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GW Parkway Classic 10 Miler

April 22, 2018 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: nice conditions, 40s up to low 50s maybe?

Comments:
Awoke at 5:00am and picked up Charlie Ban and Jennie Medvene-Collins on my way to Alexandria. Met up with Mark Berenson and boarded the bus to Mt. Vernon at 6am. Once there, we used the bathrooms, chatted, and I took a little 2 minute nap on the grass. Warm up was probably more rushed than it should have been, but it was enough and matched my non-committal mood. I manged half a mile of jogging, a few fundamental drills, leg swings, and two striders. Not setting a very good example for real runners who may be reading this, but I'm not really in racing mode and wanted to treat this as a hard ten mile run rather than the culmination of a season. (I seem to have been successful in my intention not to take this too seriously, but to have worked hard in the moment.) It was nice to see Rob Wolfe at the start line and he was beside me for a little over the first mile before I encouraged him to move on ahead. Berenson got out hard, and I tried not to either push or hold back on the first half mile of downhill. Honestly, the race felt long and a bit tedious. I never really got to the point of hurting and it is nice to know I'm already most of the way through April and still in good enough shape to do this. Still, I don't feel I've done the speed work to make anything faster than 6:30 pace feel easy on my legs. Even jsut back in March when I raced the 10km, I'd had a few "track workouts" and the legs could move more quickly. Of course, a ten miler isn't really about leg speed, and I was pleased that I stayed as even as I did after the first two miles got my feet aching and my legs fatigued. There was a lot of inner dialogue, mostly positive, and focused on running within myself, not panicking, staying in the moment. I found pleasure in helping the #4 woman overtake the #3 and her presence helped me up the final hill into Alexandria. There wasn't much hunger to be competitive with those around me. Mostly, I was people watching them and with the except in of a strong half mile with two guys around mile 6, I never really latched on to anyone with any purpose. In the last mile I was certainly working hard and things got a bit blurry in the final kick, but I didn't have any hunger to catch anyone as it was the 46 year old #3 woman just ahead. As Mark (sub 60 despite a hamstring strain that presented itself at mile 4) and I jogged back to cheer in Jenny (67 despite not doing any hard training for this race) my legs were already lead. Feet have been sore for the past 24 hours after the race and I'm not ready to move fast yet. Still, a good experience. Ended up 2nd in the 45-49 year age group (Rob won it in about 61:00) and I'm pleased to have kept it sub 6:30 on average. Very slow 7 minute cool down with Mark and back to bag drop collection and car.
splits:
6:00
6:17
6:29 (3 miles in 18:47)
6:33
6:28 (halfway mark was 31:49, so second half was 32:12 (only 23 second positive split...mostly the downhill first mile)
6:24 (6 miles in 38:14)
6:29
6:38
6:29
6:10
total time: 1:04:2 (64:01 according to my watch as I wasn't on the line.)

The variation in mile splits after #2 was mostly due to the quantity of rolling hills in each mile.