Sunday 4/29 – Pike’s Peek 10K

I woke Sunday morning immediately excited and nervous for the race. Jake picked me up at 6:20 and we drove up the Pike to the start. It was strange to be able to drive so quickly along Rockville Pike – a road I usually avoid because of congestion. I was glad to have Jake around to talk strategy with and ease my mind. After speaking with him, I knew I wanted to be aggressive and take some risks. I was feeling good the last couple of weeks and I would rather try to go for something fast (with a chance I would blow up) than to run 31 minutes conservatively. The outstanding performance by Sam (29:37 10K at Penn) had me feeling energized. The weather was cool and the rain from the night before had washed away much of the allergens from the air. This was a no-excuses course with no-excuses weather.

My risk to go out fast paid off (mostly) – I had a good race but I didn’t have the pack to help pull me along. I got out hard but reasonably in 4:45 and was already solo at that point. I was hoping I would have some others at my pace to run with or at least some guys getting out over their heads that I could follow early –on. The East Africans had already gapped me (and were pulling further away) and I was already engaged in the battle to race against myself and the clock by that point. I got into a good rhythm and was content to focus on the task of pushing the pace of best I could solo. 1 member of the lead pack dropped out early, and another fell back early. I passed him before the 2-mi mark and he didn’t respond. The others in the lead group were so far ahead they couldn’t even be used as carrots for me to chase. I would be on my own the whole time. This worked out OK for me at first. I put my blinders on and move forward as best I could. I came through 5K in 15:03, feeling pretty good. The only real hill on the course came after 5K. Having drove the course the day before I knew it was coming and prepared for it mentally. I got up and down the hill well coming through 4 mile in 19:20. But it was here I started to lose some focus. I prayed for someone to pass me and wake me up as I slowed to 4:55 pace for miles 5 and 6 (splits of 24:15 and 29:10). It was only after the downhill finish came into view where I was able to kick it in strong to a 30:05 finish (good for 13th place, 1st American). The effort was solid as evidenced by my stomach contents inside the finish chute trashcan. I was happy to run a strong race but upset my lack of focus let a sub-30 result slip away. Overall the progression of the last several weeks has been encouraging and I’m ready for more. I cooled down with Jake and we spoke of Duluth and what we wanted to do in the next few weeks in order to be successful there. I had run 11 miles on the day and ~75 miles in the down week leading up to the race.

Worth noting: It was a strong day for the GRC – solid races from the women’s team (LTO especially), nice comeback races from Jake and Scott, and solid PR’s from 2 soon-to-be fathers (Dave and Bain).