Overall a decent race. Fastest time of the year. One second faster than I ran at PF Changs back in January. So I've come full circle... now I need to break out of that circle!
Before I say anything about my race, I want to give a shout to the IMM race organization (especially elite coordinator Matt Ebersole) for putting together such competitive fields. All 4 course records were shattered. An interesting storyline was that 16 year old Alana Hadley and 49 year old Colleen De Reuck (who ran 2:39!) both qualified for the Olympic Trials.
Weather was ideal (low 40s and the wind from the day before died off). The course was also great - an essentially flat loop with no surprises. My 1:05:54 converts to 1:05:54 on a flat, sea-level course :-)
I wanted to get out at just under 5:00 pace and come through 10K a little under 31 minutes. The pack was big off the start. I counted 14 guys ahead of me as we came though the mile (4:55). I tried to tuck in the back, but the Kenyans started to string it out in the second mile, and the big group already started to break up. Mile 2 was another 4:55. I had passed a few guys and moved up to a yellow singlet (Andrew Sherman). We ended up running pretty much the rest of the race together. We caught up to Jason Ordway in the 3rd mile (4:50, so 14:40 at 3 miles... too fast, borderline suicidal, although it didn't feel that way). We moved away from Jason and miles 4-6 were 4:54, 5:07, 4:58. Hit 10K in 30:48. On paper that doesn't look too bad, but it wasn't run evenly, and took a toll.
We had no one in sight in front of us, so Andrew and I were basically racing each other. The pace slowed from 7-9: 5:02, 5:08, 5:12 (ugly). A little after 15K another guy (Brandon York) moved up and caught us. Now we had a little pack of three, and the pace picked back up a little. Miles 10-12 were 5:05, 5:05, 5:08. Brandon and Andrew were both a little ahead of me with about a half-mile left. Andrea was waiting a quarter-mile from the finish and told me to be proud of my finish. That was a good thing to say and it got me going. I moved past Andrew, but Brandon still had a little gap on me. My legs felt like lead but I mustered up a some mental fortitude and was able to beat him to the finish by a few strides. I felt good about how I finished. The last mile was 4:59 and then ~29-30 for the last tenth. Unfortunately at the moment the results show that Brandon finished ahead of me (probably due to the chip time). Order of finish and gun time always supercedes chip, so hopefully the timing company will get that sorted out. In the grand scheme of things, the difference between 7th and 8th place doesn't mean anything, but I worked hard in the last quarter mile and want to results to reflect that. [Fixed]. Here's the official results. Deep race with 9 guys under 1:06.
After the race Andrea and I talked to Jason D for a bit (blog friends exist in real life!), then cooled down for a while, wandering around downtown Indy. We both liked the city and we'll keep this area on our radar for races next spring (maybe the Indy Mini 1/2). We watched the lead marathoners come in and cheered on Paul, then headed back to our hotel. Luckily we had enough time to hit Steak 'n Shake for lunch with Scott Wietecha and his wife before flying back home. Quick trip!
I knew sub-65 was a longshot, so I'm not at all disappointed in the outcome. I've said this before, but anytime you break 66 on a fair course, its a good performance and you can't be too upset because it doesn't happen by accident. I definitely learned a few things that I think will be valuable as I approach CIM in 5 weeks (and half-marathons next spring). My PR of 1:05:45 from October 2011 will unfortunately survive another year. Before I think about trying to break 1:05, I need to beat that time, and break 1:05:30. Smaller steps. And I definitely run better off negative splits, not going out hard and hanging on.
For the upcoming marathon, I need to be realistic about what my current capabilities are and try to maximize my chances for a good performance (not just go for 2:17 because that's what I want to run). That will probably mean going out a bit slower and not necessarily chasing the OTQ standard. I've got 2 years to chase it... I still haven't run a really good marathon, so that should (and will) be my main goal. Plus, anything can happen if you aren't going backwards in the last 10 miles.
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