More later...
Really great day for a race. With the starting line temps in the mid 30s and plenty of sunshine the running conditions turned out to be absolutely perfect. Even with the perfect conditions I wasn't sure what to expect from myself today with my lack of any speed work or tempo runs since LVM I was just looking to come in somewhere under 1:45 and maybe the low 1:40s if I was lucky. My main goal was to complete the race so I would be one race closer to meeting the runners series quota for the guaranteed SGM entry.
Saw lots of bloggers at the race and met many new ones. It was really great to see everyone again finally put some faces with some names of the first timers.
In a state of not really knowing what to shoot for in this race I happened to meet up with an old friend at the starting line who was looking to run a 1:35 or better. I knew that was going to be a bit fast for me but I figured running with someone would be much more enjoyable than going it alone so I told him to set the pace and I would try and keep up.
The start went fairly well and we didn't have to dodge too many people as we got going. We took the first mile pretty conservatively and it came in around 7:30. The next mile we decided to pick up the pace a little bit and came in around 7:10. Mile three is flat for a bit and then you turn on to river road and get a nice stretch of gentle downhill for about a quarter mile. That mile turned out to be my fastest at 6:55. Mile 4 is pretty flat through the river bottoms and we held a nice pace through there at 7:11. Then mile 5 includes a couple of pretty good hills coming out of the river bottoms and then up into the Bloomington Hills area. We were able to eek out a 7:25 for that hilly mile. Once we dropped back down to the river bottoms again we found a nice rhythm and just chugged along until we reached the start of the Bloomington loop where it turns uphill again a little bit and I started to feel some fatigue. I told my friend not to wait up for my but to just keep it going and I fell back a bit. I struggled over the next mile fighting with myself to try and catch back up to him but I just couldn't overcome the deamons. From this point until about mile 12 I struggled pretty good and got passed by quite a few people. It was also during this stretch that I promised myself I would give it everything I had in the last mile. Mile 13 turned out to be a pretty good mile and I had lots of roadkill, passing as many as 10 people and just giving it everything I had left. Pace for that mile ended up at 7:15 and average for the last little bit (according to garmin) was 5:50 but I would guess that is wrong, probably more like 6:30 but still a strong effort.
If this had been the same course as last year it would have been a 2-3 minute PR easily but as it stands it is about a minute slower than last year but with the course change it is a course PR. My Garmin read 13.32 at the finish and Megs was around 13.26 so I guess I really didn't do much of job of running the tangents. It's tough to run the tangents when the roads are open to traffic and you have to play frogger.
Meg had a nice run considering her ankle/achilies problems. She came in around 1:47. I ran back after my finish to see if I could see her and run in with her but she had already passed the place where I jumped back on the trail so I missed her at the finish.....ooops!!
All in all it was a really good day. It was great to see everyone before and after the race and share all your great experiences. | 