DUNWOODY, Ga. -- I'd heard of the Tartan Trot from a fellow geocacher and thought it might be a great way to get my feet wet in advance of the Feb. 28 Charles Harris 10K.
The $25 entry fee also helped sway me. For whatever reason, I also thought this course would be relatively flat and would be a shoo-in to try to break my PR of 46:29 that I set in the Charles Harris race in 2011.
I also wanted to test my clothing choices for the next race. It was somewhere between 33 degrees and 36 degrees at race start and I decided to wear shorts and two long-sleeved technical T-shirts. This actually worked out pretty well, although next time I will go with previous blog posts and wear a long -and a short-sleeved technical shirt.
At the start, the 5K race also joins the 10K for a little more than the first mile, so it was hard to tell how many people were at the front of the pack. I decided to go for a steady 7:20/mile pace that would definitely put me on pace for a PR.
I kept my pace, even up the first large hill of 110' elevation rise right at Mile 2, through the third mile of the race. But somewhere around Mile 3.5 the second hill came and at a 128' elevation rise it was one of the largest elevation changes I've seen in a while. Two runners were walking up it (although they resumed running near the crest and passed me) -- and it really took me out of the race. My pace dipped as slow as 9:35/mile before I got to the top of it.
And it affected the rest of my running -- I ran 8:07, 8:02 and 8:02 mile splits the rest of the way. I got passed by two more runners, a guy who looked like he was in his 40's and a woman of about the same age (who ultimately I finished the race four seconds behind and was the female Masters winner).
Near the end of the race I saw one of the guys who was walking up the hill and felt like I would be looking at fourth place for my age group. But on the final turn he was not accelerating and I decided to put everything into it, including an experimental kick on a descending turn basically throwing my entire weight through my calves, to get me to the finish line in 47:48. (The time qualifies me for Group A of the Peachtree Road Race, although I will probably submit my 21:18 5K time from the Vinings Downhill 5K last year).
I stuck around for the awards, since last year I knew 2nd and 3rd place in my age group ran 47-something to place. I was relieved when I saw the second guy (not the one I passed) who was walking up the steep hill get an award in a different age group. My 3rd place award is the first time I've received an age group award for a 10K race since the Salmon Creek (Washington) 10K I ran in 1999.
They had been awarding cakes/pies of choice for age group winners and overall winners. But at the end of the awards they had too many left over, so they opened it up for award winners -- and that's how I won a cake!
This was a great community race. I think next time I will opt to run in the 5K since the 1-2 combo of hills was brutal. It gives me a lot of data on what I need to work on and what I can continue doing leading up to the four 10Ks I'm currently signed up for through the Peachtree Road Race.
Time: 8:30 a.m.
Temp: 33-36 degrees
Gear: Technical T-shirt, long x2 (Locomotive Half 2010, Williams Walk 5K), shorts, Brooks Pure Connect 3.
No comments:
Post a Comment