Race morning was nice, cool and in the mid 40s...perfect for running! After a brief warm up, it came time to quickly line up for the start. I seeded myself about 2 rows back from the front, seeing as how some top area talent came out for the race. Before I knew it, we were off!
Miles 1-3
The pacing plan was to go conservative for the early miles, where my goal was to average 7:22/mile. I knew mile 1 would be fast, due to the adrenaline and a mostly downhill mile. At my first glance down at my watch, I noticed I was running 6:35/mile pace - oops! I quickly slowed and really held myself back, knowing it would pay off later in the race. Here were my paces:
Mile Planned Actual
1 7:10 7:08
2 7:25 7:24
3 7:25 7:24
Miles 4-10
Now it was time to get to work...well sort of. Though a tradition pacing plan would have me working hard at Mile 4, it was almost entirely up hill. So while I was working harder, I knew I wasn't going to throw down too fast of a pace. I slowly began picking it up by effort, which resulted in slightly faster paces, but I was feeling really good. After Mile 4, I started picking people off that had passed me in the early miles. I felt totally smooth and in control.
Mile Planned Actual
4 7:15 7:17
5 7:05 7:06
6 7:05 6:58
7 7:15 7:08
8 7:00 6:56
9 7:00 6:54
10 7:00 6:44
Only thing was, I hadn't seen a runner in front of me since Mile 8! If it weren't for the great support at the aid stations, it would have been pretty lonely out there.
Miles 11-13.1
I knew with just a 5k to go, the Mile 11 was largely downhill, but the last 2 miles were the steepest uphills on the whole course - what a way to end a race!
Mile Planned Actual
11 7:00 6:49
12 7:00 6:51
13.1 7:00 6:51
Overall time: 1:31:35
Avg pace: 7:00/mile
Avg HR: 167 bpm
Comments: I ended up getting 2nd in my age group! I couldn't have felt better during the race, despite the hills toward the end in the last 2 miles. Even more notable, was that I also set a new 10 mile PR WITHIN the race (1:09:34) over the course of the last 10 miles of the race.
2nd... nice
ReplyDeleteYou've been secretly training :) Congratulations! It sounds like this was a 1/2 PR for you?
ReplyDeleteThanks ..your topic beautiful ..... Good luck
ReplyDeleteYour article more than wonderful ... Good luck
ReplyDelete