Haven't written in a while--sorry about that. I needed some time to not be hard-core about running (or at least as hard-core as I ever am). I did Derry again (a month ago already!), boldly leaving my garmin behind and setting out to "run the race by feel". I ran a solid half marathon (<85), and was at that point probably in the top 10--but then it all came apart. One of my faster and more dramatic bonks--going from strong and confident to stumbling jog in under 2 minutes. This got me in the mindset of writing up a post on bonking made up of my lamentably sizable sample set, but...I'm still dilly-dallying about that. Anyway, here's a pic from early in Derry, when things were still going well:
So, on to today's race. I started feeling the motivation again about two weeks ago, and came into the race with at least one solid track day to my name (4x 2k intervals @ 6 minute pace). Also, with the taste of humble pie in my mouth, I brought along my garmin. This time the plan was to keep it between 6:04-6:08 in the first 8 miles, then actually accelerate and run the last 2 flat miles < 6. And hey! It worked. I even passed somebody in the last mile, dropping my pace to 5:51 for the last segment with the aid of my finishing kick. Funny how I can't remember any long race where I regret going out too slowly.
Results:
Old Fashioned 10M
place: 15/576
distance: 10M
time: 1:00:55
pace: 6:06
