I
did not wear a GPS watch and I have to suspect the course was short - but in
any case I felt fast and strong and believe I ran a legitimately strong time on
the fast section from mile 1 to 4 -- here are the mile splits that I did manage
to record --
1st
mile - 6:02 - Uphill
3
mile - 16:50 (5:24 per mile) - Gradual downhill
4
mile - 22:28 (5:38) - Flat
6
mile - 34:50 (6:11 per mile) - Hilly, winding, narrow, crowded
6.2
mile - 36:11 - The last section winds through chute absolutely packed with 5k
finishers
The
Dawg Dash is a popular Seattle area race on a course that winds around the
University of Washington campus. As suggested by the event name, many runners
brought along their dogs to run along beside them. I decided to
participate in the event at the last second pretty much entirely for social
reasons -- in order to meet my friend John and his family for breakfast
afterward. As I warmed up on the freezing cold Seattle morning I was
wondering why I didn't just skip the run and go straight to breakfast and save
myself the $40 day-before-race entry fee. I was dreading the prospect of
struggling on a windy crowded course to run some lame time - I was expecting
around 39 minutes.
So
I went out very slowly on the long, uphill start trying to take it easy and
find a good pack to run with. I found myself behind some guy with an
Ironman 70.3 backward baseball cap. Maybe it was the cap that prompted me
to chase after this guy and remain with him as he picked up the pace. After
cresting the hill and hitting the mile mark we just screamed down a series of
long, gradual downhills. I kept thinking to myself that I really should
just slow down, but at that point I felt committed (and not so tired).
Also I knew the course would slow us down dramatically on the last 2 mile
section. This last section winds around the campus - ostensibly to give
the runners a scenic tour of the college. Also at this point we
intersected the 1,000-odd participants running the 5k. The primary challenge
was dodging all the dogs straining at their leashes. I had dropped the guy
with the Ironman baseball cap around 3-miles (unintentionally), and now at 4
miles I managed to tuck behind some, tall, college-aged runner who blazed a
trail through the horde of slow, 5k runners by bellowing out "move to your
right! move to your right!" The college kid did not sound happy.
In contrast, at this point I was quite satisfied with my 4-mile split,
the sunny weather, and the prospect of a nice breakfast. I was surprised when
we reached the 6-mile marker (maybe this section was short) where we started to
enter a narrow, crowded chute which made any sort-of finishing kick impossible.
So I remained 1-second behind the frustrated college kid and the 16th
place guy remained only a second behind me. I crossed the finish line and
congratulated the angry college kid who exclaimed "I will never, ever,
ever, do this race again, what an outrage!"
Once
again my racing performance seems to have no correlation whatsoever with any
objectives, periodization, training plan or race-day strategy that I might have
tried to formulate.
And
once again I find that tapering is over-rated (I was coming off a week of heavy
triathlon training - 6 hours on Thursday plus spin, yoga, and swim session the
day before).
But
unlike the college kid I could do the Dawg Dash again - it was fun and scenic, and my performance was encouraging after my recent mediocre triathlons.
No comments:
Post a Comment