I lined up in the front row and happened to look over to my right to see some guy totally decked out in Zoot Ultra Team apparel...it was Dana!! I think he was as shocked as I was.
We started the race and everyone took off super fast. The 5k runners had started with us so it was hard to know who was running what distance. I looked down at my Garmin and noticed that I was averaging 5:38 min/mile pace (yikes!). This was a bit fast as my goal was to run between 6:30-6:45 min/miles. I backed it off some and reminded myself that some of these people were running the 5k. After the 5k runners turned off I could see that there was only 1 woman ahead of me. She was pretty far out there and when we hit the first mile marker I noticed that I had run a 6:12 minute mile. I decided to let her go and run my own race. I figured that I would settle into my pace and just see what happened with her. I then ran the next 3-4 miles pretty consistently at 6:25-6:30 min/mile pace, but started to get a slight side stitch. Therefore, I backed it off a bit and ran 6:30-6:35 min/mile pace, which eased the stitch.
Around mile 7 there was a slight out and back section. I was able to see the lead men come around the corner (their mile 9ish) and noticed that Dana was in 1st place! He was running super fast, but had a group of 3 college runners only about 10-15 feet behind him. I gave him a Zoot wave and encouraged him on. (Matt later said that Dana got eaten up by the pack around mile 10, but he held on for 3rd and was only 7 seconds behind the other guys). I held this pace until about mile 10-11 and then I started to fade a bit, running around 6:47 min/mile pace. I was able to run the last mile in 6:39, and finished with a PR of 1:26.
I was pleased with the race and ended up placing 2nd OA. It was a great way to kick off the season.
No comments:
Post a Comment