40:04 Pike's Peek

Light rain off and on, temp 55 degrees, a very slight headwind (5 mph).

Everything was uneventful. I was lined up about 5 feet in front of the 7:00 pace sign next to a 52 year old woman (not name Joan Benoit) and another one in front. They kept begging a guy with two girls about 8 and 10 to move further back. He moved about 5 feet back. What's the matter with people?

Anyway, the "go" word comes and I scream out, probably too fast, as I see 5:59 on the garmin after it settle. Still there are a gazillion people passing me and even more as I back off. I can see a stream of probably 500 people in front of me. (I ended up 137 OA.) So I spend the race passing people until the 5th mile marker.

HR monitor is wild (showing 233) in the first mile and I'm ignoring it. This is a really downhill portion and I hit the first mile at 6:22. I hit the second mile at 6:20/185 bpm. That's like 10 mile heart rate. Maybe I'm taking it too easy? Is all the downhill in the beginning? I haven't run the course before. Next mile is 6:22/187. Ok, more like it. I hit 5k at 19:49, tying my (very soft) PR and have 11 seconds in the bank by my reckoning.

Things level off this mile and the split is 6:28/187. Uh oh, I gave back 2 seconds in mile 4. Now the work begins. Mile 5 is a long, long climb that you can from forever. I tell myself I have to get up this on pace. Mile 5 is 6:30/188. Good effort but gave back 4 seconds.

After hitting lap at the mile 5 marker, the garmin says 6:35 and I just can't seem to generate the power to make it go lower. This is also uphill. I quickly figure there's no way I'm going to make it and here's where I screw myself up. I start thinking about how much it hurts and start to back off, seeing 6:42 pace and figuring it's over. We crest the hill at ~5.8 and I can see the finish. Suddenly I can see the finish and start to wonder if I can make up 10+ seconds and I start flying. According the garmin I ran the last 0.2 at 5:44 pace. (Mile 6 is 6:40/186 with the 186 revealing how I totally wimped out.)

I could make out the clock when it said 39:51 and I kept sprinting in. Watch said 40:05. Chip time posted now says 40:04. Ugh, ugh, ugh. If I had hung tough and given myself a chance, I definitely could have made it. I don't think I can find another fast 10k before the weather turns, so I get to stew over this for 6 months. Great.

If there's a training lesson here, I do think my lack of fast running, hill sprints, etc. hurt me when trying to run fast and maybe those fast twitch fibers were there for me at the end when the others were worn out. I just never run that fast and maybe I don't have quite the power to get my 10k time in line with my 10 mile time. Really I think I just don't like pain!