RACE DAY

The weather forecast had been calling for rain and heavy winds. I was pleasantly surprised on Sunday morning that it wasn’t raining, and the sun was even shining out from between the clouds.

The start of the race was a little bit crowded for about 500m, and then it thinned out nicely. I tried to settle in to my pace and not get too far ahead of my Garmin virtual pacer. At about 1.5 km, Eljeffe (a guy I know from Runningmania.com) came up on my left and said hello. We were both shooting for 3:30 so we ended sticking together for quite a while. Then Bunsontherun (also from Runningmania) went past us, and I recognized the orange shirt and chatted with him for a few seconds. He was moving just a bit too fast for my virtual pacer, so I decided not to try to keep up with him.

I just stuck with my plan, took my gels every 6km, and took Gatorade at every aid station. By the half way point, I was about 750meters ahead of my virtual pacer. I had run the first half in 1:43:10 (416th place overall), and I was still feeling very relaxed and strong at that point.

I stuck close to Eljeffe until about 25km. Then he made his move and tried to step up the pace. I sped up a little bit and kept him in my sights, but I didn’t try to match his pace. At about 28km I passed Bunsontherun. At 31km I was catching up to Eljeffe and I was about 20 feet behind, but I badly needed to pee so I stopped to use the port-a-potty. I think I wasted about 45 seconds in the port-a-potty and when I came back out I passed Bunsontherun again and started looking for Eljeffe. I finally caught up with him again at 34km, and he was starting to slow down a bit.

This was around the point that the heavy rain started. By this point I had stopped looking at my watch, and I was mostly just trying to pace myself off the faster runners. Every time somebody passed me, I would try to run behind them and hold on for as long as I could. Holding onto my race pace was getting increasingly difficult. By 40km, my 750 meter lead on the virtual partner had shrunk to about 300m.

Just as I passed the 1-mile-to-go sign, my watch beeped to tell me I was at 41km. Crap!! I my trusty virtual pacer was off by about 400m, and I only had a 300m lead on him. I had set my pace for 4:57 instead of 4:58, but would that be enough to make up the extra 100m? My brain was in no condition for that sort of complex math, all I could do was speed up. I ran at a 4:50/km pace for the last mile, but it sure felt like I was going a lot faster. I rounded the last corner, and I could still see 3:28:?? on the clock. I could slow down a little bit. It was just past 3:29 when I crossed the mat. I had beat 3:30!!!

My official chip time turned out to be 3:28:53. A Personal Best by 11:50!! My split on the second half was 1:45:43, which included my bathroom break. I had moved up from 416th place to 295th place in the second half, gaining 121 positions overall.

I guess #2006 was a lucky number afterall!