Feb. 16 - GW 10k Classic

AM: GW Birthday 10k, 32:32 (PR), 10th place, 12 miles total

This morning was the first race in a string of races for me getting prepared for Boston on April 21. Since this race was really just to shake some of the competitive cobwebs out, I'm pretty pleased that I was able to run a PR.

I headed down to Alexandria, VA and met up with a bunch of Georgetown Running Co folks. Our rival running store team, Pacers, also brought a fleet of runners. Thank god a street fight didn't break out, as they grossly outnumbered us. It seemed like a lot of guys came out of winter hibernation and wake up at this 10k.

Before the race, I could still feel my hamstring, though it wasn't as tight as it was Thursday and Friday. It irritated the most when I stopped and started, so I was a little worried while doing some pre-race strides. But by the time we ran over the bridge in the first 400m, I totally forgot about it.

After the bridge, the course was flat through 2 miles when it went into a park. There, the course slowed a little because of a ton of tiny turns, though I thought I did a decent job of trying to swing wide and accelerate through them. The last two miles were the same as the first two miles, hitting us with the bridge at the 6-mile mark, making for a fast final quarter mile.

The race went out a lot slower than I thought. I tucked into the back of the lead pack, feeling that, given the competition, the pace went out fairly slow. Seeing some of the guys I knew at the starting line, I expected to have my doors blown off from the get-go.

At the mile, I was still in the pack with training partner Jake Klim, who was at the front, and what seemed like an army of Pacers jerseys. Shortly thereafter, the pack started to string out. GRC teammate Allen Carr passed me around 2 miles, as did a couple of Pacers (Bert and Baillie). But by then everyone started to settle in, so I tried to move up as much as I could. I ended up repassing Allen, who I thought would be at the front but has been fighting a bunch of injuries, and trying to close the gap on Baille.

By the time we exited the park, I closed the gap by about 50%, but I had trouble making the final move to go. The last two miles were tough--the guys I could see were all separated by 10-15 seconds, trying to close the respective gaps, but facing a strong headwind, this proved difficult. I could see Bert, Klim, and Baillie just ahead, but the gaps weren't closing or widening at all. Worried that I was fading, I managed to compose myself around 4.5 miles, but I lacked that final gear to really kick it in the last 2,000m of the race. This especially showed on the incline of the bridge, when I lost a lot of concentration, making my last mile the slowest, unfortunately.

What this race definitely showed is that I still have some more hill work left to do if the incline of the bridge could throw me off. I'm concerned, too, that knowing I was safely in PR territory, I may have unconsciously settled going up the bridge--that, of course, is no good at all.

I ended up in 10th place, but I was happy with a 25-second PR because this was the first "real" race of 2008 (apologies to the Shooting Starr 5-mile). I'm not sure what my 5k split was because I missed the 3-mile mark, but I would have run a PR for 5 miles if I'd stopped there (26:09). No one else I talked to hit their PRs today, so this wasn't exactly a "PR course," either. Granted, right after me, a lot of people made a wrong turn, adding an additional quarter mile to the race, so that definitely could have contributed to this, though it didn't sound like many of the guys in front of me ran PRs.

Splits: 5:04, 5:09, 10:39 (missed mile #3), 5:16, 5:24.



(Credit to fellow GRC'er Peter for the photo/graphic.)