Well, now that the race results have been posted, I can reflect on my 10k from Saturday.
Overall, I am pleased with the effort / time that I was able to accomplish on Saturday. I have always run pretty fast on that course considering the difficulty of the race. My "official" time was 33:47. My watch had me at 33:40. How was it 7 seconds off? Let me explain.
I woke up at about my normal time considering the race didn't start until 8:30. I had a light breakfast, some coffee, and hung out until I was ready to head down to pick up my packet. I parked, got my packet, and took off on my warmup jog at around 7:45. After a good 25 minute warmup, I put my racing flats on, did some strides as I was heading to the start line, and got myself mentally prepared for the pain I was about to endure. It was about 8:20 when I left my car. When I did my last stride at 8:24 about 200 - 300 meters behind the start line, I heard an announcement saying something to the effect of "2 minutes." I looked at my watch and double checked that I had over 5 minutes until 8:30. The wheelchair race was scheduled to start at 8:25 so that is what I assumed was 2 minutes away. I walked towards the start, saw an open porta potty and started to go in just to make sure I didn't have to go during the race. Right when I made it there, I heard the announcement "20 seconds." I look over and do not see a single wheel chair. I quickly changed my mind about the porta potty stop and jogged closer to the front of the start area. Before I got close to the front, the gun went off and everyone took off.
I was 100% warmed up, but just didn't expect the race to start early. It took me about 7-8 seconds just to get to the start line before I was able to take off. Another 5 seconds or so before I was able to get into an open area and then I was off. I figured since it had chip timing that there would be a "finishing" time and a "chip" time so I wasn't too worried. Well, after looking at the results, there was no chip time so I made a mistake before the start that cost me 7-8 seconds of racing time. Whatever. It's not like the guy in front of me beat me by 3 seconds. He beat me by about 1:30, ha. One positive to starting a little bit back was I was able to start a little more controlled than I usually do.
Seconds after the gun went off, the rain started to fall. It was 57 degrees and calm when I woke up. The temperature was dropping and now it was raining. I worked my way through the field and by the 1 mile mark I was in 10th place (I didn't know that at the time) and about 5 seconds behind the first female. She looked very familiar and I was about 90% sure it was Ali Morgan who I ran with at UK. I decided I would use the 2nd downhill mile to catch her. Well, she pulled away from me. I was 5:21 for mile 1, 5:13 for mile 2, and was about 7 seconds or so behind Ali. I caught a guy just before the 5k mark and going through right at 16:40 (on my watch). I finally caught Ali just before 4 miles. We laughed for about a 1/2 second since this was the first time I've seen her in a year or two. We worked together to maintain pace for the next mile or so. Going up the long, gradual hill that is the 5th mile, I did get away from her about the exact distance that I would finish in front of her. I went through 5 miles just over 27 minutes. We weaved our way around the football stadium and finished on the field. I crossed the line in 33:47 (race time), and at 33:40 on my watch. Ali finished just 9 seconds later and we had a good laugh about the race afterwards.
By then, it was pouring and getting colder. I did a quick cooldown and made it back to the car completely soaked and freezing. I have only broken 34 minutes for a 10k a hand full of times so I was happy but was secretly hoping to surprise myself. There was no surprise. I just met my expectation.
I hate standing around on the start line just waiting for the gun to go off, but I guess that is better then missing the start. Next time I'll make sure I'm lined up in time. Off to St. Louis this weekend for the Rock'n'Roll St. Louis half marathon. Not sure how it's going to work out with the World Series going on but that would be awesome if I managed to get tickets for it while we are there.
Tony
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