Well, it's 10:30pm and although my race was done by 10:00am, I haven't stopped running until now! Andrea's out of town and I was left reverse-bacheloring it. Two meals, one load of dishes, a violin lesson, 4 or so loads of laundry, ice cream, and a one-point last second nail-biter of a victory basketball game later and I'm finallly ready to catch my breath and assess.
What an awesome race! The weather was upper 20s but little to no wind, and sunny. Really quite nice for a long race once you got going. The field was about 30 or 40 strong, consistingly mainly of members of the Frederick Steeplechasers. This was my first time running it, and several people said that they though it was their largest turnout ever. It was very informal and inexpensive: no shirts, no bibs, no money (for Steeps members). And no watches. This was a predict your finish time race, with top prize going to whoever came closest to the time they predicted.
The course was reputed to be very hilly and from the starting line that's exactly how it looked. About 50 feet from the start line was the first, very steep (although brief), hill. Tyring to account for some hills, I optimistically predicted a time of 82:15 which would have been just under an 8:20 pace/mile.
To put it simply, this was not my day. My right calf has been nagging me with tightness for a couple of weeks, especially after last weekend's long run, and today it quickly got worse. It didn't help that the first 3 miles were nothing but incessant, up-and-down, grueling hills. And it didn't help that I actually went out fast. Yeah, dumb a$$ second weekend in a row. After a mile I was in about 12th place and running well. After about 3 miles my calf was hurting significantly and the unrelenting hills were starting to really concern me. Were all 10 miles going to be like this? The calf gradually slowed me down because to run faster meant pushing off more off the right foot and that's what hurt. During the course of the next 7 miles I had the wonderful opportunity to meet most of the runners in the race, as one-by-one they each passed me by! I just kept gimping along though, and mentally adjusted my goal to finish without worsening things.
The middle miles of the race were not all that hilly, thankfully! But around miles 6 and 7 they got pretty nasty again and stayed that way til the end. I managed to steadily make my way to the finish, and gritted my teeth for that last steep downhill at the end while I tried to keep my legs under control.
But here's the kicker: I PR'd! Despite all the hills and a bum leg, I was maybe a second or two faster than the '06 ATM. Finish was about 1:29:55. Just under a 9-minute pace. Maybe that doesn't say much for my old PR, but I had considered myself in decent shape when I ran it. I think what this race tells me is that I'm in WAY better shape now than in '06. Very encouraging, that!
The course was beautifull! A lot of it was on country roads and there was almost no traffic to be concerned with. On another day I would have found the hills to be a fun challenge. After the race, there was plenty of food brought in by other runners. Plenty of baked goods, chili, soup, oranges, cookies, etc. Tons left over!
I'll be taking the next few days or so off. I want my leg fully healed, and I have no need to push the training at the moment.
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