Jason Lakes ran the Rudolph Reindeer Run 10k and finished with a time of 43:24.
I have to admit this was a bit of a disappointing race. In fairness to myself, we had the hottest day in a few months, with 71, feels like 74 (or 71 with 90% humidity). I am going to continue to convince myself the heat impacted me as I have not been training in it for a few months.
On the negative side, I was positive split city as each split was more and more positive, other than the last 0.21 closing, where I could see the finish line. I was running most of the first mile at 6:30 pace and it felt reasonable. In fact, I felt like that pace was sustainable and I would be able to increase the pace – it did not feel unmanageable. I finished the first split at 6:37, again thinking I would be able to execute negative splits. However, the harder I ran, the slower the pace appeared on my watch. I am not sure how much was fitness level versus my body getting overheated (I was sweating like an August run by the end of the run). My legs also felt great – it definitely felt like it was more fitness than legs.
I also did a poor job of finding a group to run with. Initially, I ran about 800 meters with a runner that seemed to be around my pace, but then I noticed they started slowing down, so I passed them. I then had two college/late high school kids in front of me, so I wanted to catch up to them. I did so and ran with them for about a mile to 2k. Again, though, around 2.5 to 2.75 miles, I noticed we were really slowing down as a group. so I passed them, but then there was no one in front of me. No one was close to challenging me and I was close to challenging no one as well… Just stuck in sixth place (and 2nd place Masters).
My splits, per Garmin were 6:37, 6:48, 7:01, 7:03, 7:14, 7:14, 7:05
On the positive front, 6:30-ish pace did feel fairly reasonable for the first mile, so I feel like I have that in me. I also held on and was not passed for the race, despite running by myself and having to maintain taking on pain knowing sub 40 and even moving up or down in the race would take a significant change of where I was running,
I also feel like the weather really did impact this run and when I temp adjust the pace, I was at 6:39 – which is getting into PR territory (6:36 pace is my PR). So, I am going to go with that to keep confidence up going into the race. Also, despite the slower time, I did get 6th overall (out of 75) and 1st AG by over 5 minutes. Obviously, not a big field, but I know 37 won the race last year while 39:01 won it this year – only two runners were sub 40. So, I am going to keep justifying it that way…
And, lastly, I now know what I am going to focus on after Houston – I am going to train for a sub 40 10K. I know I have it in me, and I am loving these speed workouts (I kept smiling every time it really hurt this morning), so I am excited to really focus on running at faster than MP. I am excited about where I am for Houston and then to really focus on speed for several months.
Bob Ferguson ran the Florida Holiday Halfalon Half Marathon and finished in a time of 2:05:22.
This was a good “tune-up” race in Madeira Beach FL and a good excuse to get out of winter weather for a long weekend. Weather was good – pretty warm, sunny and humid (92%) for racing. I went into this race treating it as a training long run and aiming to hold a pace roughly 1:00 slower than “race pace.” This turned out better than I expected and was able to hold a ~9:30 pace even walking through most of the water stops. I even stopped for about 5 minutes to help out one of the walkers (also my wife!) having some trouble. But as a tune-up race this was a good lesson. I started having leg fatigue around mile 9 – last few miles were tough – and so it is clear that I’ll need to emphasize my long runs this winter. But if that training goes well I feel reasonably confident that I’ll be able to hold a pace 1:00+ / mile faster come April race day. This was a well-run and fun race, but a small one but I also got the added treat of 3rd Place AG.
Vijay V ran the ZombieRunner Quarry Lakes Marathon and finished this race in the time of 4:49:00.
I ran this race very conservatively and well below my potential to mitigate any risk of cramps/other potential issues, based on my performance last year and subsequent obstacles. It was mostly a mental thing because the following things were weighing heavily on my mind:
1. The first marathon I attempted in May 2022 was a disaster with cramps/poor backup strategies and it was a DNF
2.In the latter part of 2022 I couldn’t allocate sufficient training blocks due to travel.
3. At the beginning of 2023, just as I started getting back into training, I sprained my ankle in a freak slip-up that put me out of action for a few weeks.
4. Later in the year I started developing some knee trouble and that kept me away from training.
5. Finally when I did get into the training again it was the last week of August and I again had numerous challenges with work/training balance – I wasn’t really sure I would be able to run a marathon this year – my original plan was to run the California International Marathon and when that didn’t work out, I picked this local race and I only finally registered on the 3rd of December when I was sure I would be able to run.In a nutshell, I was carrying too much baggage in my mind and didn’t want to jeopardize this race and as the race day approached, I guess I kept telling myself that trying to hit 10:15/mile may just compromise the whole thing.
So on race day I just sauntered in the first few miles – the goal was to keep it very easy and make sure that I wouldn’t cramp at least for the first 10 miles. Once I passed that first mind block, I started increasing my pace slightly around mile 10 and I was quite comfortable at the halfway mark. I tried to accelerate a bit after that but every time I wanted to push, I talked myself out of it with doomsday scenarios like: “”What if you cramp at mile 18? What if nausea hits you?””. Further, there was no motivation to accelerate – it was a small local race and by the time I was at mile 19, there was really just a handful of folks slugging it out or walking in front of me; I guess I could say that I overtook them all : ) But the last three miles proved to be quite hard, regardless of the suboptimal pace I had employed till then, and I really had to push hard. I suppose the added time on my feet must not have helped.
Notwithstanding this weird race , I am relieved that I have finally completed a marathon. The next one, I think I can run fearlessly and hopefully closer to my actual potential as of that time, whatever that might be.
