This was epic. I will note that I haven't done anything but tri's for quite a few years. My goal was (a) sub 2:00, and (b) to APPROACH 1:50 if all went well. All of my long training (weekly 10-milers) have been at an 8:40-type pace, so I had no reason to assume this would be any different. I didn't really plan on doing this race until jszat and I discussed it about 3 weeks ago.

At the start, it didn't feel like 400 people were there...much less. We started out and a huge pack of us were off and running. I wasn't in the lead pack, but probably the secondary group. I didn't feel like I was in front at all...more like mid to mid-back of the pack. Because of doing only tri's, it was a little wierd starting a run so fresh and in a group.

I was feeling strong and running with this group...I glance at my HRM and it's blasting a 170 at me. I wanted to keep it around 150 for the race. Oh well, I decide, I'm feeling good so I'll ignore it for now. At the 2-mile mark I notice we're barely over 14 minutes, my HR is still at 170. I'm clicking off 7-minute miles with this group. Logic and my HRM tell me this can't last, but I say WTF and just keep going. By "feel", I was dong fine...not out of breath or feeling poor at all.

I have my GPS on, so I note all the way to the 7-mile turnaround I am sub 8-minute miles. My HR has crept into the 175 range, but again, feel-wise, I"m OK. After the turnaround, I hook up with a guy and we are jockeying back and forth at about a 7:40 pace. That lasted about until the 9-mile mark. I'm sub 8-min miles THIS FAR into a 1/2-mary? AWESOME, I'm telling myself.

At about 9, the whole thing fell apart. I knew it had to happen at some point. I'm 20 BPM higher on my HR for over an hour of work at this point...something's gotta give. As I start to struggle, I begin to think about these logs and this site. I want to put in a good time. After getting this far, a 1:50 is no longer going to be satisfying...I've GOT to break that.

Unfortunately, the last 3 miles were an epic shuffle with people passing me. All of my magic juju dust was out the window. My HR was up to low 180's and I was tanked. I was able to muster a 1/4 mile sprint to the finish so I didn't look like a total donkey, but that's about it.

Probably pace myself better, obviously. Had I taken it slower, would my time have improved had I not blown up at 9?

They had a nice post-race setup and I soaked up some gatorade like a sponge. I was chilled because the entire run I was sweating up a storm. I was dressed great for the run, but poorly for anything post-race. I should note that they had the post-race in a gymnasium which was nice for a "spring" run in Wisconsin.


Probably need to train to 15-miles repeatedly if I'm going to fire off sub-8:00 mile paces for this type of race. None of the poeple I knew had trained much past 6-miles and they were all sub 1:40 times. I am just not one of those people. To do well, I"ve got to train my a#s. As I've said before, I suffer from incredible mediocrity in these sports.


I was thrilled to have bettered 1:50. It's too bad it had to be such an epic struggle for the last 40-minutes. Not much fun about that part. But, this race taught me a few things and I look forward do doing this annually as a spring motivator.

Again, it's funny, at many points I was pushed to move faster by thinking about how this race would look in my logs and on the race report. I find that funny, but I thank all of you for keeping me working hard!