TEKBOD 4 LYF
Cesar Rodney half marathon was today. Looking back at my records its the ninth time I've run this race.
I was forbidden to race today by the only two people who can tell me to do anything these days where I am likely to do it. GP said that I could pace John Dubs at a 6:25 clip, but only for about half the race, and then I had to jog it in. Rebecca said I better listen to my coach, or I'd get spanked. As I didn't want to give her that pleasure, my goal was to run the whole race no faster than 90 minutes.
I had agreed to rabbit John for the first seven miles toward his goal time of 1:23. Craig, who was also shooting for a PR time in that range, agreed to run with us as well. Stevus was also in and suddenly we had a posse.
Today may as well have been the first day of spring. Racing season is now upon us again. Lots of people out that I knew and that I hadn't seen since, well, the end of last racing season. The weather was uncharacteristically sunny and mild for CR. And today was the time change (spring forward), which I had spaced and which proves that my cell phone, which got the change, is smarter than I.
I kept on socializing right up to the gun. I told John and Craig they should follow me and let me expend the mental energy of snaking through the legions of people who line up ahead of their pace. God help either of them, I warned, if they get ahead of me. CR starts for the first mile on a downhill and, like Boston, a common mistake is going out too fast in this race. This is a mistake that comes back to bite runners in the posterior on miles 5-7, which are uphill. So as a rabbit I had to restrain the guys through the first five miles.
At the gun I started out easy on the downhill and mile 1 passed in 6:39. Here it was not only me, Craig, John and Stevus, but also KJ, Deirdre, Chemistry Steve and it seems like one or two others who were hanging with us. By mile 2 (6:18); it was just the four of us and we were regularly reeling in folks who had started out too fast. Mile 3 (6:05) seemed short and mile 4 (6:32) seemed long. I was trying to keep folks' spirits up and keep them chomping at the bit until we got to the hills. Mile 5 (6:15) marks the start of the hills and at 31:51 we were averaging a 6:22 pace. Right on target pace. Good wabbit.
Now came part two, where I looked to push my minions. I told them this is where the effort starts and Stevus looked at me incredulously, "This race takes effort?" John's breathing was more labored as he struggled to hang. Craig pulled out ahead but eventually came back to us. Stevus' running looked more relaxed and a bit before the crest of the hill he took off, not to return. On the hills, mile 6 came in at 6:24 and the halfway point went by in exactly 41:30. That made this old rabbit proud, pace was perfect! I missed the mile 7 split but figured I did my job as I slowed down and bid them farewell. I don't take the credit for their running, but was relieved that I didn't have to bear any blame for messed up pacing. This was exactly the race John wanted, and it felt good to know he shouldn't have regrets up to that point.
I slowed down to a 7:30/7:40 pace for the rest of the race. I won't bore you with the splits, which are inconsequential. Many if not all of the people we passed early reeled me in again. That was hard to watch, but I bit my lip. I did not want to get spanked. Instead I just enjoyed the beautiful day and the absence of any modicum of pressure or suffering. I even stopped at the Hash House Harriers water stop, where they also were giving out cups of beer. Replenish those depleted carbs.
Without further ado I cruised in at 90:48. Most people I asked seemed to have good races. John got a 1:24 something, not as fast as he wanted but a solid PR. Craig got a 1:22 something, meaning he negative split to a big PR. Stevus got somewhere in the low 1:20s, again underscoring his talent if not his work ethic. Team TEKBOD had good runs by Stevus, Ian (1:16); Jeff (low 1:20s) and Chemistry Steve (1:2?). Then there was me, Steve D, and Steve M - none of whose times I got. I also ran in the USATF team competition with my PAC crew, which included Chuck (low/mid 1:20s) who, being uncomfortable at anything longer than 5k, provided comic relief as he staggered around post race. I thought I had a sighting of Jeff H, but can't be sure. Mike M had a good race in the high 1:20s, Deirdre (high 1:20s) pitched in for a good female time for us, KJ beat me in the high 1:20s, and Mokund and Diane M were also running. So it will be interesting to see how we scored here. Alot of other folks out there, but I'll stop the shoutouts here.
So you don't need to be a psychologist to see that I got more of my needs met than just getting my mileage in. Happy Spring!
13.5 w/ the warmup.
I was forbidden to race today by the only two people who can tell me to do anything these days where I am likely to do it. GP said that I could pace John Dubs at a 6:25 clip, but only for about half the race, and then I had to jog it in. Rebecca said I better listen to my coach, or I'd get spanked. As I didn't want to give her that pleasure, my goal was to run the whole race no faster than 90 minutes.
I had agreed to rabbit John for the first seven miles toward his goal time of 1:23. Craig, who was also shooting for a PR time in that range, agreed to run with us as well. Stevus was also in and suddenly we had a posse.
Today may as well have been the first day of spring. Racing season is now upon us again. Lots of people out that I knew and that I hadn't seen since, well, the end of last racing season. The weather was uncharacteristically sunny and mild for CR. And today was the time change (spring forward), which I had spaced and which proves that my cell phone, which got the change, is smarter than I.
I kept on socializing right up to the gun. I told John and Craig they should follow me and let me expend the mental energy of snaking through the legions of people who line up ahead of their pace. God help either of them, I warned, if they get ahead of me. CR starts for the first mile on a downhill and, like Boston, a common mistake is going out too fast in this race. This is a mistake that comes back to bite runners in the posterior on miles 5-7, which are uphill. So as a rabbit I had to restrain the guys through the first five miles.
At the gun I started out easy on the downhill and mile 1 passed in 6:39. Here it was not only me, Craig, John and Stevus, but also KJ, Deirdre, Chemistry Steve and it seems like one or two others who were hanging with us. By mile 2 (6:18); it was just the four of us and we were regularly reeling in folks who had started out too fast. Mile 3 (6:05) seemed short and mile 4 (6:32) seemed long. I was trying to keep folks' spirits up and keep them chomping at the bit until we got to the hills. Mile 5 (6:15) marks the start of the hills and at 31:51 we were averaging a 6:22 pace. Right on target pace. Good wabbit.
Now came part two, where I looked to push my minions. I told them this is where the effort starts and Stevus looked at me incredulously, "This race takes effort?" John's breathing was more labored as he struggled to hang. Craig pulled out ahead but eventually came back to us. Stevus' running looked more relaxed and a bit before the crest of the hill he took off, not to return. On the hills, mile 6 came in at 6:24 and the halfway point went by in exactly 41:30. That made this old rabbit proud, pace was perfect! I missed the mile 7 split but figured I did my job as I slowed down and bid them farewell. I don't take the credit for their running, but was relieved that I didn't have to bear any blame for messed up pacing. This was exactly the race John wanted, and it felt good to know he shouldn't have regrets up to that point.
I slowed down to a 7:30/7:40 pace for the rest of the race. I won't bore you with the splits, which are inconsequential. Many if not all of the people we passed early reeled me in again. That was hard to watch, but I bit my lip. I did not want to get spanked. Instead I just enjoyed the beautiful day and the absence of any modicum of pressure or suffering. I even stopped at the Hash House Harriers water stop, where they also were giving out cups of beer. Replenish those depleted carbs.
Without further ado I cruised in at 90:48. Most people I asked seemed to have good races. John got a 1:24 something, not as fast as he wanted but a solid PR. Craig got a 1:22 something, meaning he negative split to a big PR. Stevus got somewhere in the low 1:20s, again underscoring his talent if not his work ethic. Team TEKBOD had good runs by Stevus, Ian (1:16); Jeff (low 1:20s) and Chemistry Steve (1:2?). Then there was me, Steve D, and Steve M - none of whose times I got. I also ran in the USATF team competition with my PAC crew, which included Chuck (low/mid 1:20s) who, being uncomfortable at anything longer than 5k, provided comic relief as he staggered around post race. I thought I had a sighting of Jeff H, but can't be sure. Mike M had a good race in the high 1:20s, Deirdre (high 1:20s) pitched in for a good female time for us, KJ beat me in the high 1:20s, and Mokund and Diane M were also running. So it will be interesting to see how we scored here. Alot of other folks out there, but I'll stop the shoutouts here.
So you don't need to be a psychologist to see that I got more of my needs met than just getting my mileage in. Happy Spring!
13.5 w/ the warmup.
posted by seebo | 2:38 PM
1 Comments:
"beat" you. A lot of good achievements today, but your restraint may have been the biggest achievement of them all.
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