Sunday, June 07, 2009
2009 Downhill @ Dawn Half Marathon
The 2009 Downhill @ Dawn Half Marathon was a fun and well-managed race where everything went right for me. This was probably my smartest race ever, and all the other little things fell into place too. The weather was perfect, aid stations were exactly where I needed them, the course had a net downhill gain, and there may even have been a tailwind. The whole event was top notch. Kudos to Ron Pratt (the RD) and all the Nashville Striders volunteers that traveled to Asheville, NC to help put on the race.
I did a decent warm-up, and the race started at 6:01am – dawn in Ridgecrest. I let a bunch of people pass me in the first mile, so I was in seventh place at mile 1. I concentrated on doing what my friend Phil said to do, which was run 7:00s for the first few miles. By mile 4 I had moved back up into fourth place. The first two downhill miles were over, and we'd had a mile or two of uphill that dropped some people back. On the gravel road miles (4.5 - 7.5), three of us swapped positions a couple of times between 3rd, 4th, and 5th. By mile 8.5, I moved into 4th for good, and by mile 10 (going uphill!) I moved into 3rd for good.
I ran with the second place guy in my sights for two miles and kept slowly closing the distance. We were shoulder to shoulder at 12.5, and I started my kick. I knew it was a little early, but I felt great. Everything had been going right all day. I was hurting badly by 13, but I knew I was being followed so I pressed on. When I turned the corner and saw 1:28:4x on the clock, I started sprinting all out. I crossed the line at 1:29:04 and almost puked my guts out. I had to stagger around for almost a minute before I could breathe correctly again. I'd finished in second place, and I'd opened up a 15 second lead over the guy who finished in third place. It turns out he hadn't followed me after all.
This was the kind of day I'd dreamed of as a racer. I controlled my urge to start too fast, and I didn't worry about pace after the first couple of miles. In fact, I never looked at my Garmin after mile 3. I just used the course markers to know what mile I was in, and I focused on racing the people around me. It was a lot of fun, and after the immediate pain wore off, it was especially exciting to have a huge PR. Previously, I was at 1:36:58, so I’d cut 7:54 off my old PR.
This race was the complete opposite of my Country Music Half. Everything came together this time. All of the runs I've done with Bob and Phil around the Old Tom King Half course in PWP really paid off. I was strong on the downhills and on the uphills because of those runs. I got a stitch in my side a couple of times, but something Amy had told me the day before fixed those. Exhale as long and hard as you can until you're almost going to cough or puke. Repeat that a couple of times and the stitch will go away. It really loosens the diaphragm up. I hadn't heard that before, but Amy told it to me on the drive up to Asheville. It was a fortuitous tip.
So that's the end of my extended "spring" racing season. I got PRs in my last four races (although one was just a time trial), so that's a nice way to go out:
- 5/9 Girls on the Run 5K – 19:35
- 5/25 Hendersonville Classic 10K - 42:46
- 6/2 Summer Speed Sessions 1 Mile Time Trial - 5:41
- 6/6 Downhill @ Dawn Half Marathon - 1:29:04
Now I'll probably take a break from serious racing until August. I'll, of course, run the Beer Mile on 6/21, and I'll probably pace Amy in a 5K or two. But mostly I'm going to focus on training hard and doing my best to improve at shorter distance races. At the Fleet Feet Summer Speed Sessions, we're focusing on improving our 1 mile race times, so that should really help me out over all the distances I care about (i.e., everything up to half marathons).
Labels: Running
