I got home about 9:45 last night, and got started getting my gear all ready. Shoes, socks, Team MARATHONshorts, singlet and jacket, Garmin charging, iPod Nano, headphones and my MARATHONBars. I set my alarm for 5:45 in order to get up, get dressed, get coffee and get GOING! I grabbed my coffee to go and started for Mt. Shasta. I opted to not eat breakfast at home and eat a MARATHONenergy bar for "breakfast". Plus, I didn't want to eat at home since I had an hour drive to get there an hour before race time.
The drive was beautiful, perfect temperature for a drive in the Jeep with no top. I arrived in Mt. Shasta with no complications on the drive and walked the half mile to the registration area to pick up my bib and race T-shirt. I used the facilities and then walked back to the Jeep to finish getting ready. Once at the Jeep, I realized I had left my headphones at home...no need to panic, still 25 minutes till race time and I parked in a RiteAid parking lot. I went in and bought a new pair and was back in business. I started my warmup which consisted of some jogging and strides. By the time I was ready to move to the start, the large crowd had formed against the start line, so I just kind of squeezed in right at the front. I knew I'd get passed by a bunch of people, but it was better for me than having to get back in the pack and fight through a crowd.
The Star Spangled Banner was sung, Opera-style, and the starter gave some closing instructions. I started my tunes, and the gun went off. I kept telling myself to take it easy, slow down, don't get sucked into the pack. I felt comfortable, my breathing was relaxed. About .5 mile, I looked at my Garmin, and the pace showed 6:10. Yikes! TOO FAST! So the next half mile I spent trying to slow down to a reasonable pace so I didn't throw my whole race off. My goal coming in was 7:30/mi which would be a 34sec/mi PR for this race. Plus, with my AT issues a couple months ago, I haven't really done much speed training, just trying to build up my mileage base again. I finished the first mile at 6:46, still way too fast, but OK I guess.
The next 3 miles just went by, nothing remarkable, my splits were very good though (7:16, 7:08, 7:15). I just locked in and took care of business.
Then came mile 5. After a brief (.11) downhill, the rest of the course (save the last 264 feet) is a gradual incline that is downright torturous. All said, it's about 100 feet of elevation gain over .84mi. I struggled with it 3 years ago, and I struggled again today. My pace slowed quite a bit. I knew I had to keep going though and finish strong. Looking at my Garmin results, I actually slowed to a 10:04 pace at a point during mile 5. Right near the top of that incline, I decided I would just finish it now. I started my kick with about 1000 feet to go. I started gaining on a couple guys who had passed me when I slowed. I set my sights on them and went into sprint mode. For that last portion, my pace registered as 4:48/mi. Once I was able to see the results, one of the two guys I passed was in my age group, so had I not kicked like that, I would have been 12th instead of 11th.
Overall, I had fun. Like I said before, my goal was 37:30, or 7:30 pace. I ran this race in 2008, 2 1/2 months after I started running, and finished in 40:23, or 8:04 pace. My time for a 5 mile race in April, when I was training hard before my AT injury, was 36:53 (7:22/mi). Today, I finished in 36:33 (7:19/mi), a PR by 3 minutes, 50 seconds.
Splits: 6:46 - 7:16 - 7:08 - 7:15 - 8:04 (If only I could have evened that out...)
Overall Finish:
91st out of 775
Age group:
11th out of 35
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