Race Report: Tortoise and Hare 10K race.
I had originally had high hopes for this race, but after Friday's fun, it was going to be a bit of a battle to reach my goals for today. How did it go?
The weather was definitely late fall weather, 40 degrees and cloudy, with rain in the area, but no rain fell during the race. It was the same weather that I had when I ran the race last back in '03.
Warmups were really uneventful. I didn't feel particularly bad pre-race, in fact, I felt pretty damn good. Given that, I didn't really change any plans for the race proper, I still felt I had a shot at 41:00 or lower.
The race started, and I felt pretty good through the first two miles, putting in a couple of 6:30 miles, which was pretty much on pace. However, as the course started going through the slight uphill on the third mile, I started having real issues with maintaining my pace. I stuck with my nearest competitor for a bit, trying to see if I could get things jumpstarted, but the tank was just empty. After that, it was all about maintaining what pace I could. Every time I tried to pick it up, I just couldn't maintain the pace. It was so frustrating, I was just out of any energy to keep up the pace, all the way to the finish. Unlike most of the other races I've run this year, where I've been able to work through these issues, I just couldn't get there. The last three miles were clustered just around 7:00 pace, and that was that. It was so bad, I couldn't challenge anyone who was trying to pass me. It was such a different race than the one I ran in August (where I ripped off a 6:00 mile on mile three).
But, I finished, even if I didn't finish strong. I was worried going in that maybe my pace has slowed because of decreased mileage since the Marathon, which is definitely possible, but I think today's performance is more related to my body recovering from the vaccination that I had from the Dog bite on Friday, rather than anything else.
One more race this fall (a 5K in Massachusetts on Thanksgiving day), and then it's time for a winter training program to prepare for the spring.
Executive summary:
time: 42:23
splits: 6:30-6:32-6:50-7:03-6:59-7:06
place: 56/387
ag place: 8/21
The weather was definitely late fall weather, 40 degrees and cloudy, with rain in the area, but no rain fell during the race. It was the same weather that I had when I ran the race last back in '03.
Warmups were really uneventful. I didn't feel particularly bad pre-race, in fact, I felt pretty damn good. Given that, I didn't really change any plans for the race proper, I still felt I had a shot at 41:00 or lower.
The race started, and I felt pretty good through the first two miles, putting in a couple of 6:30 miles, which was pretty much on pace. However, as the course started going through the slight uphill on the third mile, I started having real issues with maintaining my pace. I stuck with my nearest competitor for a bit, trying to see if I could get things jumpstarted, but the tank was just empty. After that, it was all about maintaining what pace I could. Every time I tried to pick it up, I just couldn't maintain the pace. It was so frustrating, I was just out of any energy to keep up the pace, all the way to the finish. Unlike most of the other races I've run this year, where I've been able to work through these issues, I just couldn't get there. The last three miles were clustered just around 7:00 pace, and that was that. It was so bad, I couldn't challenge anyone who was trying to pass me. It was such a different race than the one I ran in August (where I ripped off a 6:00 mile on mile three).
But, I finished, even if I didn't finish strong. I was worried going in that maybe my pace has slowed because of decreased mileage since the Marathon, which is definitely possible, but I think today's performance is more related to my body recovering from the vaccination that I had from the Dog bite on Friday, rather than anything else.
One more race this fall (a 5K in Massachusetts on Thanksgiving day), and then it's time for a winter training program to prepare for the spring.
Executive summary:
time: 42:23
splits: 6:30-6:32-6:50-7:03-6:59-7:06
place: 56/387
ag place: 8/21