Race #232
8k #19
2024 Race #11
2024 8k #1
After last year’s smashing and unexpected success, along with the success of the Spinx half, I had a lot of confidence going into this race. I did attempt to temper those expectations a little thanks to the sinus infection/cold that I’ve had for a week and a half but am finally starting to get over.
My coach prescribed half marathon pace for this race which I think is somewhere around 8-8:10. I really wanted sub 8 miles again though so I made that my goal.
Mom and I warmed up with a couple really easy miles before queueing up. I did not think that I had started too far back but once we got going, I quickly found out.
I found that first portion of mile 1 the most frustrating since I had to expend so much mental energy figuring out how to get through the congestion to a point where I could run the pace I wanted.
Even though that took far longer than I wanted, before the first half mile I had broken through most of the congestion and enjoyed the steep downhill, letting myself indulge in the much faster pace. Thus, even with the ridiculous starting congestion, mile 1 ended up being my fastest mile.
Mile 1 – 7:29
Once we finished the descent, we entered Cleveland Park near the Zoo on one of the spurs of the Swamp Rabbit Trail. The course flattens out at this point with the prospect of uphills soon on the horizon.
I felt good with the pace and prepared for the uphill because as I wrote in last year’s entry, what goes down, must come up.
That uphill starts a little after the halfway point of the second mile. Instead of keeping the course on the trail, we divert to the road beside it which has a lower but logner incline before rejoining the trail and continuing the gradual uphill beside the Governor’s School and up out of Falls Park.
With this kind of terrain, I know that I will have positive splits for the three miles and negative for the last two, if I run the race right.
Mile 2 – 7:53
The steady uphill portion ends a little after halfway through the third mile. I still felt good but had the intuition that my pace was not quite as strong as last year. This intuition proved corret when I saw my mile 3 split.
Mile 3 – 8:06
I wasn’t that much slower (approximately 7 seconds) than my 2023 mile 3 split but it confirmed that I likely would not surpass last year’s pace.
The fourth mile led ups back downhill a bit and back onto the Swamp Rabbit Trail, giving me a chance to start to pick up the pace. My lingering cough had other ideas.
As we approached The Commons where I knew we would start to turn around and come back, I felt the need to cough, not the “I have a little tickle” kind of cough but the kind where you need it to be productive and if it isn’t you can feel it in the back of your throat every time you breathe. I tried for over a quarter mile to cough to clear my throat but that feeling just would not go away. Thus, I moved over to the side, paused, leaned over, got in a good, productive cough, and got going again. Frustrating for sure but not race ending.
Mile 4 – 8:02 (without the cough break this would have come in under 8 minute pace)
Now came the final mile.
Thanks to running so often downtown on my own and in races, I knew that we would have several rollers in the final mile, especially the one right before the final turn as we come up alongside the Peace Center. I felt prepared and capable, continuing to push. I did “goof” just a little when it came to the final turn and did not start my closing sprint soon enough. I still had plenty in the tank and probably could have brought myself in under 39 minutes.
Mile 5 – 7:58
Overall – 39:04
I finished feeling so good and not drained at all. I felt like I could have put even more out there even though I can’t think of a point where I did not give full effort.
Mom finished a few minutes later looking like a total rockstar in her final sprint leading a group of guys right behind her.
Next up – it’s marathon time!
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