NE Roadrunners 10k

Planned a hard weekend for myself and then a guilt-free taper into next Sunday's Cesar Rodney half-marathon.

Yesterday was a 17 miler with the middle 8 (on the Drives) at marathon pace. I hooked up with the Philly Runners at the Art Museum, where I ran three miles up MLK with Chris until he went up the Strawberry Mansion Bridge and I kept on going up along the river. Chris set me on a 6:30 pace into the legendary river wind so that I got to Falls River Bridge (4 miles) in 25:58. Ran back down Kelly with a tailwind (at least in theory) for another four in 24:54. Jogged the rest, total time 2:10:19 for 17.4 miles.

Then, on a fairly spur-of-the-moment decision, I ran the NERR 10k this morning. I always take this race in the spirit of the Spring Training baseball games that are starting up about now. In years past, this has been a coming out race of sorts, an event to see lots of runners who race the local circuit who I had not seen since the previous fall. There were a few folks like that out this morning, but Reba and I mostly hung out with John and Heather, the only folks I knew real well who were running.

I also used this race as a dress rehearsal for next week, to get a better idea of what kind of racing shape I was in. When the gun went off, I quickly and easily moved up to the front, running with a kid whom I didn't know. We were running into the maws of the river headwind, but I felt strong. First mile went by in 5:40 and I knew I was in as good a shape as I'd dare hope. Me and the kid continued working together as mile 2 went by in 5:47, and mile 3 in 5:39. At this point I start to feel the fork, and start shifting to hang on mode. I figure I'd stick with the kid as long as possible, knowing if he throws in a surge I won't answer.

Since the race is an out and back along Kelly Drive, the 0.2 miles is in the middle, and passes in 77 seconds. Now the headwind we'd been fighting is mostly tailwind. Mile 4 (i.e. 2 miles to go) goes by in 5:30, and soon after that the kid starts speeding up and I let him go. The tailwind helps me keep pace, and I cruise the last two miles in 5:43 and 5:41. Finishing time is 35:18, good enough to be bridesmaid. John finishes third, with a pr effort just under 37.

I'm very happy with this time and feel fortunate that I had someone to work with for most of the race. The kid turned out to be Ned Cunningham, a high school senior who Paul Hines coaches at Chestnut Hill Academy. Nice guy, first 10k he's run. Just for today, youth and idealism beat out old age and treachery.

All that running this week, including the race, the marathon pace workout yesterday, and the track workout earlier this week puts me training at a level for about a 2:45 marathon, with the feeling that I have a bit of speed still to gain before Boston. But more immediately, it predicts a 1:18 for next week's effort. I'll be shooting for something faster than that, however, hoping that an easy week will put a little additional pep into my legs. Stay tuned.

10 miles total today, 70 for the week.