Decker was tough as hell. I have never spent this much energy in a race. Well I take that back, last year’s Freezescale ½ Marathon was really tough, but that’s because I ran faster than I had been training for, and just kept up with the others in the pace group by eating 4 GU’s in 13 miles.
Decker was tough in a different way. For starters it was 38 degrees when I stepped out of my car at 6:45am. Add a frigid, 10-30 mile per hour Arctic wind coming at us for half the course, and you’re runing in sub freezing conditions against the wind, on a very hilly course.
This new running friend, Ron came up to me and asked me if I was Mike. Yep, I sure am. He knew me from the fact that I was 10 seconds ahead of him in the Distance Challenge.
- The Distance Challenge is comprised of 7 distance races leading up to the Marathon in February. It started with the IBM 10k, followed by the Girl Scout 10 Miler, then Motive ½ Marathon, now the Decker 20km Challenge, In January is the ARA 20Miler, then the blistering fast 3M ½ Marathon, followed by the Big Daddy on Feb 18.
If you run all the races with the same timing chip, you can take part in the Distance Challenge. I’m in it, and sit 5th in my Age Group. I aticipate finishing around 8th after AT&T Marathon.
Anyway, so Ron is the Age Group leader for the 35-39 Age Category, and he apparently runs my paces, so we decided to run together. I’ll keep this race report short.
We decided to try to run 7min 5 second miles. The first 4 miles were grueling. Right at the wind, and a straight ondulating 4 mile road of boredom.
We kept our pace, actually a little fast, but we kept it. Miles 4 – 8.5 are hilly sumbitches. We took turns pacing each other, drafting behind each other to conserve energy from the wind, and kept a decent amount of conversation going. When I race, I make sure I keep busy in my mind, so I started conversations with almost anyone we ran with along the way.
Once we hit Mile 10, my legs were tired. I started considering telling Ron to keep going and that I would slow down, but in my mind, I think the Yellow Jersey he was wearing (Age Group Leaders get Yellow Jerseys to wear) motivated me to stay with him and keep at it.
We turn the corner after a tough hill climb, at around mile 10.5 and here comes the wind again. Wow. This wind is tough. It kills us. Our slowest Mile yet. Some of the guys that had been running with us start to take off, and I tell Ron, I’m letting them go, and he can run with them if he wants. He abjects to that idea, and says he’s letting them go too.
We continue to running, fighting a really tough wind, we’re not even drafting off each other anymore. A little, but not much at all. Ron starts drifting off a little on one uphill, and I turned around and tell him “Get back here. You are not falliung off now!” So he obliges and drafts off me a little longer. He regained his legs and then let me draft off him.
We finally turned onto the Travis County Expo facility road and painfully made it up the last hill.
I took off with 300 yards to go, and gave it my all. I wouldn’t say it was a normal speedy finish, but it was all I could muster.
I’m very happy with my run, as I never intended in going sub 7, and also never have put that much effort into a race. I learned a lot in that race, that I think will help me on Feb 18:
I have more in the gas tank to give than I think I do, so if I can just keep the desire strong, I can keep it going.
Wind should never make you choose a slower pace.
Hills are just hills. Take them one at a time, and give yourself 30 seconds of mental recovery once you reach the top.
Even when you think you’re done and can’t go anymore, keep at it. Your legs will come back as long as you are strong mentally.
MacMillan is a bastard.
Mile splits:
M1 – 6:45
M2 – 7:05
M3 – 6:58
M4 – 7:03
M5 – 6:50
M6 – 6:51
M7- 6:49
M8- 6:37
M9- 6:36
M10- 6:47
M11- 6:58
M12 + 0.4 - 8:34
Total Time: 1hour 25 mins 20 seconds. 6min 57 sec per mile
Age Group Finish - 13th out of 119 --> 10.9%
Total – 64th out of 1,238 --> 5.1%
P.S. I’m happy to also announce that Ron is still in the Yellow Jersey for his age group, and I can continue to live vicariously through him!
6 comments:
Mike,
You are really amazing. I know you weren't really "in" to this race, but way to push through. Even on Wednesday, when you didn't want to do the Zilker loops, you still did the whole workout (and did great!)
You have so much mental toughness and willpower. Add that to your natural ability and who knows what you are capable of. It's hard to believe this is only your first year of running.
You are a Phenomenal Runner!!!
I like the mental stuff, that's my biggest challenge. Way to push through that bastard!
Definitely a better runner than blogger, Mr 'I'll keep this short'
Short compared to a Mile by Mile description.
Great race and great race report! Your mile splits are really consistent too, especially given the conditions. I like the idea of keeping your mind busy, otherwise you just keep thinking about how much it is hurting. Hope to see you at the ARA 20 miler, and have fun pacing Nedra up at White Rock this weekend!
Drink for whining about the weather and hills, and also for lousy math (you actually averaged 6:52 per mile).
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