This is not the race report I wanted to write, but for my own sanity I have to record it and learn from it, otherwise today's misery will be for nothing. There's no doubt in my mind that my race strategy was a complete and utter failure for this particular race. I felt physically fit and capable of running fast, but the crowded course and twists and turns proved to be more than I was able to force myself through. As I expected, the race went out at a dead sprint from the start. I started at the pace I wanted to run and still got sucked into a quick first quarter (68) and was still nearly dead last. I made sure to get around people as things started to calm down, which meant running slightly off the course in the high grass (technically a violation, but I figured nobody would care since it was hurting me rather than helping). I hit the mile in 4:54 and was still in the back half, probably higher than 150th. This was the only split I heard. The field was packed. The course is fairly narrow, and runners were stacked all the way across. I stuck to the edge, but this meant getting pinched off every time I hit a curve. Lots of hard 90 degree turns and even some U-turns. I continued to move up through 2 miles, and was told sometime around here that I was in 125th. And then I stopped moving up. I tried not to panic as I realized I had stopped passing people. I kept trying to pick it up, and I would move past a few guys and then have to slow down for a turn and get past up again. Then I would surge and pick up a few guys and then have to slow down again for a turn. I could never get my positioning right for the turns, either. As things started to open up, I started running tangents, but there was always somebody who would cut me off into a turn and I'd end up slowing down again. All the starting and stopping wore me out really fast, and pretty soon, I was just matching the pace of the guys around me. And then I started to cave in on myself mentally. Aerobically, I felt fine. It felt like a tempo run. But somehow I felt exhausted. I think it just took so much energy to pass people that I realized I had screwed up in a big way. We moved into the second half and I was still in the 120s and I felt no motivation. I knew my personal race was over, that picking up 80 guys was not going to happen. I figured that if I gave a herculean effort I might get 40 guys from there to the finish, but I don't feel any more satisfaction in finishing 80th than I do 126th. I tried to find motivation in the team score, but all my teammates were in the same situation as me. We race conservative, and other runner always come back to us and we always finish where we want to. But today was different. Other runners didn't come back. I was in the 120s and only one of my teammates was ahead of me. We came into this race ranked 10th, and we knew a top-6 finish was possible, and felt top-10 was a certainty. But not with our 2-7 in the back half of the race. I knew our team race was over just as much as my personal race was, and I could not find motivation to run harder. We would be as equally disappointed with 15th as we are with 21st. I did finally outkick the Kangogo kid from Alaska Anchorage who has outsprinted me every race. The only silver lining I can find in this. I am utterly shocked at how today went. I have never run a race that favored an absolutely reckless start. And I'm not sure I ever will again. Looking over the results, very few people moved up or fell back more than 40 spots from halfway to the finish, and most hardly moved at all. I would have had a much better shot at running a 4:45 opening mile, then hanging on for dear life. I guess that's how you have to run a narrow, twisty course with this many people, because the conservative approach was certainly a failure. However, I don't think I would have changed my race strategy. My reasoning was sound. I think that, in general, it is not a good idea to drastically change your racing style, especially on the national stage. Like I wrote yesterday, I thought the course might give me problems, but I think that 99 times out of 100 racing conservative works, even in big races. Physically, I was as ready as I could be today, and I do not think any herculean effort in the second half would have changed my happiness in today's result. I chalk this up to a strategical failure, and have to move on from there.
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