RRCA Club Challenge 10 Miler Race Report

Started a little farther back from the mats than I should have. Ended up passing a huge clump of people within the first half mile to find people running my pace. No big deal though.

Miles 1-5: Steady effort, getting into my groove. Didn't check my watch these miles. There was a lot of downhill and I didn't want the splits to mislead me somehow. Passed a couple people during these miles after that first clump. Somewhere between miles 4 and 5 I get locked into a battle with a DC runner.

Mile 6: Big hill. According to the Garmin (a new one which reads my HR well btw) my HR jumped 12 bmp this mile. Things felt tough but I recovered fine after. Battle with DC runner continues.

Miles 7-8: Legs feeling a little tired, breathing is fine. I have plenty left in me. Somewhere around mile 8 I throw a surge and drop the DC runner. I end up next to the next runner up ahead. He shoots me a "good runnin' ". I reply "thanks'. We sit next to each other a little. Then another surge and I drop him too.

I remember thinking to myself, if I had to, I could extend this to a half marathon with a small fade in the last couple miles.

Miles 9 - 10: Breathing a little harder but not too bad. With about half mile to 1k ish to go, I start to pick it up. I get a bit of a pit in my stomach, not horrible but not great. Then I see the finish with about 400 to go. I pick it up more, pass one more person, come around the bend and see I am going to be under 62, nice.

Official Chip Time: 1:01:37

Splits according to Garmin, which were often a few seconds before the mile markers on the course:

5:53, 6:03, 6:07, 6:07, 6:06, 6:22, 6:13, 6:12, 6:04, 5:57, last 0.11 in 35 seconds. The course is certified so the last 0.11 is just error. Probably add 3-5 seconds to most of the mile splits above.

Hit 60 miles for the week. All easy running and strides, except for a maintenance fartlek on Tuesday with 8 X 2min T / 1 min easy.

Andy Nice story lol. And fair point, I'll get a pic up soon. Will probably just use the one I use for Strava.

JMac Hope you feel better soon.

mmerkle - Very nice, some great strategy practice in this race.  I'm the same as Dave, always looking at my watch early to get into the groove of the right effort.  Even more so in the marathon to make sure I'm not going too fast.

Dorothea - Sounds like exactly the right kind of week for you.  You're right, no point getting annoyed about it, much better now than in 6 weeks.  There's a guy I always see on a Thursday who flies past me when I'm on a recovery run and we now acknowledge each other all the time...but me having a human brain always had this nagging feeling of annoyance that this guy thinks he's faster than me...Strava tells me he's not, and does all his training at the same pace.  Anyway, I had a feeling he was gearing up for this half marathon so I was really looking forward to providing a little lesson.  Sure enough, he ran and I would have beaten him by about 12 minutes.  I know how ridiculous this sounds, but it's been going on for 2 years now!

Also, there's a point on the course where you do a small out and back, return to the same point and do a different out and back.  A guy in my coaching team was leading and inexplicably there was no marshal there when he arrived, and he hadn't studied the course, so he missed the second out and back.  He was confused the next time he noticed a km marker but kept going, broke the tape 5 minutes ahead of second...but his watch said 20km.  He had to explain and disqualify himself for a DNF.  That extra 1.1km or so would have taken about 3:30 at his speed so it would have still been a comfortable win.

Flavio - Sounds like all the signs point to a sensational race.  You just need to add some paranoia about a sore throat.

Mikkey - I hope you get back to full training soon so you can stop reducing my goal time by 10 minutes every few weeks...let's see how attempt #2 goes before making crazy goals.

Andy - I'm sad to say I have similar stories.  "Never drinking again" which lasted about a week or so.

Mark - Nice week.  Any goals for Waterfront yet?  Your course record is about 1:15 I think?

me - As I said earlier, easy week with no workouts.  This week was down as a recovery week from the race but I'll probably change it up.  My coach is camping somewhere without mobile coverage so I may have to plan out a week myself...

Weekly for period: From: 20/02/2023 To 26/02/2023

Total distance: 80.78km (50.20mi)

CK (replying to last week) - fine to put that HM on the front page. I am honestly curious to see what I will run - I think 1:32-1:33 is a reasonable goal. I'd congratulate you on the 95 mile week, but isn't that BAU for you?

Gels - I've tried shot bloks and like them for snacking pre-/post- race, but I don't see how you chew them while running.

Jmac - sorry to hear about the stomach bug, and glad you are on the way back.

Marky_Mark - did you note a difference in speed with the flats or was it just recovery?

Steve - I'm glad you are feeling better. Lousy timing. And funny about the other guy. I totally get it. I think we all do.

Flavio - if you are grumpy and achy, then fast times are on their way - I think it's a rule or something.

As for sunburning, I think a lot of it is genetics. And for those of us of European descent, it seems that people with pink undertones to their skin burn far more easily than those with golden undertones (I'm in the latter category).

DKTrotter - I got the lecture recently about skin cancer myself, so I started using sunscreen last summer. I've always been lax about it, both because I very rarely burn and because I understand that sun damage is greatest between 10 am and 4 pm, and I'm rarely if ever running at those times.

Glad you are recovering quickly. I'm a big fan of a few days of junk food post marathon.

MMerkle - very nice job on what is not the fastest of courses.

Krash - 21 miles on an indoor track.....did you go the same direction the whole time? We have an indoor track marathon here (or we did, I'm not sure if it still exists) but I believe that they reverse directions periodically.

Steve - I was thinking 1:13:59 for Waterfront (last time there I was in the high 1:14's).  Feeling pretty slow the last couple of weeks though lol.  Anyways, very inconsiderate of your coach to be outside coverage at the current time!

Dorothea / Flavio - I rotate around 3 or 4 different pairs of shoes anyways... but nothing as minimal as a racing flat for a while.  I did really notice the feeling of being closer to the ground and having to power off each stride a lot more.

Dorothea - Sounds like you recovered pretty well from your race.  Also, with your next race having a name like Hungryland, I'd really hope there's some quality post-race treats!

Flavio - one thing I have noticed about race prep is that how I feel in the week or two before the race never has any bearing on how the race actually goes!  So you may go awesome, or not, haha.  Anyways hope that back pain goes away at least.

Darkwave- there are simpler ways to rationalise buying more running shoes! In all seriousness though, that toebox width can make a big difference.  TBH if anything I think I was a little slower in the flats, simply because I'm not used to them any more.  I certainly FELT slower.

Mmerkle - congrats on the race, particularly given it looks like you didn't really taper into it.  I'm a bit like Dave and tend to look at my watch quite a lot early on to make sure I'm not over or under-cooking my effort.

Krash - blizzard run... nice.  I'd possibly have swapped my cyclone runs for that tbh.  Can see how the snowboard goggles would've helped.

Another solid week; happy with how things are going so far.

Wednesday’s track workout was McMillan cruise intervals, which is intended to be slightly faster than 10k. More reps and shorter recoveries than a typical VO2max workout. It was kind of a grind getting through that many reps, with short recoveries. My pace target was supposed to be 6:26-6:38. I was skeptical I'd be able to hit it, based on history and how long it sometimes takes me to warm up in the morning. But other than a slow 1st rep, I pretty much nailed it - all around 6:30 +/- 5 sec.

Saturday’s LR intended to target last 6 at goal MP, around 7:20-7:25. Instead ran 7:01, 7:08, 7:20, 7:13, 7:15, 7:10. I’m not going to make too much of it; the effort was probably a bit more than it should have been. I was at my group run and found a partner for that segment who’s faster than me, so I was just seeing if I could keep up. Felt good to put those miles down anyway.

Weekly for period: From: 02/20/2023 To 02/26/2023

Total distance: 67.14mi

mmerkle - Stellar performance! It must have felt so so good to be passing people late in the race

Steve - LOL yeah, you missed your chance to stick it to that dude. I confess I have gotten in way too many training duels in the past.

Darkwave - Team Pink Undertones here for sure, my head is slowly morphing into a redness akin to a rooster head.
Would toe separators help you in this case?

Mark - So did it feel nice to be closer to the ground even though you felt slower ? I love the feeling on shoes with a low stack, it's like I'm 100% in control. In fact I'm considering purchasing a pair of Lems Primal Zen which are only 14mm, and zero drop of course.

MMerk-  Great race!  well executed and ending a really solid week.

First race of the year I've officially registered for:

wcrunner2      June 16       Six Days in the Dome 12-Hour         40-45 miles (Sorry I can't be more specific for a goal)

The race is on a 443.5m track around the ice rink at the Pettit Center in Milwaukee. We'll change direction every 4 hours. Comfy 55F temps for a June race.