ARA 20 Mile Race Report

I had a pretty good race. I started out with the 4:30 pace group, not on purpose but because all the pace groups were bunched together at the start. I started to try and pass them, but they were actually doing a 9:30 pace, and even though my goal pace was 10 I didn’t want to fall behind them, so I kept up with them. I felt the first couple miles were too fast, a little under 10 each. I lost a lot of time on the first waterstop (they did learn to just dunk the cups in the powerade once I got there). The 4:30 pacer started doing a slower pace during the out and back, so I passed him and kept going. I made it up the hill and back just fine.

I was aiming at doing a strong 16 miles then falling back. I was pretty tired most of the race, but it was pretty easy to keep of the pace. I caught up with Sara Grahm in the tree tunnel, and ran with her for a little bit. She dropped back towards the end of the tree tunnel (maybe around 14) and I kept up my pace. I got to mile 16, and didn’t have too much left in the tank, but for some reason (possibly ill advised) decided to try and do my MGP the entire race. I got to the Phil and the start of the last hills, and felt pretty bad. I am proud of the fact that I kept running even through for a while through the hills I didn’t see a single person running. I passed a ton of people, and used my arms and legs (and a couple expletives) to get myself over the hills. I got back to crosspoint and really had to dig deep to keep myself from walking. I felt that if I walked then I would shutdown, but I was nervous that I would not be in good shape when I crossed the finish line. I got to Steve, he gave me some encouragement at 19, and pushed myself the final mile having not walked.

Sara then caught back up with me and we finished together.

My splits from my garmin are pretty off, since I didn’t see a lot of the mile markers and forgot to hit lap a couple of times. The splits from run-far show a very surprisingly steady pace. I did around 2 minutes slower then my MGP 20 miler time so I’m happy about that. So I feel pretty good that once I taper I should do pretty good. I felt very sore afterwards, and after an icebath I feel better. My acheles were acting up (I need to roll my calfs) but my knees were really bothering me too. It’s not a pain on the outside of the knee so I don’t think it’s IT band, but maybe they were just really sore.

Mile 1: 9:43
Mile 2-3: 10:01 maybe
Mile 4.03ish: 10:13
Mile 5ish: 9:51
Mile 6: 10:10
Mile 7: 10:23
Mile 8-9: 9:53/mi
Mile 10:10:05/mi
Mile 11: 10/mi
Mile 12,13,14: 9:55/mi
Mile 15: 9:54/mi
Mile 16,17: 10:15/mi
Mile 18,19: 9:57/mi
Mile 20: 10:30/mi

Splits from Run-far:

10K: 1:02:38.40 10:05/M
15K: 1:33:52.95 10:13/M
20K: 2:04:53.35 10:09/M
25K: 2:36:17.40 10:09/M
20M: 3:21:51.95 10:10/M

Total Time: 3:21:51
Total Pace: 10:06/M