The plan for this race was to run 5:40 miles and hopefully finish with a win, but not blow up or over do it too much with the marathon in a couple weeks. Well that plan was washed away when I ran off course and brought a good chunk of the field with me. First of all I've never run this course so I didn't have a clue where to go and the map was terrible. You couldn't really tell what was path or street and there was only a couple of road names that I could make out. So I started asking a few guys at the start if they've run the race. One guy named Travis whom I've run races against in the past said he's run it, but the course was changed due to construction. I guess that explains the foot drawn line (which was very crooked) in the sand at home plate on the baseball diamond we we're starting out at :) I also talked to a friend Joe Seppe whom is a 1:22 (5:22 pace) 25K runner. His goal was to run 5 min pace or faster for as long as he could ~ 5 miles, then relay exchange with another runner to finish up the 15K as a two man relay team in the relay competition. So I knew Joe would get everyone out to a fast start and I figured 5:40 pace might be out of the top 5 for the 1st mile due to the relay runners only running 5K legs. Joe also didn't know where to go, but his plan was to follow the biker. I figured no worries I should have a few relay team legs out in front of me and I'll just follow them. I was okay with that plan and thought nothing of it as I toed the line drawn in the sand. The gun was a runners set then a loud voice yelled Bang - very fitting! Joe was out fast (I later learned he ran the 1st mile in 4:50 pace). We traversed through a very wet grass field that was over my ankles for the 1st 300m - yuck!. I found myself in 4th at this point with Joe way a head, Travis 2nd, unkown 3rd. I could tell my 1st mile was going to be under 5:40, but I was okay with that as long as I didn't dip below 5:30. The 1st mile took us over some really narrow bridges that I later learned we needed run back over as we entered the 2 mile mark, which later Joe said was a jumbled mess and he had to walk over the bridge because of the slower runners crossing on the way out. I was fortunate enough not to encounter that mess because I followed Travis the 2nd place guy (oh I passed 3rd place .5 miles in). Travis missed that turn that takes us back over the narrow bridge and we set off on a completely different course in the wrong direction on a very busy street w/construction. At this point I thought it was a little weird they changed the course and we still had construction, but I couldn't see Joe or the biker only Travis about 20 sec. a head of me, so I followed him. I came through the 1st mile on my Garmin at 5:32.8 really feeling good about my chances that Travis would come back to me and my breathing and legs felt good. At this point I still thought I might have a chance at winning the 15K since 1st was only running a relay leg. At this point we were running a really narrow sidewalk because the street was too busy and I came through the uphill 2 mile in 5:44. Mile 3 was uphill with a 5:43 and I was feeling good (the legs felt strong today!). Where was the 5K exchange for the relay though? I could see Travis throw his arms out to his sides. I thought what weird way to shake out your arms! Ha, next thing I know he's running back at me and then I realized he was lost. So he joined me and then we just kept running on the same terrible sidewalk out to 4 miles on the Garmin, splitting a 5:46 with the 180 degree turn. We decided to turn back and not go too far in an effort to warn other people, especially the 5K relay legs from running too far. Travis and I both agreed we'd just run back the same route and finish where we started figuring the distance would be about a 10K. The 4th place guy was about 2 minutes behind us and then we saw about another 40 runners off course that had followed us. During this time Travis and I are yelling at people to turn around as we try to avoid traffic and runners on the narrow sidewalk. I finally went to the other side of the street out of my own fear of getting hit by a car. I split the 5 mile on my Garmin at 5:42 and at this point Travis put a surge in and I responded quickly to stay with him. This got my competitive juices going again. I wanted to beat Travis and that was solely what I focused on from that point on, being lost, running on a terrible course, and knowing I wasn't going to get a 15K race didn't matter anymore. All I was thinking is beat this guy, get your hard race effort, and move onto the marathon in a couple of weeks. Just before the 6 mile beep on my watch I put in a strong surge that Travis didn't respond to. I split the 6 mile in 5:30.8 and finished the .44 @ 5:27/mile pace beating Travis by about 10 seconds for a 6.44 mile win. I averaged about 6 sec. faster per mile then 2 weeks ago at the 10K I won, so I was happy with the effort and it was nice to have competition even if it was an unofficial race. After some volunteers saw runners off route they moved some people up to the turn spot we missed to redirect people back toward the narrow bridge that apparently was a mess (everyone had to walk across that bridge because it was just too congested). So because the group of people that followed Travis and I all ran different distances there was no real way to determine a true winner other than give the awards to the people that ran the actual route. I ran the actual course to figure out the mistake and see what I missed. The turn was not obvious at all! It took you across a big open grass field along a creek that went back toward the narrow bridge then away toward a less busy blacktop road. The actual course was a great course and wish I could have run the right course, but the weather was perfect and my effort was outstanding with the adversity my brain had to go through. Later Travis admitted he couldn't overcome mentally the mistake and so he felt a little down about not challenging more at the end. I conceded the win to him saying he had a 20 sec. lead when we realized the mistake and I only beat him by 10 sec. I think that made him feel better about the whole ordeal. Officially, I'm recording this as a win for 6.44 miles because I felt I mentally handled it better than Travis and was able to break him in the last mile, but we won't tell Travis that ;o) I cooled down with Joe and some other guys for a couple miles then ran the part of the course I missed for a 7 mile cooldown. Warm-up 2.5 w/.5 tempo @ 6:10 effort
Race 6.44 Avg 5:39/mile pace according to Garmin Cooldown 7.06 Avg 7:21/mile pace PM: 4.55 shakeout w/Jen @ 9:05 pace
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