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Rock the Creek Relay

September 24, 2017 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: 70s, sun and shade, a bit of humidity

Comments:
Mustang ran 1st and 5th legs. Mark B ran 2nd and 6th legs. I ran third leg and Ethan Burns ran 4th leg. We enjoyed ourselves and it definitely felt like a low key race. I jogged a few minutes before first leg. Left calf was tight all during Saturday's meet and was equally tight Sunday morning, but not as terrible as it had been Friday and Thursday. In the 12 minutes before my leg, I jogged for a few minutes, did some drills and two 20 meter striders as Mark approached the line. This definitely helped loosen the calf significantly and the adrenaline of getting the slap bracelet baton mean that I didn't notice the calf for the first mile or so. The calf began to tighten around a mile in and while I was able to ignore it, I knew my stride wasn't great and any little uphill or downhill would bring on a fresh level of pain. Ultimately, other than throwing off my focus somewhat, the calf wasn't the reason I ran poorly. I do wonder if I was getting as good a push off of it as I would have if it were healthy. Clearly, running in slow groups and taking days off over the past three weeks has not set me up very well for a successful race. Writing this the next day, I can report that walking up and down stairs has been challenging. In fact, until I've used enough to loosen it up, it is hard to walk period. I limp and the leg from knee down to foot is significantly swollen. I am icing it and trying to do load work like the PT I spoke with post race told me to do.

As for the race, I was delighted to have 200 meters downhill to start my leg and as I settled onto the bike path (near the Rockville Pike intersection) and headed south, I felt quite good. I also knew I might not have the base I needed to hold pace, but I decided not to deliberately slow up as my fitness was a mystery in my mind. I began to see the half mile markers after I was about 1km into my leg. So, 4:03 into my leg I clicked my watch. The next few splits were:
2:53
3:00
6:41 (I missed the half mile split)
3:15
3:18
left the bike path soon after and finished along Jones Bridge Rd and Manor with a 7:19 split. Exchange zone was Chevy Chase Supermarket parking lot.

The splits tell the story. I just didn't have enough quality training over the past month and ran low on gas. the little uphills in the final two miles were getting ugly, especially the one out of the park to Jones Bridge where form was breaking down and pace suddenly lagged dramatically. I actually felt stronger on the next few rolling hills towards the exchange zone as if I'd just needed to wake myself up on that first hill. Surely, it was helpful to know there were downhills after the uphills and to know I was in the final mile. I was pleased with my power in teh closing blocks, but this was not the typical, well paced race i usually run and it was a reality check that I'd misjudged my fitness so profoundly. None the less, I enjoyed the race -both my leg along the old, familiar bike path -and the event as a whole with fellow hoppers.

Finally, we were the 2nd over team to finish with Jason Tripp's squad ahead of of by 2:30 or so. Jason ran my same leg in 30:02, he said. Ethan ran my northbound leg in about 31:00.