Thanks be to God! I had a very trying week which involved no running (although I am a big advocate of pre-race rest), very little sleep, and anything but optimal race preparation. Plan was to get up here early, drive the course, eat, etc ... arrived at midnight & immediately crashed. I signed up for this race for only 1 reason, a sub 1:24 gets me a top seed at the Peachtree 10k next year & qualifies me to join the Atlanta Track Club competitive Masters team, which has many benefits. Based on my week, I figured I would give it my all, but not be upset if I did not achieve my time goal. I felt pretty good as the race got going, confidence was building, but I knew it was going to be close. I kept reminding myself to keep pushing and hopefully the clock would read 1:23:something when it came into view. When I saw the clock from about 50 yards away it read 1:23:53 ... Crap! I broke into an all out sprint & actually dove head first across the finishing mat (gotta love the dramatics - lol) I actually slammed the mat with my fist in frustration ... thought I finished in 1:24 flat ... race director was right there & checked my official time .. told me I was sub 1:24 by a 1/4 second. WooHoo!
Celebrating rest of weekend in mtns.! Splits Update Phase 1 - Mile 1-3: 6:50 pace plan (Banked 38 seconds)
1 - 6:25 - gradual uphill, flat - went for a faster start than planned, was in 5th place, but not trying to hang on to lead runners 2- 6:59 - gradual rolling hills flat - figure I better pull back, my plan was 6:50 pace for first 3 miles, got passed by a pack of 5, let them go, but did pick it back up a little to keep them close. 3 - 6:28 - Start of downhill, last mile on pavement Phase 2 - Mile 4-6: 6:10 pace plan (Banked 20 seconds) ... although my garmin was starting to hit mile splits before the mile markers, as it was impossible to run tangents unless you wanted to plow through mud ... I figured my watch would read at least 13.2 at finish if not more ... so my goal splits had less meaning, because I knew I would have to keep banking time to cover the extra distance.
4- 6:06 - Steeper downhill starts - entering national forest, beautiful scenery, cool mist, although gravel road was muddy/slick in places from some rain, had to pick your path carefully over the next 8 miles to avoid mud & slick spots on sharp curves. 5- 5:54 - My legs are starting to loosen up & I felt pretty good, this was the first point in the race I got the feeling I could reach my goal, as long as I didn't wipe out! 6- 6:10 - I love downhill running! Phase 3 - Mile 7: 6:30 pace plan (Lost 31 seconds)
7- 7:01 - Ugh - gave back a bunch here. Some gradual downhill, flat & a pretty long uphill. I was being a little conservative as I knew I could make up time on the downhill ahead, as long as my legs held together, so I tried to conserve a little on the uphill, but was still pushing pretty hard. Phase 4 - Mile 8-11" 6:10 pace plan (banked 17 seconds)
Mile 8 - 5:45 - ok, that 7 minute mile got in my head a little & I was a little concerned, so I set my sights on two runners ahead of me & went after them ... and passed them. Mile 9 - 6:19 - Backed off a little (not much), as I knew there was still along ways to go. Mile 10 - 6:27 - Another fairly long gradual uphill ... what the @#$%^ ... was not expecting this! There was still plenty of downhill ... but there is no way I am going to avg a 6:10 going uphill at this point! Everytime I felt like I was on track to hit my goal, an unexpected bump would come along and make me question it! Nearing the top of the hill, I heard footsteps behind me, and they coulld not have come at a better time as my pace was really dropping off. No way was I getting passed, so I powered up the last 20 yards & threw it into high gear for the downhill. Mile 11 - 5:54 - I knew this was the last section with steep downhill, and knew that it was up in the air as to whether I would break 1:24, so I felt like I had to get back what I had lost in the last mile ... oh & I was able to pass another runner in this section too, which helped. Phase 5 - Last 2.1 miles 6:30 pace plan (Lost a lot of time here because my pace plan was for 2.1 miles, not 2.2, although I did avg. a 6:33 pace over this section)
Mile 12 - 6:24 - ok ... my body is really starting to not be too happy with me at this point, but with less than 2 miles to go, I am determined. By this point I have pretty much figured out I have a pretty good chance of hitting my goal, but know it is going to be close ... just trying to hang on. Mile 13 - 6:59 - ok ... you have got to be kidding me! Although this mile had a slight net downhill, there was a long gradual climb that I swear lasted at least a half mile, this was totally unexpected, and I was not happy to have things slipping away from me, I probably should have pushed a little harder here, but I was starting to get concerned that I was either going to throw up or just give out ... I prayed a lot of the race ... but I think I spent the better portion of that mile cussing the uphill! Last .2 miles - 5:10 pace - This was pretty flat ... but it also was supposed to be 0.1 not 0.2 ... but at least I was expecting it based on my previous watch splits at the mile markers. This is also where I made the pre-race mistake of not being able to switch the view on my watch to where I could see seconds, as I run with 4 data windows on my watch, so once you pass 1 hour, you only get minutes on total time not seconds. Great my watch now reads 1:23 & I have about 0.2 miles to go! I started pushing harder & harder, until I was in an all out sprint at the finish! And yes, I did actually dive head first across the finish line to try to break 1:24 ... which in hindsight was pretty stupid, because my timing chip was on my shoelace! I still can't believe I made my goal by a 1/4 of a second, God was running with me! Official time: 1:23:59.75
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