Stone Harbor Lions 10k
All races should finish at the beach. ~KF
This race felt like a big race in that KF came over last night to stay with us so we could get an early start to the Shore this morning. He fixed an awesome Shrimp Alfredo for a carbo-loaded dinner, we watched the DVD Dogma, and all went to bed by 10pm so we would be bright-eyed and bushy tailed when we had to get up at 5 this morning. We saw the sun rise and were the only car for most of the way down Route 55 through NJ and got into Stone Harbor by about 7:15. The staging area was on the other side of the dunes from the ocean.
Conditions were about as good as could be hoped for, humid and warm but with the sun blocked by clouds and an ocean breeze. Today marked KF and my first time running under the aegis of the Philadelphia Athletic Charities Track Club, who were out in force today in the ongoing battle with the evil South Jersey Athletic Club (this time on their home turf) for the club title in the Mid Atlantic ATF Grand Prix series. There were also some Kenyans there (which meant there must have been prize money), including Ronald Mogaka (who won the Broad St. Run a few times) and Anastasia Ndereba, Catherine's younger sister and a 2:29 marathoner in her own right. Even in today's weather they were in sweat pants and jackets zipped up to the neck until just before the race. Besides that a good number of Philly area people made it down for today's race.
The race started and I fell in with a pack of 6 or 7, going through the first mile in 5:35 and the second in 5:36, right at my goal pace. In mile 3 myself, PACTC teamate CS and EK, one of the better Phila-area female runners, broke away from the rest of the pack while hitting mile 3 in a slower 5:47. I'm starting to feel it by now and resolve to hang onto them a mile at a time. Mile 4 passes (5:45) and I'm still with them, but then EK tells me and CS that she is going to reel in Ndereba by mile 5 and takes off. CS follows, I don't. Mile 5 passes sadly in 6:09 as does a 51 year old SJAC guy, and I pick things up slightly in the last 1.2 (7:15; or a 6:03 pace) for a 36:10 finishing time and 12th place overall. As a postscript, EK did reel in Anastasia to win and CS ran my goal race in the low 35 minute range. KF finished a bit behind me and got 3rd in our age group.
So, not the time I wanted and a bit disconcerting to slow so much in the last 2 miles. Maybe that was due to yesterday's 18, or this morning's humidity, or some other reason, but I'll eschew the excuses and call it a tune up race. I've got several months yet before I want to peak and I feel that my training is just starting to hit a groove, so I should be able to improve on this. It also lets me set a more realistic (i.e., conservative) goal for next weeks R&R Half.
Postrace was fun. I give alot of credit to 3M, who came down w/ me and KF and put up with the weirdness of a race as seen through the eyes of the uninitiated. I told her the race would only last 45 minutes and then we could do beach & boardwalk for the rest of the day, but I forgot to tell her that the postrace stuff would take awhile. And this one seemed to go on endlessly as there were tons of doorprizes that went before the usual shwag. But to avoid dragging that out, we did go for our swim and it was wonderful!
All races should indeed end at a beach, and next weeks race should make it two in a row.
The PACTC folks who stayed until the bitter end of the awards. I'm the one who looks ready to jump into the ocean.
This race felt like a big race in that KF came over last night to stay with us so we could get an early start to the Shore this morning. He fixed an awesome Shrimp Alfredo for a carbo-loaded dinner, we watched the DVD Dogma, and all went to bed by 10pm so we would be bright-eyed and bushy tailed when we had to get up at 5 this morning. We saw the sun rise and were the only car for most of the way down Route 55 through NJ and got into Stone Harbor by about 7:15. The staging area was on the other side of the dunes from the ocean.
Conditions were about as good as could be hoped for, humid and warm but with the sun blocked by clouds and an ocean breeze. Today marked KF and my first time running under the aegis of the Philadelphia Athletic Charities Track Club, who were out in force today in the ongoing battle with the evil South Jersey Athletic Club (this time on their home turf) for the club title in the Mid Atlantic ATF Grand Prix series. There were also some Kenyans there (which meant there must have been prize money), including Ronald Mogaka (who won the Broad St. Run a few times) and Anastasia Ndereba, Catherine's younger sister and a 2:29 marathoner in her own right. Even in today's weather they were in sweat pants and jackets zipped up to the neck until just before the race. Besides that a good number of Philly area people made it down for today's race.
The race started and I fell in with a pack of 6 or 7, going through the first mile in 5:35 and the second in 5:36, right at my goal pace. In mile 3 myself, PACTC teamate CS and EK, one of the better Phila-area female runners, broke away from the rest of the pack while hitting mile 3 in a slower 5:47. I'm starting to feel it by now and resolve to hang onto them a mile at a time. Mile 4 passes (5:45) and I'm still with them, but then EK tells me and CS that she is going to reel in Ndereba by mile 5 and takes off. CS follows, I don't. Mile 5 passes sadly in 6:09 as does a 51 year old SJAC guy, and I pick things up slightly in the last 1.2 (7:15; or a 6:03 pace) for a 36:10 finishing time and 12th place overall. As a postscript, EK did reel in Anastasia to win and CS ran my goal race in the low 35 minute range. KF finished a bit behind me and got 3rd in our age group.
So, not the time I wanted and a bit disconcerting to slow so much in the last 2 miles. Maybe that was due to yesterday's 18, or this morning's humidity, or some other reason, but I'll eschew the excuses and call it a tune up race. I've got several months yet before I want to peak and I feel that my training is just starting to hit a groove, so I should be able to improve on this. It also lets me set a more realistic (i.e., conservative) goal for next weeks R&R Half.
Postrace was fun. I give alot of credit to 3M, who came down w/ me and KF and put up with the weirdness of a race as seen through the eyes of the uninitiated. I told her the race would only last 45 minutes and then we could do beach & boardwalk for the rest of the day, but I forgot to tell her that the postrace stuff would take awhile. And this one seemed to go on endlessly as there were tons of doorprizes that went before the usual shwag. But to avoid dragging that out, we did go for our swim and it was wonderful!
All races should indeed end at a beach, and next weeks race should make it two in a row.
The PACTC folks who stayed until the bitter end of the awards. I'm the one who looks ready to jump into the ocean.
posted by seebo | 7:20 PM
1 Comments:
i'm betting you're the only one--top 12 or bottom 12--that ran 18+ the day before...please run at least 22 miles the day before we race each other next.
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