This was done on a wing and a prayer. I messed up my navicular (probably a
stress fracture) a in mid March and have been "jogging" and hiking a lot
since then. A lot of very slow running, hiking, and days off. I've got
tan lines from my ankle support. Lately I've been able to do some medium
effort on uphills, so that's something.
This was my first hard run in a couple of months. My plan was if my foot
hurt at all, I'd jog/walk it in. This was the first run in awhile without
my ankle support. ("Heealll! Throw those crutches away!)
Here's the course with elevation profile:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=990287
Per my atmospheric altimeter watch, the loop course has 1200' of climb. My
plan was to run it a few minutes faster than last year. Last year this race
was also my first fast run after an injury (chondromalacia, or painful
kneecaps). But this time my shoes were 9 oz each lighter, and I took a
couple of days off, largely to give my navicular bone some quality healing
time. I figured those two adjustments were good for 3 minutes, so I was
hoping for high 47 or low 48 minutes.
I lined up in the first row for the downhill start, since I'd planned for a
top 15 finish and downhills are my favorite. I'm 55, so I scanned out the
age-group competition. It was gonna be tough: Perry Forester (Olympic
trials in the marathon in '80) was looking lean and mean, and another very
skinny confident 55+ guy were right next to me up front.
I blasted down the hill, briefly holding 4th place, backed off as it
leveled, then let about 20 runners by over the sharp quarter-mile climb.
Fortunately, that was the last time I'd be passed in the race. I tried to
zero in on the perfect pace on the first mile (~425' straight up). I
settled in to a 2-step breathing rhythm with no leg burn, just a tad below
the pain point.
On hill races, my strategy is to run comfortably hard on the ups and hurt
the downs. Mile 1 came up. Last year I hit it in about 10:00. This time I
got a 9:22, and it felt easier. A good sign. I passed about 10 runners
through 2.5 miles, all on the uphills, which was surprising since I was
holding back a bit. On every little down I really picked up the effort.
At 2.5 I was alone. The folks in front of me were at least 30 seconds up,
and I'd put a cushion behind me. I ran solo for the rest of the race (up
until the last few yards!). At the turn around, I splurged and stopped a
couple seconds and gulped down some water, then set out for the mostly
downhill final 5k.
Fast downhills were what messed up my foot, so I was careful with every
step, and probably held back just a tad. If anyone was within striking
distance or was breathing down my neck I could have gone a bit faster, but I
was happy that I could run at what seemed a good pace without any foot pain.
At 6 miles I couldn't hear any footsteps, so I backed off a bit on the final
uphill (same thing I did last year when I got jumped at the finish and had
to go all out). About 50 feet from the line I picked it up a bit, and I'm
glad I did: as I crossed the line, a hard charging 30 something ran into me
from behind! I must suffer from race-deafness, hyper optimism, or some
other syndrome :-)
Anyway, I was a bit disappointed to miss 47 minutes, and had to settle for
48:07ish. But hey, that's 3 minutes faster than last year. I'm hopeful
that if I lose that 8 lbs * and get some solid training in (and stay
healthy!) that I can run a couple of minutes faster.
Splits:
Mile 1 9:22 (425' climb)
Mile 2 9:04 (350' climb)
Mile 3-4 14:55 (250' up and down)
Mile 5 7:24 (200' down and up)
Mile 6 5:48 (400' down)
..21 (or .33?) 7:05 pace (30' down and up)
Stats by memory: 14/~300 2nd in 55+ ( but faster than any 45-49!). Got a
very nice site-engraved medal, and a hot breakfast. A buddy said that for
swag, the race to do is the Pride 5 or 10k in West Hollywood, less than 200
runners and lots of prizes. Who knows, maybe I'll run into TBR there?
-- Dan
* Any similarity to the 4kg that Steve Common is cursed with is purely
coincidental.