Strava Activity: https://www.strava.com/activities/445544312
Result: 1:25:37, 16th overall, 2nd in age 20-24.
Result: 1:25:37, 16th overall, 2nd in age 20-24.
Miles 1-3: Did a good job of reigning it in at the beginning, I was worried I would shoot out too fast like I did in the Run for the Water 10 mile and burn out. Kept myself around 6:30 pace on my watch until I hit a slight hill at around mile 1.5 before I decided to up the pace a little while still keeping a good bit in reserve remembering that I had never raced this far before.
5k split: 20:15 (6:26, 6:31, 6:16)
Miles 4-6: Was still feeling very good so I decided to ignore my watch for a bit and just run by feel. I probably looked at my watch maybe twice during this stretch. Stomach started to churn a good bit around mile 5 but my legs and heart/lungs felt perfect. Definitely hope to eat better the week prior to my next race - drank beer and ate chili on Friday and although I ate fairly well on Saturday I probably overate my pasta dinner leaving me with a very full stomach on race day.
10k split: 39:45 (6:22, 6:27, 6:28)
Miles 7-10: These were the last of the good miles. Miles 7-9 continued just as well as miles 1-6, but mile 10 was brutal. Mile 7 and 8 were with the wind at my back and slightly downhill, making for good time while mile 9 and 10 were orthogonal to the wind. The overall elevation gain during this section was -100 ft. before hitting a rough hill at mile 10 that was ~0.4 miles long at 5% gradient. Even though the hill was killer, I still managed a better 10 mile time than I got at the 10 mile Run for the Water a month earlier.
10 mile split: 1:04:18 (6:17, 6:17, 6:33, 6:44)
Mile 11-finish: These miles were awful. In hindsight I should have probably trained with a Gu or Shot Block on my long runs so that I could have had a chance to prevent how bad these miles were. I don't know if some fuel would have helped or not but it probably would not have hurt. After I hit mile 10 I pretty much stopped looking at my watch telling myself "just run, if you think you might not be on pace push harder, everything left in the tank." This strategy has done fairly well for me in the past, but there was a lady with a cowbell at what I now estimate to be mile 11.5. I heard her a little after mile 11 and because I was completely out of it I thought she was the first of the spectators before the finish line. So for about two straight miles I was convinced that I was only a half mile away from the finish. Completely exhausted and just stumbling along, these were the longest two miles I have ever run. Once I finally saw the finish line I noticed the first place girl was right behind me and gaining fast so I found it in me to finish strong even though I felt like death which probably explains the fast (relative to the previous three miles) final mile. My final 5k split was 21:19... room for improvement certainly.
Finish: 1:25:37 (6:58, 7:04, 6:36)
Post-race: This one hurt. Overall I'm very happy with my finish time, especially since I expect that I have a few "easy" gains left with a better pre-race nutrition plan as well as a fueling plan for the race itself. Before this race started, based on my 10 mile time, I was hoping to run a sub-1:25 half. After looking at the elevation for this particular half I was realistically hoping for a sub-1:28, so a 1:25:37 is great all things considered.
Distance Challenge: I jumped from 5th overall in the "half-track" Distance Challenge to 3rd. I finished within a minute of the person in second place in the Challenge and beat all others (excluding the leader) in the Challenge by over two minutes. Right now I am 5:21 behind the half-track 2nd place and am 1:50 ahead of 4th place. There are three races left in the Challenge, the Rogue Distance Festival 10k, 3M half marathon, and the Austin half marathon. Although the odds of me catching the 2nd place are somewhat slim at this point I still want to try. I also want to keep myself as far away from 4th place as possible because just as I gained over two minutes back on the previous second place, I know that anyone in 4th through 6th is within striking distance of me if I slip up in the next couple races. Since the data is available I hope to do an analysis when the Challenge is over to track my progress against my competitors.
5k split: 20:15 (6:26, 6:31, 6:16)
Miles 4-6: Was still feeling very good so I decided to ignore my watch for a bit and just run by feel. I probably looked at my watch maybe twice during this stretch. Stomach started to churn a good bit around mile 5 but my legs and heart/lungs felt perfect. Definitely hope to eat better the week prior to my next race - drank beer and ate chili on Friday and although I ate fairly well on Saturday I probably overate my pasta dinner leaving me with a very full stomach on race day.
10k split: 39:45 (6:22, 6:27, 6:28)
Miles 7-10: These were the last of the good miles. Miles 7-9 continued just as well as miles 1-6, but mile 10 was brutal. Mile 7 and 8 were with the wind at my back and slightly downhill, making for good time while mile 9 and 10 were orthogonal to the wind. The overall elevation gain during this section was -100 ft. before hitting a rough hill at mile 10 that was ~0.4 miles long at 5% gradient. Even though the hill was killer, I still managed a better 10 mile time than I got at the 10 mile Run for the Water a month earlier.
10 mile split: 1:04:18 (6:17, 6:17, 6:33, 6:44)
Mile 11-finish: These miles were awful. In hindsight I should have probably trained with a Gu or Shot Block on my long runs so that I could have had a chance to prevent how bad these miles were. I don't know if some fuel would have helped or not but it probably would not have hurt. After I hit mile 10 I pretty much stopped looking at my watch telling myself "just run, if you think you might not be on pace push harder, everything left in the tank." This strategy has done fairly well for me in the past, but there was a lady with a cowbell at what I now estimate to be mile 11.5. I heard her a little after mile 11 and because I was completely out of it I thought she was the first of the spectators before the finish line. So for about two straight miles I was convinced that I was only a half mile away from the finish. Completely exhausted and just stumbling along, these were the longest two miles I have ever run. Once I finally saw the finish line I noticed the first place girl was right behind me and gaining fast so I found it in me to finish strong even though I felt like death which probably explains the fast (relative to the previous three miles) final mile. My final 5k split was 21:19... room for improvement certainly.
Finish: 1:25:37 (6:58, 7:04, 6:36)
Post-race: This one hurt. Overall I'm very happy with my finish time, especially since I expect that I have a few "easy" gains left with a better pre-race nutrition plan as well as a fueling plan for the race itself. Before this race started, based on my 10 mile time, I was hoping to run a sub-1:25 half. After looking at the elevation for this particular half I was realistically hoping for a sub-1:28, so a 1:25:37 is great all things considered.
Distance Challenge: I jumped from 5th overall in the "half-track" Distance Challenge to 3rd. I finished within a minute of the person in second place in the Challenge and beat all others (excluding the leader) in the Challenge by over two minutes. Right now I am 5:21 behind the half-track 2nd place and am 1:50 ahead of 4th place. There are three races left in the Challenge, the Rogue Distance Festival 10k, 3M half marathon, and the Austin half marathon. Although the odds of me catching the 2nd place are somewhat slim at this point I still want to try. I also want to keep myself as far away from 4th place as possible because just as I gained over two minutes back on the previous second place, I know that anyone in 4th through 6th is within striking distance of me if I slip up in the next couple races. Since the data is available I hope to do an analysis when the Challenge is over to track my progress against my competitors.