I wanted to break 35 minutes this morning, but given my lack of running over the past month I really didn't think that would happen. So I'm pleased with this morning's result, even if I do still get beat by high school girls. I didn't even bother tapering for this one since I wasn't sure I'd be racing until earlier this week. Thanks to some mountain running with some serious vertical on Wednesday and a not-really-short ride on the road bike yesterday, I woke up with some sore quads. In fact, I really didn't even want to get out of bed, although that probably had more with my alarm going off at 4:30 than it did with my sore muscles. Catherine and I lined up as close to the front as we could without being too rude, considering our relatively late arrival. The officials said go, and we were off. No, I'm just kidding. I'm sure the people up front started running, but a few rows back everyone seemed happy to stay put, or shuffle at best. Fortunately, once I crossed the official start I used my madd trail-running skillzz to hop on the grass and find enough space to start running. I think I went out too hard. Thanks to the descents, my first two miles were a little under 5:10 (the fastest miles I've ever run, actually), and the third wasn't much slower. I didn't blow up, but I did think it was best to slow down after that. I watched the group I had been running with slowly pull away, but I ended up passing several of those runners later while no one else passed me, so I think the decision to let up was a good one. As I ran along the parade route on 2nd East, I started contemplating just how much I hate 5Ks and 10Ks. In fact, I hate them almost as much as I hate criterium racing on the bike, and for the same reason--I don't like going that hard. I don't like being dizzy and cross-eyed, I don't like searing lungs and I don't like feeling like my breakfast may come up at any moment (especially after I didn't even eat breakfast). I much prefer the slow burn of a 50K in the mountains. I'm not saying those are easier--they're just hard in a way that suits me better. As I turned onto 9th south, not only could I see the finish, which seemed so close and yet so far, I could also see that I had a chance to break 35. You'd think that would have made me happy, but mostly it just annoyed me. If it was obvious I wasn't going to make my goal, I could have just cruised in and been happy that I was going to wind up with a PR regardless. But instead I had to keep on the gas all the way to the finish, and that hurts. Boo hoo. Anyways, I crossed the line with what looked like 34:50 on the official clock and 34:38 on my stopwatch (actually, Catherine's stopwatch), which I started as I actually crossed the starting line. I'll update when the official times are up. After the race I rode up Big Mountain with Fritz. When riding with other cyclists, we mostly just cruise around. When riding with Fritz, apparently, we drive it pretty hard. I was drained, but it was a good ride, even though I couldn't find it in me to hang with Fritz for the final 5K to the summit. I hope to ride with him more in the future. Edit--Official results are up. Chip time was 34: 35.1, gun time was 34:49.5.
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