Doing What I Can

3.8 prerace today in 7:22 avg pace, strides, legs feeling a little sore still, but that can sometimes be a good sign for me before a race. A wave Bolder Boulder is a go at 6:55am tomorrow

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.

6.9 in pretty easy fashion tonight, 7:24 pace. ice bath after, may get a quick turnaround race in this weekend.

219 miles this month with is my 2nd highest ever I believe. Not a bad total given that I tapered 3 weeks in a row for races. Utilizing my races for long run days was key to getting my mileage up. Goal marathon in 12 days. Sub-3 is the goal.

easy run tonight after a day outside watching the USAFA graduation - it was fun but I got pretty zapped by the sun. Run was 5.75 in 7:15 avg pace

easy morning run 3.85 in 7:30 pace, strides

decided to try a local small town race here today in Berthoud, Colorado, just up the road from Denver. Weather was perfect again, low 60s and light breezes at the start. Course looked really flat on mapmyrun, so I wanted to see what I could do off of short rest from BolderBoulder earlier this week. kids race started at 8 with the 5k set to begin "when the kids race finished" so no official start time - that was kind of odd. I guessed we'd get under way at 8:15 and warmed up aiming for that, turns out thats almost exactly when we started. Had my watch set to kilometers and this time my splits saved, so that was a positive. goal was to hit 3:30s throughout and shoot for a 17:30. First k was 3:23, felt super easy , 2nd was 3:35, 3rd was 3:39, started slipping a little off the pace. Had one guy out front of me and we were doing the accordian, where he would come back to me then pull ahead - I ran the whole race sure I was going to pass him but never did, that was kind of a bummer. 3k was in 10:37, 7 seconds above pace. Then the course had a slight downhill for the 2k, but so gradual it was hard to notice. went 3:32 and 3:35 for these splits, so 17:47, and yet the race wasn't done yet. Still ran for another .15-.2 of a mile and crossed the line in 18:27 or something. The course was actually around 3.25 or 3.3 miles, the winner had the same thing. Luckily since I had my watch at km splits, I stopped it at 5.02 and thats the 17;47 I got - so I am going with that as my unofficial 5k split for this race. It's always frustrating when races are clearly longer or shorter (in this case, long by at least 40-45 seconds). It was for a good cause though, and it was a beautiful morning to run, so aside from the annoying fact that our "official" times are all reflective of the actual 3.3 distance, I enjoyed the race. Overall, having clocked a legit 17:47, that is an unofficial altitude PR (this race was at 5000 feet, a little lower than denver). I am happy with that time and although not quite the 17:30 i was shooting for, I have to remember I just ran a very strong BolderBoulder earlier this week and so I'll take the speedwork today. Cooled down for 6.2 for a total of 12.5 on the day. Marathon a week from tomorrow!