Oak Hill Flyer

i was motivated to find some degree of a 15-25k race this weekend, being two weeks out from the marathon. the closest that i could find was up in dallas, a 15k around white rock lake.

k and i left for dallas friday after work, and stopped off in waco for our pre-race dinner. we hit the baylor campus fazoli's, thinking we'd be able to get a big pasta meal quickly such that we could get back on the road. instead we found a busload of high school cross country runners in line; apparently there was a big invitational in waco the next morning. while i was certainly pleased to see that running was alive and well in central texas, couldn't it have been alive and well at some other restaurant? damn these runners... damn them!

we get to our stay in dallas with no problems, and turn in early. a quick drive to the starting line allows us to register; i get in a 2 mile warmup before the gun. unfortunately, the weather wasn't quite living up to the moniker of the race: 80 degrees and humid.

the race was held amongst the general public's use of the trail, and there were hundreds of others using the trail as well. it was tough to tell how many people were in front of me, due to all the non-racers on the path and the fact that there was a 5k turnaround point for those running a shorter distance. nonetheless, there was usually a bobbing head up ahead that i could track.

i felt i paced myself well through the early miles, and gave good chase in the final 10k. for the final 5 miles of the race, i had but one person ahead to track, and he was a good 30 seconds in front. i figured he was uncatchable. i was timing his splits however, and found with two miles to go i was gaining. i was able to chip a 18 second lead at mile seven down to 10 seconds by mile eight, which would give me just enough room to catch him in this 9.3 mile race. i wound up passing him right at the mile nine marker, and held him off for the finish. i was hoping that this fella was training for a fall marathon, my ego, just wouldn't be able to bear the news of this kid "just jumping into the race" and giving me a run for my money, given all of my marathon training! as it turned out, not only was jason gearing up for a marathon three weeks from now, but he was from austin as well. we hung out a good bit after the race.

i cooled down on the back of the course, and ran k in for the final half-mile. i thought she looked fine; however, she had some complications with the heat and wasn't pleased with her finish. nonetheless, her efforts landed her an age group award, which seemed to ease the pain of the run a good bit.

as i found out upon looking at the final results, i finished in second place, just a minute behind the winner! maybe this 30-year-old gig isn't so bad after all! surprised by the result, i thought about whether or not i could have ran a faster race, given my slight positive-split finish. i've concluded that maybe i left 10-20 seconds on the table, but nothing more, especially given the conditions.

[...]

barring illness, misfortune, and/or acts of god, the marathon is on. it really doesn't seem like i've been training all summer for this race; that i've had my eyes on this fall marathon since december 2005. but running journals (and for that matter, yesterday's race) don't lie; apparently, i've done the work. the next two weeks will consist of training runs, but the intensity and risk of injury will be significantly reduced in the name of letting my body rest for super sunday. over the next two weeks, i'll focus more on the mental aspect of the race: memorizing the course, plotting a pacing plan, working on my scandinavian accent.

[...]

1:00:50 => 1st 30-34M, 2nd overall
636, 631, 620, 632, 621, 634, 638, 648, 633, 157 (+0.3)

Posted by OHF on 17 September 2006 at 12:42 | Permalink