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Race Result

Racer: Richard Gendron
Race: Veterans Day 10K - Capital Running Company
Date: Sunday, November 9, 2008
Location: Washington, DC
Race Type: Run - 10 km
Age Group: Male 40 - 44
Time: 0:44:57
Overall Place: 277 / 1524
Age Group Place: 30 / 94
Comment: Its all about pacing - PSPR



Race Report:



Veteran's Day 10K has all the elements of a PR course. It's flat, the roads are wide, there is usually a large crowd (not too large), and the weather is usually perfect for a hard effort. It's my very first post surgical 10K, so it was going to be a PR for me if I finished. This was also an official qualifier for the National Marathon in March (1:05 required time)

The course starts near Ohio Drive and Independence Ave, runners head south the end of Haines Point head north on the east side of HP, turn around just after 5k, then run back the same way they came, cept they cut short going to the end of the point by cutting through last loop before the turnaround on HP.

There were tons of people, 1500 finished.

For me this was a Threshold training run. I'm trying to build up my running in an effort to give Dario and Charles (Barnes) some kind of support/challenge next year. I'm the opposite of tapered - last three weeks have been off-season, high volume, low intensity with several LT workdays. Since I did treadmill pacing intervals on Saturday I knew I could maintain 7:20 miles pretty comfortably, and I was taking chances with faster paces depending on HR drift. I was hoping to keep total control of pacing, treating it as a Time Trial for the first half and ignoring the racers around me, letting go a little after 5k, cranking the suffer meter in mile 5, then keeping a high pace in mile 6, and giving a 150 sprint at the end.

I warmed up on the bike with 20 minutes at about 93% of LT.
Dropped off the bike in parking lot A, changed and ran the mile to the start area, did a couple of short hard efforts to get the Lactic Acid flowing and clearing. Lined up, listened to the Star Spangled Banner, then "GO".

>> Mile 1 - went out a tad too fast and hit a 7:02
>> Mile 2 - overcompensated and crossed mile 2 around 14:30
>> 5k point - exactly 23 (7:24 pace), HR was exactly where I wanted it (At LT)
>> Mile 4 - It seemed that I was running faster, but I think everyone else was slowing down. Started to hurt - HR drifted up to the top of LT range
>> Mile 5 - Cranked it, felt good, but was suffering - Feeling a headwind, I began to use the biggest runners I could find to block the wind, despite the suffering it kept me fresh for mile 6.
>> Mile 6 - OOOOOOW, now I was hurting and HR was hovering just below what I know is a serious blow up point (173). I found a good pacer and stuck just off his shoulder (he later told me it motivated him to keep his pace high). It was all I could do to match his pace and look for my sprint point. Hit the sprint with about 150 to go and finished hard. Second 5k 22 min (7:04 pace), overall pace 7:14

Assessment
Exactly what I planned and good evidence that Tom the Marine's threshold training is starting to pay dividends. (http://www.cycleanywhere.com/blog/index.php?id=209). Even if I am modifying it and doing two 20s on the bike and one 20 on the treadmill

In terms of pacing, I plan to run two more 10k races before Christmas (Bethesda on T-giving day and Jingle Bells 10k on the same HP course on December 14th) and want to see total time come down and target an even (rather than negative) split.