Race Report - Raynham 15K

They called this race the "7th Annual Frostbite 15K Mid-Winter Classic Invitational." I'm not sure where that comes from, as there were neither invitations nor frostbite at this year's event. This was my first time racing over 10K on foot. The 9:20 am start was sweet, especially since I live in the next town. There were over 400 entrants, mostly "real" runners, as in running club members. Plenty of cars in the lot sported bike racks and triathlon bumper stickers too. The casual weekend warriors don't come out to 15K races in January.

I still managed to get myself behind a bit while fussing over clothing choices. The start was over a half mile from the school where headquarters was too. The temps were in the high 30's, and the roads were puddled from overnight rain, but it was only foggy and drizzly at race time. After warming up for about a mile, I decided to ditch my jacket and wear my BOB vest (one more time for the clown suit) because I could put gel flasks in the back pocket. I had two, one with two gels in it, mixed with Gatorade to make it thinner and easier to put down. The other just had water in it to get some liquid on the fly, and wash the sugar out of my mouth. This worked out pretty well, and along with grabbing a few cups of plain water at the aid stations I felt OK for the entire race. I ended up having to sprint back to the start and then fumble my number onto the vest while waiting for the gun in the herd.

Even with just the vest over my base layer, I was overdressed. That is probably OK, because at least I'm acclimating to thermal stress. It could be warm by the time the New Bedford half rolls around. I know a lot of people around here train for the marathon by running all winter at 6 am. Most of the time, winter nights in Massachusetts are pretty fucking cold, so these folks end up doing almost all their training in temps well below freezing. Then on the big day, well, 50's and 60's are not unusual around here at noontime in April, especially once you get into the city itself. These people often have problems with the "heat" as a result. I race much better warm than I do cold, so I usually overdress and sweat it out.

For today, I lined up about five rows back from the front. I wanted to go out at a reserved pace for a change. Trying to follow a few runners in club singlets who looked to be my age or older, the first mile came up at 6:39. There seemed to be hundreds of people ahead of me, but I guess there weren't that many. My HRM battery is on its last legs, so I couldn't put it in record mode, but it would give me reading so long as I didn't try to save anything. I kept it around 156, three or four bpm below LT. The second mile was also a 6:39, and the third 6:42, for a three mile split of exactly twenty minutes. I felt OK, there was a bit of climbing in the fourth mile which drove my HR up over LT even though I finished it in 6:54, and so in the fifth mile I recovered a bit and it ended in 7:00. The sixth mile was pretty flat but I kept it to 6:56 in anticipation of the "steep hill" described on the flyer. I knew the area pretty well, but this section of the course looped through some pretty smelly pig farms and it's a road I generally skip when on the bike, so I didn't know the hill. The ascent started right at mile six, and it went up at maybe 3-5% for 500 meters or so before basically leveling off.

I must have accidentally stopped my watch while fumbling my flasks in and out of my back pockets, because I found it off during mile seven. At first I didn't realize this, and thought I was really flying. After a few more glances, it finally registered with my brain that it wasn't moving... I waited until the 8 mile marker and turned it back on. Later I was able to extrapolate
that the uphill mile seven must have taken around 7:20, and after turning on the jets at the marker, mile eight passed in around 6:38. Mile nine clocked 6:41, and the last three tenths took 2:02 for an official finish time of 1:03:31, 21/95 in my age group, and 84/413 overall. This all calcs out to a 6:50/mile pace, which coincidentally is one second per mile faster than the predicted half marathon pace from my FIRST training program. All I have to do is hold this pace for another 6K... The other good news is that my splits were, for me anyway, pretty even. After the first 3 miles at 20:00, the next were 20:49, and the last 20:40.

Afterwards I wasn't as wasted as after my last few long training runs. Even though this was on pavement, I wore my Grid Labyrinth trail runners, and my calves felt pretty good. So far these shoes seem to be working out the best of those I've tried. I'm left wondering if last week's sore calf episode was due to too much during the week, my first long run on pavement, or possibly too much padding in the previously untried Grid Triumph Pro IV's. I'll try them again soon, although the mild winter is supposed to end in another day or two, and my training fortitude will really be tested. I don't like to run when it is snowy, icy, or otherwise slippery. Cold I can deal with.

After changing to dry clothes, I jogged three laps of the track at the school to cool down. Then I went inside to check results, and found they had a free breakfast with pork and beans, eggs, homefries, and muffins. Yowza. Beats bananas and bagels anytime. So that's it. Straight up boring running race report. I've been barely touching the bike, but maybe I'll get on the trainer for an extended session tomorrow. It sucks having a broken MTB. I'll have to do something about that soon. If the weather really starts to suck, there will be plenty of trainer time, and maybe I'll even get a chance to flop around the field on my nordic skies. Thanks for reading mofos!