Today was the 10 mile training check-up race for the fall. My attitude today was to go out and get to as close to 6:00 pace average as I could. McMillan predictor from my 5K time in February said I should hit a 6:10 pace for a 61 min and change. I just wanted to go with the flow of the field and saw what happened.
The first mile was a bit of a surprise, cause I didn't think we were going so fast, but it was a 5:54. It wasn't my intent, but I'll take it. I pulled up on one guy who smoked me at track night in May and then I smoked him in the last 5K. I didn't was to lose to him, so I stuck with for the next few miles. Somewhere between 3 and 4 miles I got a few steps on him and from there it was a matter of running like someone was chasing me. The next guy was probably 200-300 yards in front of me. I could only see him at the long straightaways so I knew I wasn't going to catch him. I just tried to calm myself as much as possible and maintain the effort. Somehow between 4 and 6 I gained about a minute. I was slightly over 6 min pace at the 3 mile mark, and then I looked up at 6 miles and I was in the low 35:00s. No wonder I couldn't hear the guy behind me anymore. So I hung on and tried to hold off the guy behind me and of course, not blow up.
In the end, I held off the dude behind me and I rolled in with a surprise time of 59:09 - 3rd place overall - 2nd place in AG. Of course the 2nd place guy was in my age group - no breaks for me today. On a good side-note, all of us in my AG were under 60 minutes, which blew away the AG's. Nice job 35-39's!
| 