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October 24, 2004

Pervasive Power Charge 10-miler

At some point yesterday afternoon, after several attempts at answering the question about my goals for this morning's race, I had whittled down my long, tortured answer involving comments on the humidity and hills and my preference for running by effort level rather than pace, to a mere "If I don't run under 70 minutes I'll be really disappointed."

And it came down to 5 seconds: 1:09:55. And while I was glad to see that I was under 70 minutes it was still disappointing in the sense that I felt I was in a position to do something good today but wasn't really given the opportunity. But then again, if you've ever experienced an absolute BOMB of a race you know to be thankful when a race doesn't turn out that way!

The first few miles were unremarkable, except maybe mile 3 when I saw a woman in my age group who beat me consistently for years until she went off and had kids. Now I think we're more evenly matched, although she just had a baby last spring so it's not really a fair comparison right now. But with her ponytail taunting me in the third mile I managed to click off a 6:34 mile. The real action started in the 4th mile when we hit a monster of a hill. It was a "swing your arms and tippy-toe up" kind of hill. I knew it was coming and didn't actually think it was as bad as I'd heard until maybe about a quarter mile later when we hit another, smaller hill, and I realized about a quarter of the way up that I hadn't actually recovered yet. So when we hit a third smaller hill I was toast, and then everytime I'd see a hill after that I'd feel demoralized. But it was happening to everyone. I felt like I was running through molasses, but I wasn't really getting passed like I thought I would. I'm nearly positive I passed far more people than passed me.

It was interesting to read this article about the race by Bob Wischnia (ex-Runner's World editor(?) who now lives here in town.) Greg McMillan's comments about not recovering sound pretty close to what I was feeling.

It was a fun morning. Aside from the relay, which wasn't really that big, this was my first race of the running year here in Austin and it was so fun to see everyone again. I felt like it was the first day of junior high or something ... I'd try to hold a conversation with someone and then somebody else would want to come up and talk (I'm, like, so totally popular.) I had at least 15 half-conversations.

So I'm trying not to overanalyze at this point. The negative is obvious - a 70 minute 10-miler is not a step in the right direction. It's slower than my half-marathon pace by more than 10sec/mile. So I can't affirmatively say that I'm progressing. On the positive side, I was the 4th overall woman, only 20 seconds or so behind the woman who for the past several years has been consistently right in front of me (did she and the other woman have a formal hand-off ceremony about two years ago that I missed?), which would normally be big progress since she ran a 2:57 marathon this year, but she just ran 3:00 two weeks ago in Chicago, so I can imagine that that set her back just a little today. I came in with a group of guys who ran 39-highs and 40-lows at the 10K a few weeks ago, which I'll take as a good sign. I gotta find something, man.

As for the shin, it's ok but feels really fatigued. It may be something I just have to learn to deal with. Hopefully with a little ice and some easy running it'll be back to barely noticeable.

Thanks to all of you who posted good luck wishes! Maybe all that good karma out there made the difference for those 5 seconds. Now I need to go read how everyone else is doing ...

Posted by jenandmats at October 24, 2004 3:16 PM

Comments

congrats on such an awesome race!! we have it easy in chicago: no hills. i envy everyone who gets to race on hills - i consider their times more honorable and effortful :) you should be really proud of yourself for finishing under 70 and for finishing as the 4th woman overall - that rocks!

Posted by: bridget at October 24, 2004 5:30 PM

Wow! That sounds absolutely brutal. Sub-70 is awesome for those conditions and that course. Keep on icing that shin. Do you think that the change in your shoes is what caused it?

Blondie

Posted by: Blondie at October 24, 2004 6:16 PM

Congrats on a great race! Sounds like it was brutal weather-wise and in that case I think it's more helpful to compare yourself to those around you (as you have done) in noticing they too were effected by the conditions. If there was one thing I learned from my marathon last week, it was that the "conditions" can effect you much more than you think and adjusting your goals with those conditions is a keen thing to do. :)

Posted by: Beth at October 24, 2004 6:25 PM

Congratulations on a great race! From reading the article about the race and your description, it sounds like everyone's times were _much_ slower than they would have been on a nice day on a flat course. I hate it when people say things like, "The wind slowed everyone down by at least a minute," because I don't think you can put a number value on such things, but I think it's safe to say that you would have run much faster on most of the other 10-mile courses out there. The fact that you were able to finish around (or ahead of) some good runners is a very good sign!

Posted by: Alison at October 24, 2004 7:52 PM

Awesome job. And, I'm sorry about your terrible, horrible, no good, very bad WEATHER. Hope it cools off this week!

Posted by: becky at October 24, 2004 8:14 PM

Congratulations on your awesome race. I liked your race description. Hopefully the humidity goes away soon - yuck! - and your shin feels better.

Posted by: Leilani at October 24, 2004 9:01 PM

Thanks, guys!

I think there are a lot of runners here in Austin trying to figure out what to make of yesterday's race. I'm a real believer in working with what you're given (although it doesn't mean I won't complain about certain things) and there's no point in trying to quantify how "conditions" affected you. You've just gotta try to roll with it (or know when to pack it in like Beth did last week.)

Blondie ... I think the change in shoes did cause the problem, but only because I think my new shoes didn't have as much motion control and cushion as the ones I had been wearing (Nike Zoom Elites), and I had started running serious downhills on a regular basis. I usually go with really neutral shoes, but the Zoom Elites (which were a surprise hit with me since they did have more motion control and cushioning in them) were offering me more protection on those downhills. The Zoom Elites finally came in last week and I wore them yesterday for the race. They are heavier than I'd like, but my shin feels ok today, so I'm glad I wore them.

Posted by: jenandmats at October 25, 2004 8:32 AM

Let me add my belated congratulations. Between the weather and the hills, this one was a real pain! Still, there's always Motive coming up in the same place next month... the weather can't be worse, after all... And hey, the conditions hit everyone the same way and 4th place is none too shabby.

Posted by: Richard at October 25, 2004 10:23 AM

Jen - Great job on your race! Glad to hear you have improved your shoe situation.

Posted by: barb at October 25, 2004 2:05 PM