Inaugural Fort DeSoto 15k Race. Finish: 50:44 (5:27 pace)
This was an interesting race. The course was an out and back at the beach (on the paved trail) in DeSoto national park. The day was windy, cloudy, rainy, and in the upper 70s. Fortunately, the wind was mostly on the side of us- but incredibly constant.
I had really wanted to be successful in this race, as it was the first race I had ever been given (comped) as a runner, so I didn’t want to let the race director down or make him feel like he wasted his entry on me. However, I have been quite sick the entire last week, and still running while doing some unintentional tapering. This all culminated to a couple of very interesting circumstances. Due to the training, sickness, and lack of hard miles recently, I certainly was worried about the outcome. I was hoping that a best-case scenario would have me around 52 minutes to 52:30. Man was I wrong.
At the start line, I just felt awesome. Body-wise, I was sore and still coughing, but my mind-set couldn’t have been better. I saw friends/runners that I rarely got to run races with, and just shot the shit with them at the start line. I had no worries and I didn’t even realize the race was going on until the announcer shouted out “1 minute!” to which I barely noticed. Even with 10 seconds to go, I didn’t even have a desire to scoot up closer to the line and started a row back. The next 5 miles clicked off with the same attitude.
I sat on to two incredibly good runners for those miles- Chris McCaffrey and Kevin Collmar- who both finished in the top 10 at Gasparilla this year in the 15k, and just let them dictate the pace. I didn’t even look at my watch the first mile. I had honestly hoped to do 5:35 pace, but, I figured if I blew up, I blew up- I wasn’t expecting a great race anyway. I just relaxed, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery of DeSoto while talking to Chris every once in a while. Mile 5 into mile 6 was the real turning point. It had dropped to really just Chris and myself, and we were still talking a bit, and had just passed a Winnebago that was cooking bacon, which we both made jokes about stopping, eating, and hating them for their choice of location (and food prep), but then something interesting happened: it started raining. It had been windy the whole way and sprinkling, but then it really started to pour. In the distance, we were running into one of the most incredible double rainbows I’d ever seen and I just felt euphoric. I felt how good it was to be a runner. I felt the endorphins. Racing is incredibly fun, however in that moment, it felt like just another fun training run alone. It just felt- to speak plainly- fun. Not surprisingly, we both must have had the same insight and we dropped the pace to 5:20 for the next two miles in the pouring rain.
My shoes were soaked. I didn’t care. I was landing in puddles- I didn’t mind. I was weaving around runners headed towards the turn-around, but I reveled in that. I couldn’t see well in the rain- I loved it. It seemed everyone in the race in the reverse direction was cheering on Chris (I think he must’ve had his entire run group in this race, seriously) and commending him on waiting to make his move or just approving/applauding his effort. That didn’t deter me, I loved it. I felt such a bond to runners and to running in this race it was unbelievable. From there on, I just ran. Each mile clicked by and I just kept pushing. Every single one of them was sub 5:35, and every single one of them ended with me knowing I could give more.
By the end of mile 7 Chris had dropped off, as I stopped hearing his footfalls. I had raced him once before, and the same thing happened with about 2 miles to go, just to have him almost nick me at the finish line with a sprint out of nowhere before I held him off by less than a second, so I knew letting up was not an option- so I pushed hard. Miles 8-9 were tough, but I honestly was on cloud nine. I started catching the 5k runners, and that just kept me going. I spent the last 0.3 looking back over my shoulder looking to see if Chris was turning on the after-burners, but couldn’t see him- but I thought maybe he was just getting mixed in with the 5k runners, so I kept pushing, but made sure to hold on to my sprint in case I needed it. Fortunately, I didn’t have to use it and crossed the finish line feeling taxed, but incredible.
I honestly can say this was the best race I have ever had. With any other weather, any other lead runners, any other time, and any other build-up week, I don’t think this race would have ever fallen into place like it did today. Without Chris and Kevin there, I don’t think I would have been successful at all today. What a race and what an experience.
Splits:
5:25, 5:30, 5:33, 5:29, 5:32, 5:22, 5:21, 5:26, 5:24, Finish- 1:42
