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First 10k of the season!

September 22, 2019 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
Ran the Lone Gull 10k this morning with my running club and didn't do too bad. Started off just behind the BAA coach Mike McGrane, figuring that while he's usually slower than me, I'm fairly out of shape and he probably knows what he's doing. I've never seen a non-GDS runner who's so diligent about running the tangents. Over the course of such as winding and curvy 10k, you could probably save about 10 seconds that way.

I felt good warming up though very aware that I was still pretty full from the excessive chow I'd had the night before with Rob Savistky at a local BBQ place. What turned out to a bigger issue once the race began, however, was yesterday's paddleboarding adventure. It looks like a pretty leisurely sport, but from the point of view of your quads, it's essentially a 2-hour balancing act.

We came through the first mile in 6:15 which was slower than I'd intended but already felt too fast. We'd been moving up pretty constantly though were apparently still around 210th place out of 600. Somewhere around the middle of the second mile, Mike jumped a gap to the pack ahead of us, and I decided to follow him but not stay with him, arriving in the back of the next pack around the time he reached the front of it. I reached mile 2 in 6:16--basically the same as mile 1--but was increasingly worried about being able to maintain it as I was breathing hard and my quads felt tired.

In mile 3 I neither tried to slow down nor speed up. I just played around the runners around me, letting certain people pass me but then going after others. There as a guy behind me who was coughing very loudly and thought to myself, I hope I can escape from him so I can stop listening to that sound. Then he caught me and said he was feeling really bad and I said, come on man, stay with me. As soon as I said that I regretted it, not because he was a competitor but because it occurred to me he might return the favor and force me to push myself on some future hill, and that sounded painful. No, wait a minute, I said to myself. That's thinking about it backward. You should want to do well, quit feeling sorry for yourself. Maybe you can't control how your legs feel midrace, but you can control your attitude and what you choose to think about. I started to think about Sarah Pillard's running log which I'd read last night and all those impressive workouts she's done this past 2 weeks, rather than feeling bad about myself. About Ana's first race yesterday also. And Zeke's 5k last spring. Before I knew it I was not only at the halfway point but I'd finished the third mile in 6:17, virtually the same pace as the first two.

The last three miles were hot, sunny, but optimistic. I continued to move up in the pack and keeping my spirits up. It was hard of course, and I often told myself I'd just let the pack carry me along and not try to push harder than I was already doing. But then I'd see someone who looked catchable and go after them. In the last mile, something strange happened. My legs took on a life of their own. They started running faster! I decided to tune out the rational, skeptical part of my brain that was asking whether or not this pace was really sustainable and just see where my legs too me. I passed a gone of people in the last 3/4 of a mile until I didn't see anyone I recognized from earlier in the race. As I entered the final 400m dash through a parking lot, I turned on the afterburners. Rather than worrying about how long that straightaway was or staring at a distant finish line, I told myself I was doing a final lap on the track in a workout: first I would be accelerating around the first curve, then holding my accumulated speed on the backstretch, then getting up on my toes on the last curve... with about 100m to go I spotted Coach Mike McGrane who I'd not seen since the second mile, and I set my sights on catching him before the finish. I ended up finishing 7 seconds ahead of him, so I must have been going blazing fast Turns out my final 400m was 64, which is crazy fast! I don't think I've ever done that on a track in over a year. Probably was 33 and then 31 or maybe even 34 and then 30.

Ended up averaging a 6:15 pace, same as my first mile! Looking back, I definitely could have pushed harder in miles 3-5 given that I had so much left on the last 3/4 of a mile, but I'm glad I kept my spirits up. I didn't expect my quads to start feeling better (or at least for the fatigues to fade away from my attention) but from now on I'm gonna tell myself that any pain or soreness at the start of a race may in time go away. I'm super excited to see what I can do in my next race!

Afterward, lots of cookies.