sugar land 30k
as a function of k training for the houston marathon (jan 07), she registered for a 30k in sugar land, just outside of houston. never one to pass up a road trip opportunity, i offered to go along with her. never one to pass up a reason to run, i registered for the race myself, just one week off of running decker.
sugar land is a houston suburb built on the success of imperial sugar--we drove by their original facility, which had a fine, turn-of-the-20th-century look about it. the rest of the drive in, however, was less sightworthy--the area's seeming lack of zoning restrictions left for an odd collection of residences, shopping plazas, freeways, and stadium-sized churches. as we were to see later, a sign in the town square proudly quoted money magazine regarding their town: "one of america's best!" best what? best examples of suburban hell?
we found finish line sports, the specialty store where we signed up for the race. the staff was friendly and welcoming, and we browsed around for a bit. the jewel of the store, however, was found in the customer restroom of all places: a personal 35mm collection of the 1984 us olympic trials was on display, yellowing shots of a young carl lewis and athletics west team members were hung in a multi-mat frame. i spoke with the owner of the pics a bit, pleased to meet another appreciator of us running history.
the morning provided us with near-perfect conditions: temps in the high 40s, a touch of drizzle, and minor breezes. the start was in sugar land's newly-built town square: after prayer and anthem, the race began.
the 30k runs loops around the extremely affluent sweetwater neighborhood, a sight that southies like k and myself snickered at. despite the private architecture, the course was mostly uninteresting: a "loop" was nothing more than a two-mile trip down the straight-and-flat palm royale, and a two-mile return. with spurs out and back to town square, there were three loops in all. if anything, the course provided (a) speed, (b) constant company (with ~700 runners, there was plenty of lap traffic and spectators), and (c) the ability to watch people on the return (e.g. k and i could see each other once every two miles, i could see how far ahead/behind competition was on turnarounds).
in contrast to my deep negative split at decker, i wanted to run a negative split by the narrowest of margins at the 30k. i felt that this approach might be more difficult, but may yield a faster time. within the first three miles, i was not having fun: my hamstrings were still tight from decker, and the course was clearly going to be a mind-numbing one. nonetheless, i hung with my pace, which certainly seemed to be on the razor's edge of "too fast."
through the first 10k, i still felt uncomfortable and tense. i felt surrounded by houston marathon runners, who in stark contrast to yours truly, are at the peak of their training right now. by mile 8, i had serious thoughts about hanging it up, that my undertrained legs might suffer great damage if subject to too much stress. however, the people watching, sporadic k sightings, and ensuing lap traffic made for a decent distraction. through 15k, i had the sobering realization that i may not have respected this distance much when i signed up: i'm 50% done... with nine miles to go! i had an extremely difficult time convincing myself i would finish with any degree of strength. thoughts of never being able to run sub-three crossed my mind. i told myself to hang tough through the half-marathon mark (mile 13), and make a call from there.
i made it through 13 in respectable time, with good aerobic capacity. my muscles, however, were simply stiff. at that time, i started to think about what dick beardsley told me years back--that your only choice in the middle of a race is to think positive. i just started telling myself that my hamstrings were going to loosen up. that they'll be okay and they'll see you through to the finish.
minutes later, my hamstrings loosened up. furthermore, i find myself sticking with a small pack of runners. furthermore, i find myself knifing through lap traffic to set the pace on the small pack. it didn't add up... with how i felt 3 miles into the race, when is the other shoe going to drop? as soon as i thought of that question, i stopped thinking about it: think only of keeping the pack, and getting to the next mile mark. the next turnaround. the next front-lawn fountain. whatever.
that strategy worked with resounding success. my legs kept turning, and the pace was not only held, it was picked up. it didn't make sense at the outset, but it worked. and now i found myself one mile away from exiting these blasted loops, and three miles away from finish.
to go straight through the u-turn seen three times prior felt like someone pulling my head out from underwater, where it had been for the past 12 miles. it was mile 17, and i hit it. the route back into town was a page straight out of the final 4 miles of the twin cities marathon: ever-so-slight incline on a tree-laden road with median. running mostly with my arms at this point, i fought to catch the four runners that were approximately 30 seconds in front of me. one was to be caught at mile 18, but the other three finished strong and were out of reach.
the rain started with a half-mile to go; just enough motivation to get out of there as quickly as possible. i was ridiculously happy with my finish, given my modest training and risky game plan. after drying off, i went back out to the finish, in time to catch k cross with a respectable time herself. the post race consisted of cold pizza and soft drinks in a parking garage, where awards and door prizes were handed out.
despite the sleeper course, the volunteers were welcoming, eager, and in healthy numbers. my aggressive pace strategy paid off in spades, and i hope to try it again in the near future when i'm actually trained for a race of such a distance. despite any positive thoughts i may be having right now, my hamstrings are a touch tight from 30k of flats.
2:05:57 (646/mi; 32nd overall; 7th 30-34M)
==========================================
00-06 mi: 642 659 653 644 647 648 (649/mi avg)
07-12 mi: 653 644 655 643 644 640 (646/mi avg)
13-18 mi: 639 641 649 636 643 646 (642/mi avg)
final .6: 413
sugar land is a houston suburb built on the success of imperial sugar--we drove by their original facility, which had a fine, turn-of-the-20th-century look about it. the rest of the drive in, however, was less sightworthy--the area's seeming lack of zoning restrictions left for an odd collection of residences, shopping plazas, freeways, and stadium-sized churches. as we were to see later, a sign in the town square proudly quoted money magazine regarding their town: "one of america's best!" best what? best examples of suburban hell?
we found finish line sports, the specialty store where we signed up for the race. the staff was friendly and welcoming, and we browsed around for a bit. the jewel of the store, however, was found in the customer restroom of all places: a personal 35mm collection of the 1984 us olympic trials was on display, yellowing shots of a young carl lewis and athletics west team members were hung in a multi-mat frame. i spoke with the owner of the pics a bit, pleased to meet another appreciator of us running history.
the morning provided us with near-perfect conditions: temps in the high 40s, a touch of drizzle, and minor breezes. the start was in sugar land's newly-built town square: after prayer and anthem, the race began.
the 30k runs loops around the extremely affluent sweetwater neighborhood, a sight that southies like k and myself snickered at. despite the private architecture, the course was mostly uninteresting: a "loop" was nothing more than a two-mile trip down the straight-and-flat palm royale, and a two-mile return. with spurs out and back to town square, there were three loops in all. if anything, the course provided (a) speed, (b) constant company (with ~700 runners, there was plenty of lap traffic and spectators), and (c) the ability to watch people on the return (e.g. k and i could see each other once every two miles, i could see how far ahead/behind competition was on turnarounds).
in contrast to my deep negative split at decker, i wanted to run a negative split by the narrowest of margins at the 30k. i felt that this approach might be more difficult, but may yield a faster time. within the first three miles, i was not having fun: my hamstrings were still tight from decker, and the course was clearly going to be a mind-numbing one. nonetheless, i hung with my pace, which certainly seemed to be on the razor's edge of "too fast."
through the first 10k, i still felt uncomfortable and tense. i felt surrounded by houston marathon runners, who in stark contrast to yours truly, are at the peak of their training right now. by mile 8, i had serious thoughts about hanging it up, that my undertrained legs might suffer great damage if subject to too much stress. however, the people watching, sporadic k sightings, and ensuing lap traffic made for a decent distraction. through 15k, i had the sobering realization that i may not have respected this distance much when i signed up: i'm 50% done... with nine miles to go! i had an extremely difficult time convincing myself i would finish with any degree of strength. thoughts of never being able to run sub-three crossed my mind. i told myself to hang tough through the half-marathon mark (mile 13), and make a call from there.
i made it through 13 in respectable time, with good aerobic capacity. my muscles, however, were simply stiff. at that time, i started to think about what dick beardsley told me years back--that your only choice in the middle of a race is to think positive. i just started telling myself that my hamstrings were going to loosen up. that they'll be okay and they'll see you through to the finish.
minutes later, my hamstrings loosened up. furthermore, i find myself sticking with a small pack of runners. furthermore, i find myself knifing through lap traffic to set the pace on the small pack. it didn't add up... with how i felt 3 miles into the race, when is the other shoe going to drop? as soon as i thought of that question, i stopped thinking about it: think only of keeping the pack, and getting to the next mile mark. the next turnaround. the next front-lawn fountain. whatever.
that strategy worked with resounding success. my legs kept turning, and the pace was not only held, it was picked up. it didn't make sense at the outset, but it worked. and now i found myself one mile away from exiting these blasted loops, and three miles away from finish.
to go straight through the u-turn seen three times prior felt like someone pulling my head out from underwater, where it had been for the past 12 miles. it was mile 17, and i hit it. the route back into town was a page straight out of the final 4 miles of the twin cities marathon: ever-so-slight incline on a tree-laden road with median. running mostly with my arms at this point, i fought to catch the four runners that were approximately 30 seconds in front of me. one was to be caught at mile 18, but the other three finished strong and were out of reach.
the rain started with a half-mile to go; just enough motivation to get out of there as quickly as possible. i was ridiculously happy with my finish, given my modest training and risky game plan. after drying off, i went back out to the finish, in time to catch k cross with a respectable time herself. the post race consisted of cold pizza and soft drinks in a parking garage, where awards and door prizes were handed out.
despite the sleeper course, the volunteers were welcoming, eager, and in healthy numbers. my aggressive pace strategy paid off in spades, and i hope to try it again in the near future when i'm actually trained for a race of such a distance. despite any positive thoughts i may be having right now, my hamstrings are a touch tight from 30k of flats.
2:05:57 (646/mi; 32nd overall; 7th 30-34M)
==========================================
00-06 mi: 642 659 653 644 647 648 (649/mi avg)
07-12 mi: 653 644 655 643 644 640 (646/mi avg)
13-18 mi: 639 641 649 636 643 646 (642/mi avg)
final .6: 413
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