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October 1, 2007
O's Race Report
Hello all, this is O.
Since Beth's day of from training is usually Mondays, she suggested that I submit a guest entry about my race.....this is a running blog after all.
Okay, before I get into the details of the race report I'll start you with two items:
1) My time for the 10k was 37:16
2) (More importantly) Check out this elevation chart for the course:
I need to find more downhill races.....
Okay, so back to the information about the race....
My only previous races longer than a 5k included 2 marathons, one 10-miler, one 5-miler, and one 10k that I ran with Beth for the first 5k and jogged the 2nd 5k. With that in mind, I really had no clue how this Great Race was going to turn out.
Fitness-wise, I'm probably in some of the best running shape of my life thanks to training/coaching the high school xc team where I teach. I've been running with them since late July, so I certainly had a good base. My training had a good mix to it--about 30-45 miles/week with one or two speed workouts per week and one weekly 10-15 mile run with Beth on Sundays.
So, knowing this, I thought I had a chance to put together two 19:00 5k's back to back and end up in the 38:00-39:00 range at the race. But, the best part was I really didn't have any large expectations or pressures (other than harrassment from the guys on the xc team), so I went into Sunday morning pretty loose.
Race morning couldn't have been more perfect. It was in the upper 40's when I took Roxy for a short walk and low 50's at the start of the race. My cousin K and Uncle J were running also and I somehow found them while warming up among the 6,000 other competitors. That was nice to hang out with them. K is six years younger than me and she ran at the same high school as me. She took up running during high school (I think partially influenced by Beth my PSU running girlfriend........now wife) and ended up being pretty successful and ran at Mercyhurst College in Erie (Division II).
K had a "seeded" number, so we said our good lucks at the start line and she went up into the special area for the good runners. I was back with the rest of the runners. Beth had warned me from last year that I wanted to be up near the front of the "rest" since the best runners were in the seeded area. As I made my way up to the front of the non-seeded group I saw the usual people lined up:
1. serious runners with running shorts, dri-FIT tops, and racing flats (they belong)
2. older runners who used to be good, but certainly shouldn't be up at the front of the pack because they don't get out like they used to
3. large males & females and newbies who have no clue what's about to happen and don't realize that if they don't get out at 6:00 pace they're going to get run over
4. the weightlifting/workout muscle-heads who come to the race pumped up and prepared with headphones and water bottle.....again not realizing that they need to move back to the 8 to 9 minute pace area.
So, of course runners in categories #2-4 were very annoying and in my way as the gun went off. Fortunately, we were far enough back from the chip mat that I was able to maneuver my way around most of them without it affecting my start time and my first mile pace.
The first mile has a short downhill and then a respectable .25 mile upgrade. When I got to the top of this, I was thinking that my calves were going to fall off and where's the downhill that I heard about?!?!?!?!? Throughout the rest of the first mile, my calves recovered and I got into a groove and ended up with a 5:59. Not bad, I figured that the first mile was going to be quick with the start of a race.
Mile 2 had A LOT of downhill (negative slope for you mathematical people!!!!) and I ended up splitting at 5:32. I just dismissed it as downhill and figured it would catch up to me later on.
Mile 3 is along this stretch by the University of Pittburgh (ha, ha they lost bad again on Saturday) and also by where Beth works. I'm more familiar with this area and was continuing my good rhythm with the familiar surroundings. Mile 3 split was 6:05 and my 5k split was 18:27. This was the point where my mathematical side took over and did some analysis. First, I hadn't run a 5k this fast since my senior year of high school. I thought that this was ok since I had been training with a high school team and that this was a lot of down hill. Thought #2 was "oh crap, if I keep this pace I'm going to run in the 37's".....keep in mind that I was shooting for 38's or 39's.
It was around this time that I was beside a younger runner who I swear looked like he was 10. Looking at the results, I think he was 14, but I'm around high school students every day and no way was he close to the size of most high school freshman. Anyway, as I passed him leading up to mile 4, I told him, "Good luck, buddy. Keep it up." But, inside I was thinking, "If this little elementary school kid beats me, I'm retiring from running."
Mile 4 comes and I clicked off another 6:04. This was more of a legitimate mile split since I was coming off mostly flat and a little uphill by Pitt. The little guy starts falling back after mile 4 (whew!) and I begin working on the only true "hill" in the race.
Leading up to mile 5 is a stretch on a major road I drive when I drop off Beth in the morning, so this was again cool to be running on it. Leading up to mile 5 is also Pittsburgh's other big school--Duquesne University. With the uphill I ended up splitting 6:30, but had the knowledge that the last mile was pretty much all down hill. The other realization was that, with 1.2 miles to go, my overall time was only 30:10. The excitement started to build knowing that I could almost walk in and meet my goal. I was working on bonus time to see how low I could go!!!!
But, I almost had to walk it in..... Almost as soon as I split my watch for mile 5 I got a nice little cramp in my upper stomach that made it very hard to take in deep breaths. Fortunately, I was on the downward slope and was trying to use that to my advantage as I tried to figure out my breathing. Finally, I found that if I took mostly short breaths the cramp didn't hurt as much and I would just suck it up on less oxygen for the final mile.
A woman in her 40's who's pretty well-known for her running accomplishments passed me just after the 5 mile mark. I thought that if I could just hang with her for the rest of the race I'd be pleased with my time because I knew that she would be running a good time.
Sure enough, I get to the 6-mile and know that it's 0.2 miles to go (or a little less than a 400 on the track). Now, my 400/800 sprinting insticts take over and I outkick the 40+ year old female.....okay, not that impressive to outkick her, but I did what I could with my cramp. Also, I heard Beth with about 100m to go. What a great cheerleader and equipment manager.
So, I end up finishing with a final 1.2 of 7:06, so I guess probably an 80 or so final quarter, leaving a 5:46 or so split for mile 5 to mile 6 and finishing at 37:16.
I kept saying to Beth afterwards, "hot dog....I'll take that...." I ended up 78th overall, 75th male, and 10th in my 30-34 age group....my first race as a 30-year-old. I'll definitely take that, but certainly want to give a big assist to the downhill nature of the course and the training of the xc team.
Now that you've been bored to tears rest assured that Beth will be back blogging tomorrow.
Take care!
O
PS -- My quads are mucho sore tonight and I'm sure they'll be even more sore tomorrow!!!!
Posted by beth at October 1, 2007 7:39 PM
Comments
Awesome job O!
Two things though:
(1) You forgot to mention the "other" big university in Pittsburgh that you ran by -- Carnegie Mellon.
(2) The people who stand near the front are hilarious. One year I stood next to a woman who said to her friend, "I think I'll be able to walk the whole thing. It's like 3 miles, right?" This was in the 40 minute corral.
Posted by: B at October 1, 2007 10:34 PM
Congrats O! I'm going to have to get back to Pittsburgh and run the Great Race sometime.
Posted by: brian at October 2, 2007 8:37 AM
hi O! i had the same experience this past weekend where I didn't want to stand on the starting line b/c i knew a bunch of guys were faster than me, but i was totally annoyed these women wearing huge t-shirts (ie. not running clothes) were up there. even though the race director was telling people to line up by speed.
ANYWAY, you ran WICKED fast!!! fun times. fun times!!!!
Posted by: Audrey at October 2, 2007 9:34 AM
Congratulations O! I guess you've really set the bar high, haven't you? I'll bet you'll take sore quads in exchange for this shiny new PR! Congrats again!
Posted by: Meghan at October 2, 2007 12:39 PM