I'm pretty happy with this. The time is obviously well off of my PR, but that PR was set in considerably better weather. Given today's weather (72 degrees with a dew point of 70), the poor air quality, and where I am in my training cycle (early and building) I'm more than satisfied.
***
Race morning dawned early. I've done this race enough times to know that you have to allow plenty of time to get to the race, get through security, etc. So...I showed up at my teammate Lindsay's home at 6 am to hitch a ride to a race that was approximately five miles away, with an 8 am start time.
Reading the above, it sound like we left way too early. Nope. We left at the perfect time, and had we left even 5-10 minutes later, I think we would have been rushed for time.
The start area of Army 10 Miler is a labyrinth constructed of metal gates and concrete blocks, due to the heavy security associated with any race staged in the shadow of the Pentagon. After a lot of walking, we dropped off our bags and found our way to the start line and the warm-up area. I warmed up with 2 miles of jogging and then two harder segments of 40-60 seconds - for each segment I ran hard until my heart rate monitor showed I was in the mid-170s - where I'd also be for the first miles of the race. Then a bit more jogging to the start, and a few more sips of water plus some drills and strides.
Then into the corral, and wait for the cannon.
***
As I've noted before, I've run this race several times, and I know that people often go out way too fast. Thus, my plan was to stay conservative for the first 2 miles, up to Rosslyn, and then start to pick it up if I felt good.
As often happens during these very humid summer races (and I guess October is now summer) I found myself re-evaluating my plan as the race progressed.
Basically, I run 10 milers and half-marathons by staying under my red line until a certain point, and then hammering. But.. where that red line is, and when in the race I can safely hop above it, depends on the weather. Push too soon, and it's a recipe for disaster - especially on days where it's humid and the air quality is less than ideal. (I have a lot more room for error on cold days).
With today's weather, I found myself continually pushing back the "pick-it up point" from mile 2 to mile 3 to mile 5 to....what the heck, this is good enough. I was working - what I consider a "hard cruise" but not straining. Basically a solid hard tempo effort (tempo being defined as the pace you can hold for an hour or a bit longer - which is roughly 10 mile pace). And I could tell that if I pushed it even a little bit harder, I'd be taking a big risk. Possibly worth it if this was a PR-attempt-every-second-counts-goal-race, but it wasn't. And while blowing up in a race is never fun, it could also set back my marathon training significantly. Better to stay a bit cautious and then try to hammer at the very end.
So that's what I did. Even running defensively, things still got hard on the rolling hills that are the 14th Street Bridge. (note to future self - there are 4 hills on the 14th Street bridge). A head wind there didn't help either, though as someone later noted, it's always windy on the 14th Street bridge.
And then we turned the corner and hit mile marker 9, and I grudgingly finally started emptying the tank. The finish line itself snuck up on me - I didn't see it until about 150m to go. Next time I do this race, I need to map it out and see where 800m from the finish is, so I can use that to time my final kick.
As I approached the clock, I saw it ticking over 66, and so I tried to run just a bit faster, but I had nothing. And then I was gloriously done (though wishing I had been a few seconds faster).
***
Splits were:
Mile 1: 6:41
Mile 2: 6:40
Mile 3: 6:37
Mile 4: 6:24
Mile 5: 6:34
Mile 6: 6:47
Mile 7: 6:37
Mile 8: 6:46
Mile 9: 6:36
Mile 10: 6:18
So... a slight positive split (32:57/33:04), despite it feeling like an evenly paced effort with a hammered last mile. I don't think I went out too fast; rather this is just a reflection of the course - the 14th Street bridge makes the second half a bit slower than the first half.
Other notes:
- I ran the whole race with a handheld water bottle. Did I look silly? Maybe - but I'd rather be silly and hydrated when the dew point is 70.
- I also wore my arm-coolers. Again, I looked a bit silly - "are you really wearing arm-warmers?" But though they look silly, they really do seem to help some, chilling my body temperature just slightly. Every bit helps.
- This was a new course, and I think it was actually an improvement over the older course, and slightly faster. The course was rerouted this year only because of construction on the Memorial Bridge (where the old course ran), but my preference would be to stick with this new course.
- I have a history of getting massive lower leg cramps a few minutes after crossing the finish line in long, humid races. I'm fairly sure it's electrolyte loss - more specifically salt - combined with the blood pooling in my legs after I stop running. (and yes, I consume a LOT of salt and salty fluids pre-race). It happened at Grandma's Half in both 2016 and 2017, and it happened after this race also.
However, they usually both cramp simultaneously. This time, my two legs cramped at separate times, with the left going first in the post-race area. This was problematic, because it's much easier to walk and function with two cramping legs than one, believe it or not. I ended up hitching a ride in a medic cart out of the finish area, not because I was in any serious trouble, but because I didn't want to block the finish area while I waited out the cramps. Fortunately, it only took 2 minutes and a lemonade GU for the left leg to relax. And then the right calf grabbed up, and then relaxed, and then I was fine. Jogged a cool-down with no issues or discomfort. - Breathing was OK but not great here, which is another reason I was really happy with this race. Humidity combined with a never-ending ragweed season and some mold is a bad trifecta for me, even with all the anti-histamines and asthma drugs I'm on. I took two puffs of the rescue inhaler pre-race, and also (as I noted above) was careful to stay just below my redline. When we have this type of weather, I cannot take any risks or make any mistakes, and I didn't today. But I can't wait to see what I can run in better weather, given how today went.
- I'm feeling really good about my CIM cycle - I'm running decently well, and much better than I was a month ago, but I'm also not peaking yet. This is perfect for 8 weeks out. And a 10 mile race is a great lactate threshold workout - perfect for this point in my marathon training.
- Ended up 3rd master, beaten by two very accomplished runners. I'll take it.
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