LM, then 2 mile warmup in 16:00, 8:00/mi. 10K in 39:08, 6:17/mi. 2 mile cooldown in 16:41, 8:20/mi. Sunny and cool (45-50F). Not enough sleep and tired this morning. Cold (30s) prior to the race but when the sun came out, perfect. Would love to run a 39 min 10K, knowing that some beastly hills awaited me. Felt like crap during the warmup, especially the 0.5 tempo, so normal. At the gun, away and feeling good. Garmin and course splits off from the beginning (6:05 course versus 6:17 garmin), so not sure what use the splits are, but....6:17, 6:18, 7:08, 6:59, 5:52, 6:11, and 0:23. Guess where the hills were? Felt very good for the first 1.5 on the flats...at the 5K/10K split, was kinda wishing I'd run the 5K instead, because I think I might've been able to beat my 5K PR (18:48) if I poured it on in the 2nd half. The first hill greeted me just prior to the 2 mile mark and went straight up. Reduced to a shuffle, quads burning pretty quickly, respiration near the max, yeah, good hill training. Leveled off after ~ 150', a short relatively flat stretch, then up another 75' or so, then back down 75', passing the mile 3 mark on the way back down. Not even looking at the watch now, just trying to get up the dang hills. Next hill went up another 100+' on an ever so slightly less steep gradient, but painful nonetheless. Then thru some rollers in the cemetery with plenty of twists and turns that at least had me focused more on tangents than the pain. Managed to catch the 3rd place guy here, who ever so casually mentions I must've been working on hills and he wishes he hadn't gone mountain biking yesterday. What's that? I can't hear you over the air I'm choking in and out of my lungs! 3.5 marks a mile and a half of progressively steeper downhill with brief flat stretches, usually to make turns. The last section was so steep it undoubtedly pushed me to the sub-6 pace despite my legs being shredded, but it definitely finished them off. Another more gentle uphill stretch to the final downhill and onto another mile or so of flat to the finish. Could feel the guy I'd passed to take 3rd just stalking me for the last mile, he moves closer and I start really putting the hurt on myself trying not to get passed with around 0.5 left, although I really don't know exactly how much and don't have the energy to look at the watch. Missed the 6 mile mark but it was probably around there he finally put the move on and passed me. Not taking kindly to being passed that late in the race, I made some desperate attempt to catch and re-pass him to the finish to no avail (although I think I might've made him actually speed up a tad towards the end. So a 4th place overall and 2nd in my age group (later, I found out the 3rd place guy was in the 20-29 AG, so no wonder!). So, a nice tidy PR of 56 seconds over my previous best 10K (also the last 10K I'd run, nearly 2 years ago). Probably worth quite a bit more on a flat course. Oh, and I did manage to see I'd hit the 5K in around 19:15, which was after monster hill #1, so I'm pretty sure I had a 5K PR in me today. This race has me wondering if I should perhaps punt on the marathon's for a while and enjoy the shorter races for a time? Just a thought. Treated myself to a mondo burrito, so now, off to change and get to work out in the yard. --Update -- Wow, I suddenly got must faster. The city of Puyallup just posted the "official" results and somehow I've now run a 38:08 10K. Must be something to do with the space-time continuum and the cemetery in the 10K course. I now also have taken 1st in the 30-39 AG, but remain 4th overall, so someone else suffered different effects and got older. The guy I finished on the heels of supposedly finished in 37:36. If he had 32 seconds on me, I'll eat my hat. Or since I'm not wearing one, I'll eat the closest one I can find. Obviously, the results are crap. I should just let it drop and not worry about it, but the OC in me must send a note pointing out the obvious errors. I'm sure by the time we're done, I'll be DQ'ed!
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