With my marathon plans on the back burner, I have to divert my running energy to shorter races, namely the Get in Gear 10k and the New Prague Half Marathon in May. These will provide an outlet for my running needs and provide a perfect bridge from my current marathon no-man's land to the official kick off of fall marathon training in June.
The Get in Gear was yesterday. The days leading up to this race, including race day morning, were terrible. I had no motivation and was very close to opting out Saturday morning. I was extremely tired and irritable, but I had already paid the race fee, so I didn't want that to go to waste. I drove to Minnehaha Park (in the sleet) parked about a half mile from the start and began my jog to the festivities. It was cold and wet, but the weather was the least of my worries. My warm-up jog was horrible; I felt tired, run down and my foot hurt. I checked my Garmin and I was laboring to maintain an easy 9:00 pace. What am I even doing here? What a waste of time! I made it to the porta-potty line and jogged back to the van to shed my warm-ups. My legs had loosened up and I felt a little better, but now I was having some GI issues and by the time I made it back to the start, the bathroom lines were too long and we are only 10 or 12 minutes from go time. I continued my warm-up with some strides and was feeling much better. In fact, in my warm-ups I was easily able to ramp up to 6:20 pace. I heard someone call my name and it was Stan, from my marathon clinic. I felt much better by then; chatted with Stan a bit, did one more set of strides and got to the starting line. I thought I was close to the front, but when the gun went off I found myself stuck behind a bunch of slower runners, blocking traffic. (They start the half and the 10k together) Things loosened up after a half mile and I checked my Garmin; 5:58! Wow, how did that happen. I settled in to a comfortable effort and finished mile 1 in 6:05. I did not push in mile 2, as I knew that going across the Lake Street bridge was going to be a windy, cold challenge. Mile two was 6:04, all is good and still am not laboring. Made it over the bridge and the first set of hills without too much damage and mile 3 was 6:12. Pushed just a tad on the hilly, east side of the river and managed a 6:08. I ran mile 5 very conservatively and was pleased to see a 6:02 split here. I spied a couple of people in my age group and passed them about half-way through mile 6. I felt fresh and brand new crossing the Ford Bridge and mile 6 was 5:58. Yippee! This is fun passing people! I ran the last two tenths at about a 5:30 pace and finished in 37:54, a full 1 minute and 15 seconds faster than last year and only 5 seconds from a PR (which was on a mush flatter and faster course) Boy, am I glad I decided not to bail! One thing I did differently in this race was to really focus on my cadence. I've been reading that good runners have a cadence of 180 and elites up to 190 or more. Every few minutes I do a quick cadence test, just to make sure I am at 180 and I find my pace quickens and with less effort. I'm rather tall and gangly, so a quick cadence is kind of a challenge.
So, I'm pleased with my current fitness level and like where I will be at come my new marathon training cycle in June. As long as I can stay injury free and build on the great foundation that I have created over the past two years, my sub-3 is well within reach. Des Moines, here I come!
Happy Running!
Rick
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