login
 Run
Comments: Wow, what to say? I tried not to blow up early and just stay relaxed. The first 2 miles or so were dead into the wind, but there were plenty of folks to use as shields. Tried not to zig zag too much though, saving some energy. Made myself stay in the same lane no matter what. I have a bad habit of wasting energy early, so forcing myself to do this was good. Somewhere in the 2nd mile I saw a familiar shape ahead. Caught up to Aaron and gave him a good game as I passed. Had to defend Shannon's honor from Disco a few years ago. Once I turned out of the wind I was flying. Miles 3-6 just flew by. Took a gel at mile 4, expecting there to be some water soon. Turned out the next water stop was after mile 5. So I got to have gel leftovers for a while. Yummy. Miles 7 and 8 it got pretty hilly. The hill training I had been doing paid off. My pace dropped but I was able to recover pretty well and get back to pace mile 9. Never really looked at my watch until after mile 9. I looked down and saw 1:00. Whoa. Barring catastrophe I knew I had a shot at sub 1:30. My goal had been to hit 1:33:47 or better. Sped up a bit on 10 and 11. Then things got tricky. Whoever had the brilliant idea of merging the 5K, 10K, Half, Full, and Ultra the last few miles should be punished. Granted, at that point there were only half and 10K on the course, but they were 90 minute 10Kers. And they were walking in groups. Burned up a lot of juice zig zagging and yelling "on your left" and "on your right". Once downtown, it was hard to figure out where to go. There were signs for the full and ultra, signs for the 10k, but nothing for the half. I had to yell repeatedly for people to point me the right direction. Finally I made the turn for home and saw the number 13. Felt some relief knowing I went the right way. That would have sucked to go the wrong way. The last tenth was a victory jog. I was hooting and hollering. My PR from 2 months before was dead and buried by almost 5 minutes. Ding. Woo. What would you do differently?: Nuthin.  Post race
Warm down: Walked to the water, walked back to the finish to see Aaron come in. Walked back to the water, then to the car. Had to get back to Keller so I didn't get to hang around. What limited your ability to perform faster: Nothing until the jumble at the end. Event comments: Super fast course with a small town feel. Other than the mess at the starting line and finishing stretch it was perfect. Last updated: 2008-10-30 12:00 AM
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
View profile
Add to friends
Go to training log
Go to race log
Send a message
View album
CONNECT WITH FACEBOOK
United States
The Cowtown
39F / 4C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 63/3826
Age Group = M 30-34
Age Group Rank = 15/226
Up at 4:45 for a clif bar and a shower. Headed out from Shannon's parents about 5:30. Didn't want to have to wait in any lines at registration...or the bathrooms, so I got there right at 6 when everything opened. Walked through the expo and didn't see any "gotta have it" items. Then I just headed back to the car to stay out of the wind. Downtown has a huge tunnel effect, so while the wind was ferocious there, I hoped it wouldn't be as bad during the race.
Sat in the car for 30 minutes just listening to the radio and getting everything put together. Around 7 I headed out for a warmup mile.
Jogged a circle around downtown to get a feel for the wind. Pretty tough out of the NW, but that was only the first few miles of the course so I wasn't too concerned.
Decided to head to the bathroom for one more stop at 7:10. Waited in line until 7:25 and gave up. It was time to get to the starting line. Not as easy as it sounds. There was no way to get in. Barriers everywhere, and spectators everywhere. A group of about 50 of us were yelling at spectators to get out of the way as the starting gun went off. About a minute later we finally got in. That was a bit...frantic.