Apple Blossom 10k Race Report

OldManRunner · Posted: Sat May 20, 2006 5:32 pm

49 degrees, light mist, and wind gusting to about 25mph. Not the best of mornings for a race, but I'd been planning on this one for a while, and consider it a key fitness test going into the Chase Corporate Challenge on 6/1 (where I'd hoped to kick a much younger co-worker's butt, but he's recently left the company...damn, where's my carrot to chase now?!). Goals for the day: break 45 minutes (likely), stretch goal break 44:25 and move up to VDOT 46 (unlikely).

From the attire I had in my car I could choose from a gortex annorak, a light fleece, or a cotton short-sleeve t-shirt. None of them particularly attractive options. Now why didn't I pack that long-sleeve poly-pro shirt? I went for just the t-shirt, knowing that although I'd be miserable if it started raining, I'd be roasting in either of the other two options.

Winds gusting away before the start of a combined 5k/10k event, light mist coming down, and I'm doing my best to huddle into packs of total strangers just to keep warm. On days like this, they should start the race on time and forget the fact that 75% of the field hasn't bothered to make it to the starting line yet. I was there, and getting colder by the minute! Finally the gun went off and much to my surprise much of the field of 150 or so combined runners quickly fell behind. I'd planned on tucking in behind some big guy about my speed and drafting the whole way, and the best I could find was a skinny 20-something woman who clearly was going to drop me within the first mile. There was one big guy in a bright yellow shirt going about the right pace, but he was running in the gravel at the side of the road, and to get the right angle on the wind I would have had to run in a corn field to his right. So, I held on to the skinny woman as best I could and muttered profanities to myself about the wind. I'd periodically drift back 5 yards or so behind the woman, getting now windbreak benefit back their, and then manage to work my way back up for a few minutes of protection. 1st mile in 6:59. That was about my targeted time for the first mile (7:10 would have been ideal), but I was a bit concerned that I was running 5k pace after running multiple 5ks this spring with no 10ks in 2 years. Would I just blow up in the 2nd half? I was also feeling guilty that I wasn't taking turns breaking wind, but I as I said, I figured she'd drop me any minute anyway. As it turns out, she turned around at the 5k turn-around point (as, apparently, did 3/4 of the field), so there went my wind break and my guild trip, combined.

The course was fairly rolling...no big hills, but enough to make it a fair course against which to judge other performances. It was just the yellow guy and another guy in red who might have been 100 yards ahead of me for the next few miles, with the yellow guy always 5 to 10 yards ahead of me. He was both a thorn in my side because I couldn't gain on him, but he helped me keep a strong, steady pace. I missed the 2 mile mark, and passed the 3 mile mark in 21:25, for an average 7:12.5 for the 2nd and 3rd miles. This whole 1st half of the race had been into the wind, and this was an out and back course. So, running the next two milesdown wind I managed to run two consecutive 7:01's. At the 5 mile mark I finally caught up to the yellow shirt guy, who seemed to be breathing pretty hard. I guessed from counting runners at the turnaround point that I was in the top 20 or so, but I wasn't sure because I hadn't been counting. So I asked yellow shirt what age group he was in. "I'm an old guy, 50," he said, and I laughingly told him we were safe from each other in the age groups. But I felt a little 2nd wind at that point and cruised on past him. Throughout the past mile I'd known that there were 1 or two guys in white shirts not too far behind me. By the 6 mile mark, I was feeling pretty crappy. But I glanced over my shoulder and could see 1 white shirted guy maybe 10 yards behind me and I wasn't going to give up my place after working so damn hard for the whole race. So I pushed it as hard as I could...which was pretty damn feeble as my legs were rapidly turning to rubber. Apparently his were too, though, because I beat him over the line by maybe 5 yards. Glanced down at my watch: 44:10. Sweet!!!

Turns out I took 6th overall, and...drumroll please...1st in age group. My first AG 1st, 2nd, or 3rd! Of course, there were only maybe 50 runners in the whole 10k field, but what the hell, I'll take it. I had to leave shortly thereafter for a delayed Mother's Day lunch with my mother, so missed the awards ceremony and any associated bling, but maybe they'll mail me a plastic medal that you damn well better believe will go right with my marathon finisher's medals! And perhaps most importantly of all, I've moved up to VDOT 46! Hooray for me! I'm actually within a 1/2 to 1 VDOT or so of my best fitness ever, so things are looking good for moving into marathon training come June.