Well I officially took zero pictures. About an hour before the race I decided to scrap the idea of taking a cell phone in my armband. I used that slot in the arm band for two gu instead because I forgot to bring my fuel belt. Anyways, to the start of the race! It was pretty comfortable weather wise (pretty lucky for an August race) I was assigned corral 1…which was a bit of a surprise, but as I got up to that corral it looked super crowded..so I started at the front of corral 2. The gun went off and elites started their run, then corral 1, and corral 2 was off I believe less than a minute after the official time started.
Mile 1: Mile 1 I was having a hard time getting into a rhythm. It didn’t help that I really had to resist the temptation of speeding off at the start with everyone else. I think the whole corral must have passed meJ I also believe that part of corral 3 may have passed me! At some point the 1:45 pace group guy passed me. My goal was to run an 8 minute mile in mile 1, so this was all distracting until I passed the mile 1 marker at 7:47…I still felt great, but I’m assuming a lot of these people that went out of the gate crazy paid for it later. Mile 1 was downhill though, so who knows.
Mile 2-3: While mile 1 was mostly downhill…mile 2 was up hill. Mile 3 I believe also had a slight gain. I started hearing some fairly heavy breathing for some people around me, but continued on a steady course mile (and took my first gu at mile 3) 2 : 8:01 and mile 3: 7:58
5K Split: 24:51
Mile 4-Mile 5: I knew based on the elevation map that there were some hills and that if I could get out of this feeling good I was a capable of turning it on for the final 8 miles. Mile 4 went as expected, but I had a slight panic at mile 5 with the 8:13 split Mile 4: 7:50 mile 5: 8:13.
Mile 6: I got back on track with a 7:58 and also started passing some people. Very flat portion of the course (my garmin started a 10 ft. loss in elevation and no gains).
10K Split: 49:51
Mile 7-8: Started feeling strong…and really started passing people (took another gu) and . Mile 7 -7:53 and mile 8 7:48
Mile 9: Is when I probably started getting “angry”…it’s not real anger just more of the fact I take it personally that anyone is in front of me. This happens every now and then, but I’ve had a hard time maintaining that throughout a race. So I just went with it. 7:40.
Mile 10: Mile 10 I cranked it up (as much as you can after 9 miles of running). It was mainly due to checking my pace band and realizing I was way behind my goals for this race. My thought process was “worst case scenario you can say you went for a PR and it didn’t happen” and I really didn’t want to have any regrets feeling like I had a little bit left in the tank after I finished. Mile 10 7:28
Mile 10 Split: 1:19:13
Mile 11: I knew I still had a lot of work to do and it would probably take 7:30s to have a chance for a PR. The chances of getting under 1:42 were pretty low and anything lower than that near impossible. When mile 11 buzzed on my garmin I didn’t look (yes I know who does that!). I didn’t want it to be a distraction. Now that I look back it was 7:35. My mantra was “you can do anything for 15 minutes” at this point. Meaning I knew I had about 15 minutes to the finish line it was going to hurt, but I wanted it.
Mile 12: 7:28, when I hit mile 12 there was no more trying to fake smile for the Rock and Roll cameramen. There was a long straight away and I think I may have closed my eyes a couple of times to just gut through this one. I had checked my cumulative time at mile 12 and knew the PR was in striking distance. It was also good because I kept passing people, which kept up the motivation.
Mile 13: Ouch ! 7:25. I wasn’t looking at the garmin I was just trying to keep going, but it hurt. I knew I was keeping the speed up, but had no idea how long I could hold on. As I rounded the turn I forgot the finish was uphill. Now in hind sight I would have completely laughed if I was spectator at my next couple of moments. I round the turn and see the uphill climb and actually literally said the f-word…probably fairly loud too (sorry spectators with kids), but I could also see the finish line. I actually had enough to make a sprint to the finish ran that last portion at a 5:57 pace.
Overall time 1:42:32
Conclusion: Set a new PR by 20 seconds and probably ran my best technical race. I was probably in better shape for DC, but by conserving energy early I had enough to make a push when needed( quick table of the splits from DC vs. Providence).
Providence
|
DC
| |
5 Km
|
24:51
|
23:48
|
10 Km
|
49:51
|
48:05
|
10 Mi
|
1:19:13
|
1:18:13
|
Finish
|
1:42:32
|
1:42:52
|
339 out of 3574
51 out of 229
262 out of 1382
