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| Finisher's Medal |
50 Degrees and Clear Skies...
In other words, the weather was on our side again. There was a little wind, but it never really felt like it was really pushing against us. No excuses not to put up a solid time. My running this summer has gone well so I know I had good enough fitness to run a good time. The question was could I keep out of my own way and not do anything stupid on the run course that would stop me from running a good time. I really felt I could get my personal course record, with an outside chance at hitting my 10 mile PR. In order to do that, I figured I wanted to never see a split higher than 7:10 on my watch other than the third mile (the hill to get up to the Franklin Avenue bridge). If I managed that, I figured I would have a chance to let gravity do its thing in the final mile and help me hit my PR time.
7:23???
That was the split I saw when I came through mile 6. Now, mile 6 does not have the worst of the hills and I was just a little pissed at myself. Especially since I had come through the 5 mile point in 35:16 which had me in good position to that point. So I made a conscious effort to pick up the pace a little. So when I saw a 7:12 for mile 7 I was really pissed off at myself. The rolling nature of the hills on mile 7 were definitely easier than mile 6 and I was not able to get back to my goal of 7:10 or better per mile. So, the weather was cooperating, my running prep was there, and here I was screwing it up again. At this point, I had made enough small stupid mistakes on this course that I figured why not throw it all out there and either get my PR or have a really epic failure. So I really picked it up now. If my mental math was correct, I needed to hit 7:00 flat for the final three miles to make my PR. As I was picking it up, I was not feeling too bad. So when I saw the 6:49 for the next split I was glad to be back on track. I tried my best to hold the pace for the next mile and hit a 6:51. I was still feeling pretty good at this point. On the edge, but I thought I could hold it for another mile. Of course at this point, I was doing the math to see what would be needed to go under 1:10 so I could actually average sub 7 minute miles. I could not really do the math so I just ran down the hill towards the Capitol as fast as I could. As the clock came into view, I could see 1:09:4X and was not sure if I could get to the line in time. As I crossed the line with a clock reading of 1:10:1X I was a little pissed off. It really sucks to be that close to a milestone and miss it. Who knows when the weather and my fitness are going to come together for a great race opportunity. Then I checked my watch... 1:09:57... So, my chip time was just under the 1:10 barrier.
Summary
Overall I ended up pleased with the race. The more I look at my splits, the more I wonder what the heck I was doing out there. My splits were all over the place. Also, the final three miles were all under 7:00 minutes so I clearly could have run a little bit faster than I did. Oh well. Be happy with a PR.
One last thing... Next June I will be taking another shot at the Garry Bjorklund. I "won" a slot in the random drawing from the Grandma's Minnesota Mile in Duluth a couple weekends ago. The whole concept of calling the method of giving out slots for the popular races as lotteries is a little bit of a misnomer. Something tells me Powerball would not be nearly as popular if when you "won" the Powerball you had to pay the lottery $75 and then you now had the privilege to run 10 or 13 miles.
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| Garry Bjorklund Here I Come! |
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