In the first mile, a lead pack pulled ahead, followed (not closely) by one older (my age) guy, and then me. I felt that I was running well, with a sustainable effort level. I was very surprised, therefore, at the one mile mark, to hear a course worker calling splits "5:40! 5:42!" and as I approached "5:45!"
I was almost laughing, thinking that these small town folks probably couldn't tell a mile from a kilometer, when my Garmin beeped -- 5:45. The fastest mile I've ever run. My mile PR is 5:52. OK, that is from 2008, but still. My 5K PR pace was 6:26.
I had no idea what was going on. My best guess was that mile 1 was a lot more downhill than I had realized. I decided to just maintain effort, and see what happened.
After the turn around at the halfway point, folks started to pass me. I still felt that I was running well, so I wasn't too worried about it. I did, however, notice three guys go by me that looked like they could be in my age group, which was a little disappointing, as I had secret hopes of an age group award.
Mile 2 passed in 6:17, quite a bit slower, but more in line with what I was expecting to begin with. Soon after that, came the one tough uphill in the course. It was really two uphills, separated by a short plateau. As we approached the hills I notice that I was gaining on the folks that had passed me earlier. On the hills, I picked them off one by one, including the guy that had been ahead of me the whole time. As far as I could tell, I was the first runner over 40. In fact, since the lead pack (now long gone) had looked like a bunch of kids to me, I thought I might the the first runner over 30 (I was apparently delirious). Mile 3 passed in 6:18.
All I had to do was hold my place to the end. I felt that I could keep running hard, but I knew that I wouldn't be able to hold off anyone who had a real finish line kick. And... there was a runner on my heels. He was lining me up for a finish line pass -- I could feel it. As we approached the finish, I pushed as hard as I could, but the footsteps were right behind me the whole way. Miraculously, he never made the pass, and finished right behind me.
My final time was 19:06 (6:09/mile) -- a 51 sec PR -- 17 seconds a mile. Moreover, it put my most ambitious goal for 2010, a sub-19 5K, within reach. I was feeling really good.
Of course, my age-guessing skills were not as strong as I thought. There were two runners over 30 in the lead pack, one of whom finished second, in 15:47. And there was one 42 year old who finished 4 seconds in front of me. I can't believe that I didn't notice him.
That still got me a 2nd place age group medal -- the first hardware other than a finisher's medal that I've ever taken home. Yes, it was a small race, but I'll take it.
The guy that finished right behind me was, in fact, in my age group, meaning that the 3 top runners in our group finished within 5 seconds of each other - 19:02, 19:06 and 19:07.
When the awards were given out, I was amazed by how young the winner in my age group looked. Also, one of the guys who I passed in the last mile, won the 50-59 age group. I had him pegged at 40.
My take-away is that fast guys look younger than they are. All the more reason to keep training....
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1 comment:
congrats on an awesome race John!
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