rochrunner
Cool Runner |
 posted Aug-26-2007 10:13 AM
   
Short report: I might be the only Boomer who had a good experience at the Crim all the way around. Warm, humid, and rainy. Small Boomer meeting. Ran 10-mile PR 1:28:15 feeling really good in spite of it all. 28/186 AG (!), 2176/7250 OA. This was also something like my 14th straight event PR at various distances from 5K to HM, going back to at least 2003.Fashion report: Black shorts, white & silver Asics sleeveless top, grey cap, Brooks Adrenaline GTS-7s and socks. Long report: Things were not going well the last couple of days. Our power was out almost 24 hours and came on Friday evening as I was trying to get things together for the race. It had not been on for 10 minutes when a new line of storms hit, complete with tornado sirens blaring. Luckily, we were spared any damage in our immediate area and the lights only flickered a time or two. So I got up to Flint at my usual early hour and was surprised that the off-ramp was backing up already. This was mainly due to some critical traffic lights that were out and working as 4-way stops, and I wondered how that would go when people really started arriving, as there were over 14,000 entries this year, 7700 of them for the 10-mile. Flint had taken the same storms, and a town 10 miles south had been hit by a tornado, so things were a bit disrupted. I waited at the appointed Boomer meeting spot, which admittedly is a bit crowded if you have no idea who you’re looking for. No MarkGuy or tselbs (who were stuck in the aforementioned traffic jam), but msuyama was a pleasant surprise to see since I hadn’t heard from him since last year’s race. He also introduced me to his lovely sister (k-suyama?), who was running her first Crim. I am going to count her as a Boomer goddess even if she’s not on the board. We also managed to find marathon derrick, who looks awfully young and buff, and seemed to know every third person that walked by. Sorry, gals – no photos for you to swoon over. I thought that anachrotech had dropped out, so didn’t look for her, but apparently we were within yards of each other. Maybe next year? Waiting for anyone else to show up, I didn’t line up in an appropriate spot, and started a lot farther back than I planned on. Especially since there was an official 10-mile walk at the same time, the first couple of miles were really brutal for traffic, and besides it had started raining lightly just before the gun. So I decided that with the damp, warm conditions and the crowds, I would just run a slightly 9+ pace and enjoy the experience. But after the third mile, as usual, my “steady pace” seemed to increase and other goals started to creep in. I seemed to be doing a lot of things right – not starting out too fast, not losing time at water stops – and my pace was more like 8:45. When I hit the infamous Bradley Hills, I also used past experiences to get up those hills the right way, and once over the top I knew that this run had some potential. It turned out that I only lost about 15 seconds on that long series of uphills and plateaus. Knowing a course as well as I know the Crim after 8 years seems to make it shorter since you always know where you are and what’s coming up next. When I got to the 8-mile mark, I was really feeling good and wicked it up a bit to do 8:25 and 8:07 in the last two miles, crossing the finish line in 1:28:15 for a PR by about 1:30! My 5-mile split was 45:06, so I did the 2nd five in 43:09. Afterwards, it was a different meeting under the tent, as I found Mark and Tom and heard their stories about getting into town and finding places to park. Tom went to go watch his daughter and wife finish their events, and Mark had other family activities planned, so after vowing to meet again in a year (if not sooner), we said our goodbyes and parted.
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- Runnin' in Rochester Rochrunner
IP: Logged |
huskydon
Cool Runner |
posted Aug-27-2007 10:53 AM
Roch,Very nicely done! Lots of positives to take away from this one, a healthy PR, continuing the lengthy PR string, negative split, and two very strong finishing miles. All this with the crowds, temperature, and humidity, too. Sounds like a great event that just keeps on growing. Congratulations!
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