Boston tuneup #1 today - Chieftain Spring Runoff 10 miler in Pueblo, Wanted to get a run through of all my prerace, tapering, eating, everything just so Boston won't be my first race of the cycle. Goal was 1:03 or better, have done no real speedwork and have instead just been pounding mileage. Got there plenty early, weather was really good - mid 40s and warming with overcast and no real wind. Course looked favorable on the mapmyrun, but always a crapshoot there. 1.5 warmup with the normal stuff - felt alright, always encouraged when it takes a while to loosen up because generally those are my better races, took me most of this week to loosen up cuz I was pretty tight.
Goal was to go out at 6:15s and just hold it and see how easy it felt, turns out it felt pretty easy for most of the run. 1:01:54 for 10 miles at 4700 feet altitude on no speedwork and amidst 2 of the highest mileage months of my life is a pretty good sign. I will not be running this fast at Boston (6:40 pace goal), so today was a big confidence booster. Probably an even bigger confidence booster was the hills that happened to appear today posed no real challenge and my pace remained pretty steady as I hit them. That is a good sign as I want to be ready for the Newton Hills come Boston. Overall, a cool event today - neat bike trail by the Arkansas River with a finish lap around Dutch Clark Stadium, one of the nicest hs stadiums in CO. 3rd overall, 1st in the age group, but today was all about building confidence. Here are my splits:
1- 6:21
2- 6:08
3- 6:09
4- 5:57
5- 6:12 (30:18 or thereabouts)
6- 6:17
7- 6:19
8 - 6:14
9 - 6:17
10 - 6:00 (not a full mile on my watch, so probably made up the first mile here)
total - 1:01:54, 6:12 avg pace
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