Though with an alarming lack of updates, I have still been very busy running this month. Since the Marathon, I have run a 1-mile race (technically run on 5/31), five 5K races, and a 10K race. An 8.5-miler and a 10-miler are all that's left until the end of the month, but for long distance races during the summer, they are pretty important. I'll start with what's been run so far:
Cumberland Memorial Mile - Cumberland, ME - Monday, 5/31
Overall Time: 5 minutes, 25 seconds
Half-mile splits: 2:44/2:41
Overall Finish: 9th
Age Group Finish: 1st
I was thankful for having a race that was only a single mile in length, because I don't think I'd be able to do better than that for the day. Choking smoke from the Quebec forest fires combined with my own health issues (sore throat, weak feeling in the arms, hip aches from the Marathon) made even this short run a challenge.
We got under way a bit late due to a miscalculation in the kids 1/2-mile fun run. The majority of the group had circled around the wrong flagger and came back too early, roughly 1/4 of a mile for a distance. After a little confusion (and waiting for those who ran the correct distance to finish), they instructed the kids where to turn and re-ran it.The race itself started one mile away from Greely Academy which gave me the ideal excuse to do a warm-up jog on the length of the course. Though largely flat, main street does have some slight inclines that would definitely make a difference from other single miles I've run (only 2 to this point; both were mostly downhill). After a little bit of delay, the runners assembled at the start line (some of them backed off when the announcer advised that those running slower than "6 minutes" not be right on the start line).
About 15-20 runners catapulted themselves off the start line, something that would bite some of them in the end. I gently accelerated to get to what I felt was a roughly 5:30 pace and then worked to keep the pace up as long as I could. I knew that my only waypoint was the 1/2-mile mark so I kept myself running hard in spite of the shell shock I was giving my body. It was hard to believe that it had been roughly 2 years since I pushed myself to this level for any distance.
I stepped on the .5 line at 2:44 and started to feel my arms ache and tingle. I was still far from 100% and had broke a fever just 3-4 hours before the race; my body was reminding me of that. I forced myself to ignore it for the next 3 minutes and propelled forward like I was on the track. All this time I was passing people one by one like a sniper and slingshotting my way toward the finish. Having such a clear shot to the finish with still being a half mile away gave me a vertigo feeling but it just made me drive with that much more determination.
I crossed the line with my second best single-mile time ever (5:18 still stands as my personal best, done exactly 2 years prior) in spite of all the aforementioned factors. My reward was a delicious strawberry rhubarb pie - which didn't last 24 hours, by the way - and a confident feeling that I was still running at my best post-Sugarloaf.
Weekly Back Cove 5K Series - Portland, ME - Wednesdays
I had been eyeing this series since I started road racing and had been curious to get involved with it. This is pretty much the only race in Maine held on a Wednesday night which would pose its own interesting set of challenges. Wednesdays are usually my designated speed workout days so this has effectively replaced them for the time being.
The first week was run a mere 72 hours after the Marathon - my body was nowhere near the peak of performance. Each of the next 3 weeks saw me improve in time until last week when I fell about 30 seconds. My 5K average - 20:30 - is something I'm happy with considering I'm holding myself back a bit in order to experiment and conserve. I will not be running Week 7 because of the impending 10-mile race the following weekend but I should have a few more of these races in July and August. I'm not sure if I'll make this a yearly thing but for now it's a lot of fun, and perhaps most importlant of all, it's FREE.
Peter Ott's Camden 10K - Camden, ME - 6/6
Overall Time: 41:47
Pace (per mile): 6:44
Mile Splits: 6:35, 6:18, 6:25, 7:14, 6:47, 6:57, 1:31(7:06)
Overall Finish: 9th
Age Group Finish: 2nd
This one went a little rougher than I wanted. The conditions went from overcast to all-out rain during the race but the weather worked out to help more than hurt - at least from my perspective. I had just purchased my new shoes yesterday from Maine Running Company and only had that day's run to break them in. That day's run, however, may have contributed to my energy loss toward the end of mile 3. The hip aches came back and the relentless inclines and rolling hills on the second half of the course contributed to the wrecking ball that struck me repeatedly. Even with the downhill at the end I had little energy to surge.
In spite of all that, 41:47 is my second best time and I placed a lot higher than I had expected. I got a little medal and a nice Peter Ott tavern glass...all it took was to bash through ten kilometers of hell.
Now that I've recapped the month so far, here's what I got left:
Hampden Father's Day 8 1/2 Miler - Hampden, ME
Sunday, 6/20, 8:30AM, Hampden Academy
Course PR: 1:00:33 (7:07 per mile) in 2008
If you find me another 8 1/2-mile road race anywhere in the United States or Canada, let me know and I will make arrangements to run it. As of now, this is the only race of this length that I've ever run. Additionally, I have never run this length in practice or training, either. With all the 5K's, 10K's, 5 and 10 milers, half marathons and full marathons, it's good to find a race that goes way out of covention for distance.
This is the 34th race - it was supposedly ending with its last run in 2008 but it has been picked up for this year and I hope to see it continue well into the future. I encourage distance runners to go to this because I feel that it really is a special course.
Oh, and RK is running it, too. And the duel continues.
Tour du Lac 10-miler - Bucksport, ME
Saturday 6/26, 7:30AM, Bucksport Public Pool
Course PR: 1:09:57 (6:59.7 per mile) in 2008
The Tour du Lac - named because of its long journey around Bucksport's Silver Lake - is a 10-mile epic. When a course goes on an incline to start, you know it's going to be a ride. Hills roll as you get to the northern leg and then things really get interesting around mile 5 as a mammoth hill awaits. Eventually the aggression of elevation ceases but by then you're already on the home stretch. Hope you have some energy left.This will be my 3rd running of this course. My plan is to blow past my course PR and my 10-mile PR (1:08:36) but knowing that any number of factors could really affect my performance here I can't be too overconfident. This course is unforgiving to those who don't play it smart. There's some nice jam awaiting age group winners, though, so that's always nice. In the last two years I've barely missed out on that and I hope to remedy that in 2010.
Summer will be in full swing by then, as will the running season.
