Not much to report, actually, about the race.
It went sort of like this................
Usual bizarre pre-race ritual. Woke up at 5:00am and watched COOL HAND LUKE(classic Paul Newman flick) and ate waffles with banna slices. Left the house at 7ish and ran to the race(5 miles). Got to the race at 7:45 and mozied on to the start line. Usual list of regulars were milling about. Race started and I ran my own race as I started out real slow and got stronger as the run went on. Two weeks after the Marine Corps I feel fine and am continuing to regain confidence in my hamstring(takes forever to heal). Anyway, the race kind of just went by. Most memorable moment was talking to Ryan Deak about his high-school exploits. After the race did an easy 4 or 5 mile cool-down. Not sure how long. Anyway, the grand total of miles for the day was approximatley 15 with 6.2 of it being a tempo.
Main focus is on some Spring marathon.
Legs finally feel really good, though. No limping or muscle problems that make me twinge, just tired. It has taken nearly one year for this butt/hamstring issue to die off.
Everyone else ran great. Nice to see Ben lacing em up.
Nice croud support from everyone. Dave O', I want your bike, where did you get it?
later, M
2 comments:
"Sometimes nothing can be a real cool hand"
Here is my "race report"...some of you might have rec'd this via email...
The Veteran's Day 10k is held on flat/fast Haines Pt in Washington DC. It's an upside out-and-back "J-shaped" course. The weather was about 40 degs and no wind - perfect conditions for running. I was sorta gearing up for this race and had done three 5ks in the past 6 weeks. My goal was to break 32, but more importantly race competitively against the competition.
The gun went off and I got a good start. Team member Allen Carr quickly bolted to the front. A giant pack of Ethiopians trailed...me and a number of other nestled in behind. The Ethiopians and Carr soon moved into a lead tier, while me and about 6 others formed the chase pack. I sat on the right side of the chase pack, while my other teammate Jason Dwyer tucked in behind me. To my left was my friendly nemesis Bert Rodriguez and behind him Bert's teammate Brian Baillie. Ryan Mammen was somewhere tucked behind all of us. We went though the mile in 4:57. Dwyer then pulled up and took the lead. He began to move after the lead pack but then scaled it back. After about a mile two stragglers were clinging to the back of the lead pack. We all worked together and began to move after the fodder. Soon, like a giant shark, our pack swallowed up one of the stragglers...and then another. We hit 2 miles in 10:05 and we all looked strong. Bert, Dwyer and I were doing a bit of the pushing and we rounded the corner and headed towards the 5k turnaround. After 3 miles (15:12) we began to close in on another one of the stragglers. At the 5k (15:46) we turned around and then headed back to the starting line (finish line). Dwyer then fell back and I ducked behind the trio ahead of me (Bert/Baillie/Mammen). Dwyer followed behind. I decided not to press the pace because I wanted Dwyer to get back into the mix. Asefa, the straggler, lay ahead. The four of us caught Asefa and began to make out way back to the finish line. Unlike the other stragglers, Asefa wasn't done yet. He responded to our move and decided to make a race out of it. The race was about to begin.
Bert challenged Asefa and the two of them pushed a bit ahead. Baillie and Mammen followed...and I trailed Mammen. We hit 4 miles in 20:24. I really started to hurt at this point. I had a minor side stitch since the 5k and it was taking its toll. Nothing too bad, but I didn't want to exert any extra energy. Bert and Asefa were getting further away and it wasn't making me happy. My pre-race plan was to "go" at mile 4 but that didn't appear likely. I was tired and just trying to hang on so that I could hopefully make a move with a 1/2 mile to go. I hit mile 5 alone in 25:39 but found a new gear. My stomach was hurting but my legs were fine and dandy...so I began to go. I caught up to Mammen and didn't stick around to see how he was doing...instead I went right by. There were three strung out ahead of me and I thought I could get them all. Not long after I began to tie up and then Mammen passed me again. Shit...I was losing it. With about a half mile to go I could see Bert had broken away from Asefa...Baillie was now closing in on Asefa. Now Mammen was going after Asefa. I dug deep and came up to the bridge...there was about a 1/2 mile to go and I came up on Mammen again. "C'mon Mammen, let's go" I muttered. he responded with a nod. I could tell he was hurting but so was I. Someone called out 10 and 11th (place) and I knew top 10 win money. I sat on Mammen's shoulder and with a 1/3 of a mile to go I started to drive. I ran like hell and caught Asefa about 200m from the line. I was in 9th...but 10 secs later Asefa passed me back.
I ended up in 10th...same place as last year but 50 secs faster in 31:56. My last mile was my slowest...so I am happy about that. I felt as if I were going to throw up during the last 1/2 mile...it was very painful. I was happy for running my goal, but I felt terrible. I was completely whipped, but pleased. I felt terrible for the next 4 hours.
SPLITS
4:57 4:57
10:05 5:08
15:12 5:07
20:24 5:12
25:39 5:15
30:56 5:17
For photos (including pix of some of you) see these links -
www.flickr.com/photos/20120378@N02/
www.flickr.com/photos/mattherzog/sets/72157603083910302/
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