AM: 20k road race, 1:07:56, 2nd place, 17+ miles
This was one of the races I'd been gearing up for all season. I'd never raced the storied Penn Relays, and this event was probably the closest I was going to get. The team winners win a Penn Relays "wheel," and the individual winners get the coveted Penn Relays watch. And, damn it, I wanted to leave Philly with a wheel and a watch.
After staying with Samy and his folks the night before, Valerie and I drove to Franklin Field, one of the most historic stadiums this country has, with the race finishing with the last 300m on the track. As a side note, though I've visited Philadelphia a few times now, Ben Franklin is to Philadelphia like Robert E. Lee is to Virginia, and Peachtrees are in Atlanta...he's a popular guy who's likeness and name is practically everywhere.
At the starting line, I looked down and saw that my number was pinned successfully to my singlet, which was a small victory right there given my last race. Patrick Murphy and Patrick Hughes lined up with me and guaged the competition on the line. One runner was a apparently an old nemesis/rival of Murphy at PSU.
The course was out-and-back along much of the same course as the Philadelphia Distance Run.
As the gun went off, one guy, LaSalle grad Joe, shot out like a rocket. Murphy, Murphy's old rival, and I took our time over the first gradual uphill mile to get back up to him. This race was followed by a 5k over the same course, so when we got to the turnaround point for that race at 1.5 miles, a possibly stoned Penn student erroneously told us to turn around at the cone. After a few seconds of confusion and running the wrong direction, Murphy, a grizzled veteran of this race, told us we were running the wrong way.
By mile 2, I was only running with the LaSalle grad Joe, and we were well under my planned 5:20-5:25 pace, and we would continue to be until we reached the bridge. Little did I know that I'd probably raced Joe before at Maryland in cross country, because we raced LaSalle a lot, but I probably didn't recognize him because, following some post-race research, he would have spent the majority of the time in said races nowhere near me (and not in a good way). This guy was strong, and obviously not going anywhere, but beating him was also my only shot at winning this thing, even if on paper he was probably better than me.
Around mile 5, it became more of a struggle to hold pace, and I figured that one of us was going to break soon. Unfortunately, that meant it was me. I lost most of my ground in in the next couple of miles going back and forth across the same bridge that we cross during the Philly Distance Run. I tried to close the gap and reel him back in, but the distance wasn't decreasing.
Because of a fast first few miles, the last 5k hurt like hell and included mile 11, which was the only real section of the course that could be labeled "slow" with a sort of uphill switchback going back toward Penn's campus. I deliberately didn't look at this mile split, put my head down, and tried to fight through what was now a sea of lactic acid in my legs.
The cool part of the race was that it finished in Franklin Field with 300m around the track to the finish line, which is about 300m more than I've ever raced there. I still barely hit my goal of 1:06-1:07, but I can definitely say I gave it my best effort out there today, only to come up a little more than 100 meters short of a win.
Much like my last race in Philadelphia in September, I went out too quickly and struggled in the final miles. But unlike that day, I actually had a reason to go out quickly. I was trying to win. I feel like I could have definitely run faster out there today had I gone for even splits, but this was a race, not a time trial. This race was also unquestionably better for me than that last race.
The highlight of the day was that Murphy, Hughes and I still won the team title and the coveted Penn Relays wheel. This part made the trip worth it, so I at least got to go home from Philly with one of two goals accomplished.
Splits: 5:12, 5:16 (long mile with wrong turn), 5:15, 5:22, 5:27, 5:32, 5:31, 5:26, 5:35, 5:36, 5:49, 9:43 (1.4+ miles)
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