Mixed emotions about this race. Happy with my BQ time and my 35 min PR but slightly disappointed about not reaching my 'A' goal.
Got a ride up to the start with John, James, Brayden, John's sister, and his brother. Thanks to his dad for getting up early to drive us up and talk some football to get my mind off of running(my mental game was shaky). We got up there about 6 and had time to hit the bathrooms and get ready for the run. Brayden and I tried to push our way as close to the chute as possible which put us at the same spot as the 3:25 pacer.
The race started and we kept weaving in and out of people trying to find some clear space where we could run our planned pace for the first several miles. Turns out that this weaving helped slow us down to exactly where we wanted to be for the first mile (7:06). We then wanted to run mile two about the same and just get into a good groove and slowly drop our pace before dropping into Veyo. The next mile was a bit quicker than we wanted it to be but it didn't feel like too much effort at all. Splits 2-7 (6:55, 6:47, 6:45, 6:50, 6:39, 6:44). I felt good about this and we hit our 10k mark right at our goal of 41-42 min.
The climb up Veyo flew by and it was nice to see Craig Romrell going up about half way. Brayden had sort of hung back about 20 meters or so during the mile leading up to Veyo and most of the way up it. Split for Veyo was (7:33) which was about where I wanted to be, but could have probably gone a bit slower here. I did lose my breathing hear a tad but was able to regain it on the down right after. The next several miles of climbing through Dammeron were long and hot. I felt like I was not drinking enough and decided to make an extra effort to get more fluids down and dump water on my head even if it slowed me down a few seconds. This seemed to help and the miles were just a bit slower than I had expected but we had banked some time earlier in the race. Splits for miles 9-13 (7:16, 7:06, 7:15, 7:02, 6:50). We hit the half way point right where we wanted to be at 1:31-1:32, and hoped to have a negative split by a few minutes.
By this point I was really looking forward to more downhill miles. The next several miles flew by. Splits for miles 14-18 (6:51, 6:30, 6:38, 6:42, 6:50). I felt like I should have pushed these a bit more as I usually have a better downhill kick than this. Brayden started pulling away from me right before the last hill. I kept him in sight for the next couple of miles but the gap was widening and I was starting to feel my legs getting really heavy. Miles 19 and 20 were a (7:16, and 7:06). My legs and hips were tightening up a bit and my turnover was slow and I felt like I was pushing pretty hard. I had some slow splits here and my mental game starting getting me down a bit. Miles 21-24 (6:45, 7:09, 7:17, 6:54)
At this point heading down Diagonal street I could hear the spectators saying, "there is the 3:05 pacer!" Which meant he was close and I was not to stoked to hear that. I knew that if he caught me I would likely not have the legs or mental energy to push past him to the finish. Turning off of Diagonal and getting some downhill towards St George Blvd I tried to push but didn't have a lot of legs left. Ended the race with splits of (7:10, 7:11, 1:38).
Came in at 3:02:47. I am happy to have qualified for Boston and to have been under the 3:05. I am happy to say I put it all out there and didn't leave anything in the tank.
| 