What a great road trip to the Spectrum 10K! When we found out Karen couldn't go I almost decided to not go, but she encouraged me to. I was still worried about going alone. I was thrilled when Kerry decided to go down with me. He even said he'd like to drive. I just went along for the ride, and probably talked too much. At least it made the drives down and back seem shorter...at least to me. :)
The race was great, too. The weather was ideal. The course is awesome. The race was well organized. A lot of my good running buddies were there. I really enjoyed everything about it. Nathan and I started the race together. We finished the first mile in about 5:30. (I'll have to go by memory on my splits as my Garmin, I discovered after the race, now displays garbage when I go into history mode. Bummer. They gave away a Garmin in the raffle, but I didn't win it. Maybe I'll have more luck with my birthday in 9 days.) Anyway, 5:30 was just a little bit faster than the 6:20-6:30 we had planned. At the first mile marker another runner near us said something like, "5:30?! What am I doing running 5:30?!" I think Nathan and I were both thinking the same thing, but we were feeling pretty good so we just kept speeding along.
Mile 2 was more rolling hills than downhill, and I think we ran it in just over 6:00 minutes. Nathan pulled about 30 yards ahead of me during this mile. I've noticed he always seems to run uphills better than I do. He was reluctant to run ahead of me and kept looking back. I kept telling him to stop looking back and just run. As mile 3 was back to mostly downhill, I managed to stay behind him. Around the mile 3 marker I had gained slightly on him. He noticed and slowed to let me catch up. I think we averaged about 6:16/mi for the first three miles, well ahead of our 6:20-6:30 goal. Now the downhill was over, and it wasn't long before Nathan pulled ahead again, this time for good. He went on to beat me by over a minute and finish in 38:49, 19th overall. He is running so well! He's going to have a great first Boston marathon.
As Nathan pulled away I just tried to keep moving forward. At the mile 4 marker I was still averaging around 6:16/mi. By the mile 5 marker the average was down to 6:27. I knew I needed to average around 6:30 (actually 6:27) to break 40 minutes. Fortunately, the gradual uphill we had been running turned to gradual downhill for a while and the overall average pace displayed on my watch started dropping again. I just locked in and tried to push as hard as I could the rest of the way. When I could see the clock at the finish line it was just under 39:00. I didn't seem to be able to get to the finish line fast enough. As I got closer to the finish line the clock got closer to 40:00. I pumped my fist exultantly as I crossed the finish line in 39:55! It is still hard to believe that I averaged 6:25/mi. I'm shocked, and extremely happy.
I haven't run a sub-40:00 10K since the early 80's, more than 25 years ago. Sure, this was a net downhill course, but I'll take it anyway. I finished in 41:42 last year. Nathan and I both finished 2nd in our age divisions. However, the guy that beat me in my division was the overall masters winner, so I was awarded 1st place in my division. I thought everyone I knew ran well. At the awards ceremony the FRB members were very well represented. I'll let someone else report on that as there were so many of them and I don't know everyone. What a great time!
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