00/mile | |
| 