Not a great day for a race with -15 degree windchill and winds topping 30 mph. Roads were slippery with slush and snow, but traction was good enough for a 28:40. This is technically a race distance PR by 35 sec. I never really felt like I went into the red for more than a 1/4 mile in this race. I didn't try to hold back, but it just kind of worked out where I had A LOT left in the tank.
I did a 2 miles warm-up, which never really did warm me up. I couldn't feel my toes until about the 2 mile marker in the race. The race starts on a hill, which then heads out with the wind for about 3/4 of a mile and then turns up a .1/2 mile long hill into the wind with a 180 degree turn at the top to go back down the hill. I got out to a slow start off the line to ensure I didn't loose my footing down the steep start hill and I also wanted to make sure I felt out the achilles that has been causing me some pain the past couple of days. Everything checked out to be good to put in a solid effort up the hill. I worked myself into 5th place and drafted up the hill into the wind. The mile split was a 5:36, which felt very comfortable.
As I approached the 180 degree turn I slowed down quite a bit to make sure I didn't slip. As I came down the hill Nick in 4th put a surge to try and catch the other 3 guys. I went with him and stayed on his shoulder down the hill and back up another small hill for a 2 mile split of 5:31.
The course took a 90 degree turn, which made for a little ice skating around the turn, but I managed to stay upright and accelerate out of the turn to stay with Nick. At this point Nick and I had gained little to no ground on the 3 leaders.
The 5:31 felt great, but the next mile with the wind wasn't as strong of a mile as I was hoping it would be splitting a 5:36 going slightly uphill.
I think this got me a little discouraged because Nick made a move up a hill and I didn't respond like I normally would have. We made another 180 degree turn back into the wind. Nick gapped me about 10 seconds and 6th had caught me. So rather than fight with the wind I tucked behind into 6th place and let the other guy buck the wind for the next 2 miles.
I was hoping that we would overtake Nick, but instead my wind blocker slowed me down to a 5:51 4th mile! Ouch!! that was slow and it felt slow to me, but I can't imagine how much harder that mile would have been running on my own into the wind (I wish I would have tried to find out).
Unfortunatly, I became complacent on the pace and continued to draft into the wind for a 5:48 5th mile. With about 300 m to go I surged finishing in 4:55 mile pace up the hill and into the wind out kicking my wind blocker.
I finished feeling like I hadn't raced at all! I felt way too good. I'm happy about the PR, but I'm not happy with the effort. I should have run those last 2 miles much harder and had use some guts to take on the wind or surge to run with Nick. I can't complain when I get a PR, but it certainly wasn't my best effort.
Finished with a 6 mile cooldown.
Night: 4.8 mile shakeout on the treadmill
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