Wow! It’s hard to find the words to describe how good it feels to just utterly crush a tough course like that. I’m having a hard time sitting down to write this!
I met my group about an hour before the start for warm-ups. Gilbert was running the race, so he warmed up with us. It’s always amazing when he does that because he leads us out for a super-slow jog. It’s much slower than we would go on our own, and yet, there must be something to it because he can absolutely fly. We ran out onto the course for a while before turning around and heading back. I measured 1.53 miles at a whopping 12:07 pace. When we got back to the parking lot, we did the full suite of drills. Towards the end of the drills, I tried to shed my warmer clothing layer, but Gilbert caught me and said it was important to leave that on until later so I would feel really cool at the start. We did a few short stretches, and then it was time to start moving in the direction of the starting line. On my way to the start, I saw one of the guys from the training group who hadn’t been at the warm-up, and he asked me how fast I was going to go since he was looking for a pacing partner. Without thinking, I told him. (You’re not supposed to do that!) Thus, I had to deliver after that (under 7 minutes/mile average)!
By the time I got there, the corral was pretty crowded, but I made my way closer to the front where several of the others were lined up. They had the usual “thank you all for coming” and the Anthem, and then it was time to go. The horn sounded, and I went. I was up pretty far, but it was still very crowded for the first mile or so. I caught up to a couple of friends that I hadn’t been able to find in the starting area, and we all wished each other well. I started talking to one of my friends, and when we were at about a mile and a half, I noticed I was going faster than planned, so I had to let him go. (That was mental victory number one.)
I knew the hard part was still coming, so I made sure to pace myself in the first few (fairly flat) miles. I wasn’t really watching my heart rate, but I was making sure it felt pretty easy. In the third mile, I caught myself thinking “if I have energy left at the end, I’ll speed up”. I had to quickly correct that. When I reach the last couple miles and still have plenty of energy, then I’ll speed up. (That was mental victory number two.)
Mile 1: 7:01
Mile 2: 6:37
Mile 3: 6:45
In mile 4, it started to get hilly. We went down, and then back up. I was careful to stay in control and not rush too fast down. Then the steep downhill signaled the approach of the monster. On the way down they have little signs, kind of like a roller-coaster in reverse, talking about how this is going to be painful but they’ll make up for it by giving you cookies at the end. (This race benefits the Girl Scouts.) One of the guys in the group who wasn’t racing was on his bike riding around cheering for us today. I had passed him a couple times already, but I had a nice chuckle as I saw him fly down the hill on Spicewood Springs to get in position to cheer us on as we came up the ridiculous hill on Scotland Well. I was thinking he had better put on the breaks or he’d have a tough time making the turn! I really slowed down on the climb and actually used it as a little recovery period, as much as that is possible. It was still hard work going up the steep part of the hill, but I used the more gradual second half of the hill as a real recovery section. I wanted to be sure I had energy for the rest. I was still in recovery mode when I stepped on the half-way timing mat, which was about half-way down a gentle downhill in the middle of the chaos.
Mile 4: 6:38
Mile 5: 7:43
Half-way split: 34:44
Just after half-way, we had another sharp right turn to start yet another climb. This one wasn’t nearly as long, but it was nice and steep. I attacked this one a little more, but I still had to be careful because it wasn’t the last. After that, we had the steepest downhill of the course (I think, anyway), and there it was pretty hard to stay in control. After winding around a few more turns, I came upon the last hill. This one starts gradually, but it’s got a really steep part right at the end. I was so happy when I got out of the hills and saw the mile seven marker. I was happier when I saw the clock and realized that I had enough time and energy left to hit my goal for the run. (That was mental victory number three.)
Mile 6: 6:58
Mile 7: 7:17
In mile eight, I just put myself on cruise control. I was feeling good, and I knew I would hit my time. I remembered last year when I was just worn out by this time and getting passed left and right. During mile nine, I got caught by someone from my training group, and we pushed a little harder the rest of the way. I was tired at the end, but I still had enough speed left for a pretty good kick. For those last couple miles I was just thinking about keeping my turnover high and running as fast as my legs would carry me. I saw Gilbert (who had cruised to an easy victory about 15 minutes before I got there) within a half mile of the finish, and he yelled something to me about relaxing my shoulders as I went by.
Mile 8: 7:00
Mile 9: 6:39
Mile 10: 6:35
Total: 69:13 (6:55 pace)
That felt great! I hung around by the finish chute for a while to see some of the others come in, and when enough of a crew had gathered, we took off for an easy cool-down run around the parking lot. I had some food, did a couple stretches, and announced I was off to the gym to flush everything out.
Great job! That was very fast – especially on such a tough course.