BolderBoulder 10k today. I have been looking forward to this race all season, it was one of my goal races. My goal was to finish in the top 15 for my age and get a medal - last year that meant a 37:3X so my goal was 37:30. Woke up at 3:35, normal pre-race routine. 2 mile warmup, had to get to the start line in a hurry. Weather was very good - 55 degrees at start, clear with light winds. The start was unlike anything I have ever experienced - so many talented runners all taking off in a mass of humanity, very cool to be apart of. Watch was set to KM as there are KM markers on the course, and I wanted to hit 3:45 per KM (kind of a reminder of my Germany days). Unfortunately, my watch did not remember any of my splits, although at the time I was running they were recording. I know generally, I went out in 3:43, then 3:36, and stayed near 3:45 until 6k when the course went downhill, then dropped back to back 3:36's. Fortunately, this race has mats every mile and so they have my mile splits. They record how well I executed my race strategy and the evenness of my pace (not to mention thte 4 second negative split. Here are my splits per mile:
1- 5:57.96
2- 6:01.82
3- 6:10.49 - anyone who has run BB knows this is the slowest mile and most uphill
4- 6:02.28
5- 5:53.77 this is the fast BB mile as it is a sharp downhill after the course high point, I opened it up here and made a move that I was able to pass a lot of people and really bring the race full circle. Always nice to have some pop when you decide to go and I did today - a testament to my fitness thus far.
6- 5:59.94
Total - 37:24.74, 7th place in my age! 6:02 avg pace overall
I do remember my 5k split was 18:44, and by deduction, therefore, my 2nd half of the race was 18:40, which was a 4 second negative split! The mile splits don't show the last .22 uphill sprint finish, but they do show an interesting tale of two 3 mile splits that is even better than the 5k negative splits. My first 3 miles were 18:10 (6:03 avg pace), last 3 miles before the extra .22 was 17:56 5:59 pace), so here was a 14 second negative split. Overall, my race was pretty evenly split, which was my goal. I am super happy with the way I ran it today and after hearing how hard the course was all week, it turned out to not be that bad. I actually made several moves up hills and made several passes on these sections - I have been hill training lately, and I could tell they seemed easier. Also passed about 3 guys going into the CU stadium lap - had a little finishing kick, which was nice. Got my goal of top 15 and so I medaled in my age. 214th place overall is not bad out of 50,000+ runners.
Cooled down for 7.6ish, 16.5 total for the day as I was hoping to get decent mileage today.
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