I had planned to run the 15k as a fun run and a great way to get 9.3 miles to add to my weekly mileage, then my parents changed my whole weekend plans.
I was supposed to ride Saturday morning but we got a call late Friday from the parenteral units – We want to come down early Sat morning and visit. Ok I will bag the ride and stay home. We will clean the house and be ready for my folks to show up. Now – I love my parents dearly and should have known there was no way they would be down in the am but I stayed home and we did the cleaning thing. And truth be told, the house looks great. My folks ended up getting here around 2:30……. Oh well.
So now its Sunday morning, I have fresh legs, and its time to run the race, what should I do? If it was a 5k – I would try to keep a 8:30 pace but this was going to be 9.3 miles. I decided on 93 min as my goal time – 10 min/mile pace. This would give me a base line run as I think to the spring ½ marathon season.
I got up at 6, ate my standard pre-race breakfast; pbj, Diet Mt.Dew, banana and then headed out to the race. The race is about 20 min from my house. I really like the venue, easy to find and park! The temp this morning was 55 F and by race time it was about 60, perfect. We lined up and at 8:00 sharp, three, two, one, GO!
At about 0.5 mile I looked down and was running a sub 9min pace – woa boy – back it down or you are going to crash! I dialed in my pace by 1 mile and was holding 9:30 to 9:45 and just felt great. I was thanking the volunteers and just running because I like to. I found two other running buddies and we kept a solid pace through 6 miles. My buddies were Met, who I know from Port City Java– ummmmmmm good coffee and a lady running in Vibraform slippers. We were chatty for a few min but were soon feeding on each other as we kept our 9:30 pace. At about 6 miles, I felt the pace begin to slip just a bit. I also began to do some math in my head. If, and that is a big if, I could maintain pace though 8.5 and then pick up the pace for the last mile, I could not only beat the 93 target but also get in under 90 minutes. Sorry guys – no pace slipping – I went around my new friends and tried to keep just under 9:30. I wanted the under 90 min goal now.
At mile 7, I began to hurt and for the first time in a long time, I just accepted it and kept running. I wanted to slow down, I wanted to walk, my legs were hurting, but I could begin to see the end and how nice it would be. I kept running. I passed 8 and then 8.5. I really tried to pick up the pace for the last 800 m. I could see the finish and I wanted to sprint – well I did not quite sprint but I pushed hard and finished in 1:28 and change! Yahooooooooo – under 90 min!
My legs were trashed and I felt a little dizzy. I found a quite place in the shade and sat down. I closed my eyes and did some deep breathing to get my heart rate down to a somewhat more normal level. Once I decided that I could walk and not puke – I found the food and drink. I still made it to church for the 11:00 service!
