Where do I start with this race? I don't think I could have prepared any worse for this race, and yet I was still so excited to run it. I had what was probably the heaviest training week of the year this week, including 6 bike workouts on top of my normal workouts. Also, I worked the night before until 10:00 pm, and was running around on my feet for 8 hours pouring drinks. I was tired! When I got home I had to make some dinner, since it was too busy to eat, which went against the specific advice from coach Dan to not go hungry at any time during the day before. I finally got to bed around 12:30.
Up at 6:00 am and I was pretty excited. I knew my legs didn't have their usual jump, but I was sure I could pull at least a PB out of the bag today. I headed down with my Dad and did a pretty solid warmup. I lined up at the start line and as usual, took a good look for my competition. As usual, coach Dan was there along with Gary and some others. I was wondering if this was the day I was going to take Dan....
The gun went off, and the runners shot out of a cannon! The pace was fast, but not too uncomfortable. My legs felt fantastic at this point, and I felt like I could run all day. This first km went by in 3:36, and Dan said that that was a good pace. After another km at the same pace, we headed downhill somewhat along Dallas Rd. I started to feel really good by this point, and started to put some distance on Dan and Gary, who I could hear behind me. At the turnaro
und, I was happy with the race so far, and was determined to just go hard the entire time.At around 6km the wheels started to fall off a bit. Saying this, it was not the classic "go out too hard and die" meltdown. I was still feeling great mentally and cardio-y (what a word), but my legs just couldn't do it. They had just done too much this week, and I couldn't get another ounce of strength out of them. That km went by in 3:49, well over my goal pace. Km 7 was not much better, and I let some runners that should not have gotten away get away. I was actually laughing by this point, as I think that I am a pretty good pacer. Today however, it looked like I was an amature that commited the all-too-often error of going out too hard. Km 8 was definately faster than 7, due to the excitement of coming close to the finish. My legs were all but done, but I still pushed them as fast as they could go. I could actually feel how differently my legs were moving compared to earlier in the race when they weren't tired. It was fascinating. Down the home stretch and through the shoot in 36:44, good enough for a 1.5 minute PB.
I think what made me happiest about this race was the fact that I know that if I was well rested, I would have been at least 30 seconds faster than I was today. That puts me in the low 36s which is where I want to be at this point in the season.
My splits were:
3:36, 3:37, 3:34, 3:31, 3:41, 3:48, 3:45, 3:38, 3:42, 3:41
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