Rock and Roll Providence Recap - 8/19/12

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