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Somerset Back To School Classic 8km

October 25, 2015 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: high 50s, occasional light drizzle, grey

Comments:
Jogged from home to the school to get race numbers and t-shirts and jogged back. (15 minutes) Drove Lew and the girls over to Wisc Ave parking lot. walked/jogged to the line and did three striders and a few but kicks/leg swings. A pretty unfocused warm up as I was distracted by family and the usual crowd of regulars.

Race went off at 9:00a, and I found myself in about fifth at the bottom of the firs hill 400m in. Ran a few steps off of A 29 year old Goat named Scott Sargrad whom I'd met when he was first out of college and running crazy fast. I told him, "Go do your thing," and he responded, "This is my thing." I assumed he was being modest and that I'd gone out too hard, but apparently he it was his thing. The mile was probably accurate at 5:54. The two mile wasn't likely accurate at 5:34 (although it is halfway downhill on Willard Ave.) I felt like I was not working very hard, but I had no motivation to work harder, until I caught a glimpse of 52 year-old Paul Peterson 20 yards back as we turned onto River Road. Without much effort, I accelerated and passed Scott from 8 meters back and was probably 8 meters ahead by the turn onto Little Falls. From there, I was much more focused and decided that a race should not be run "comfortable." I was aware of footsteps at times and aware of panicky feelings every time I thought of how far I still had to go.

I tried to improve my form and focus on the moment at each phase of the race. There was not three mile marker and the four mile marker had a guy yelling 24:20 even though my watch said 23:58. I refused to look over my shoulder and tried to bear down on the final 1.5 miles convincing myself that with focus here, I could go sub 30. (Being over thirty for the first time in an 8km was my greatest fear going into today, but I'd assumed it would happen.) I was very aggressive, painfully so, down Wisconsin from the firehouse to Dorsett and pushed with good form over the last 400m toward the finish line. Glad to have finished in 29:35 and ended up with 4th place. The winner was in my age group, and Chad Young the BCC coach was second.

Glutes were wasted afterwards, and I'm pretty pleased, with the sub 6:00 (5:58) average mile pace. Anna must have run sub 13 in the 2km with Lew at 14:06 and Leah right ahead of her. A nice family event. Jogged a little less than a mile for cooldown, some of that with Anna.