Unfinished Business

In my very first post, I wrote this about the Pikes Peek 10k held last April:

Dave had mentioned a 10k race held each year not far from home at the end of April. I thought that the challenge would be good for me, so I dutifully signed up. Given that I had only ever gone 5 miles just once, I should have been training for this 10k, but I slacked off and did very little training in the weeks leading up to it.

I felt like I got creamed. Though I did meet my goal of not being the lanterne rouge (the last official finisher in the Tour de France is called the lanterne rouge, or the red light as on the back of the caboose.) My time was nearly 89 minutes. My treadmill times had been running under 13 minutes per mile. Given the fact that the course is known for personal records as it is almost entirely down hill, I was disappointed. When I called Deb from the post race event, I told her that this was the most self-inflicted pain I had ever had.

Today was Pikes Peek and while running an event is generally not recommended the week before a marathon, I felt that I had some unfinished business from last year.

As I left for the race this morning, I couldn't help but begin to make comparisons from the beginning. Certainly, my preparation for a "short 6-miler" far exceeded last year. There was little stress beyond whether my leg pains would remain in check.

The weather was great for a run -- 54 degrees and overcast. Last year was much warmer and sunny. As the race was about to start, my toughest decision was to decide whether to go off with the 8-10 minute pace group or the 10+ pace group. Since the course was one way, downhill, my goal was to slice 20 minutes off of last year's 88:50 time, an 11:08 pace. In the back of my mind, though, I wondered if I could manage 10 minute miles, given the downhill course and my sub-10 mile earlier in the week.

I decided to go with the 10+ group figuring that passing other runners would be better mentally than getting dropped by the quicker group.

Once the gun went and our group went off 4 minutes later, I felt strong. I began passing people almost immediately. I didn't spend a lot of time looking at my Garmin, but I knew I was just off the 10 minute pace I was thinking about.

I skipped the first water stop at mile 2.5. From there, I started to see a lot more walkers. I yelled out some good wishes, remembering where I was a year before. At the second water stop, I took a cup of water and one sip of the warm water and I just dropped it and chugged to the finish.

As the finish line came in sight, I knew I was kicking major butt and I gave a big cheer as my name was called at the finish.

After a bottle of water and trip around the post race party, I headed back to the finish line to cheer on those who were where I was a year before.

In the end, my chip time was 1:03:21, a 10:12 average. Out of 6 full miles, there was only 1 uphill mile -- on that mile, my fastest split -- a 9:45. Does that make sense? Not really, but the adrenalin was really pumping and I was thinking hard about a week from now. Even if I had managed to break an hour, I don't know that I would feel better than I do now. What a great way to lead into the final week before the marathon.

Business finished. (Until next time!)

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 428 ft Location: Derwood, VA Elev. Gain: -158 ft Date: 04/27/08 Up/Downhill: [+170/-328] Time: 08:04 AM Difficulty: 2.0 / 5.0 Weather: Fog/Mist 54 F temp; 89% humidity 54 F heat index; winds NE 13 Performance Distance: 6.24 miles Time: 1:03:27 Speed: 5.9 mph Pace: 10' 10 /mi Calories: 1170 Notes Chip Time: 1:03:21 -- 10:12/mi average for 10k. Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 10' 03 -0' 07 6.0 +0.1 -40 ft 2 10' 22 +0' 12 5.8 -0.1 -6 ft 3 10' 12 +0' 02 5.9 -0.0 -33 ft 4 10' 20 +0' 10 5.8 -0.1 -29 ft 5 10' 27 +0' 17 5.7 -0.2 -10 ft 6 9' 45 -0' 25 6.2 +0.2 +10 ft end 8' 32 -1' 38 7.0 +1.1 -49 ft Versus average of 10' 10 min/mile

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L'Chaim!