Cinco de Mayo 10K

Earlier this week, Steve asked whether I was interested in doing the Bolder Boulder 10K. I'm glad he asked because I had been thinking about asking him whether I could do this race. There was only one problem. I wanted to start in one of the qualifying time waves but did not have a 10K qualifying time since I had no results from Rage in the Sage (more on that in a future post). I could have used one of my 5K times from the previous year. However, I wanted a more accurate 10K time to reflect what I am currently running since I am not running as fast as I was in July 2008 when I ran the Highlands Ranch July 4th 5K but I seem to be running faster than in November and December 2008 when I ran the Turkey Trot 5K and the Jingle Bells 5K. The solution: Steve wrote the Highlands Ranch Cinco de Mayo 10K into my training schedule.

Steve and I did not talk did about goals before this race. However, I am beginning to develop a feel for how Steve wants me to approach races. So, I set the following goals:

1) Finish in less than 62 minutes (okay, probably not a goal Steve would approve but the whole point of doing this race was to get a qualifying time for Bolder Boulder);

2) Start slow and build through the race; and

3) Have enough left at the end to pick up the pace.

As has been the case for the last month, the weather turned bad again this weekend. Last night, it rained. This morning, it was overcast and a cool 40 or so degrees. The poor weather may have kept some people away as something like 65 runners were listed as finishing this race. I am kind of surpised since the weather was nice running weather.

Despite the nasty looking conditions, Brenda and I headed up to the race site early so that I could join Laura for a 2 mile warm-up run. Brenda decided to walk the 5K since she plans to walk Bolder Boulder with her friends. After she has signed up for the 5K earlier this week, she was informed by a friend in Highlands Ranch that no one walks the Highlands Ranch races. I immediately received an email asking me why I didn't give her this information because she did not want to finish last. I didn't tell her because I didn't know this information. When I told her that I didn't know, she informed me that she should've known better because I'm a terrible observer. Later, she told me that I must buy her an expensive dinner if she finished last. Fortunately, she did not finish last as she kicked butt and walked the course in sub-15 minute miles.

After arriving at the race site, I picked up my race number and timing chip. Laura and I then went on a slow two mile run to warm up. Andrea wanted me to run with Laura to keep me from going to hard during warm-up. We ended with some striders and headed back to the race start. After jogging for a few minutes with Brenda and using the restroom in the Southridge recreation, I got to the start line about one minute before the 10K race. There were so few people running the race that I did not have a hard time finding a start position. I try to position myself more towards the back of the small pack so that I would not start too fast.

The gun sounded and we were off. As is typical in Highlands Ranch races, the first portion of the course (maybe first 1/2 mile) was downhill. This seemed to spur people to go out fast, which resulted in me being towards the back 1/3 of the group. It was difficult to hold back but I was pretty sure the course would eventually go uphill so I tried to conserve energy. I settled into was seemed to be a comfortable pace for me. As the road began to go slightly uphill after about the first 1/2 mile, I started catching and passing people ahead of me on the course. The uphill was short and turned back into a downhill. However, I continued to pass people who seemed to be struggling as we approached the first mile.

At mile one, I caught up with a guy running in an orange race shirt. There was also a water station at mile 1. As we passed it, the volunteers asked if we wanted water. The guy said no but he would take a beer if they had one. I commented that a beer sounded good but would probably be better after the race. He agreed, and we exchanged small talk for the next 1/4 mile. At this point, the course was still downhill. I was feeling good and started to pull away from him. However, he picked up the pace and stayed just behind me. As we continued towards mile 2, we passed a few more people.

After mile 2, the course continued to be slightly downhill. I started to open up a gap between me and the orange shirt guy. About half-way to mile 3, however, the course began to go uphill again. The orange shirt guy caught and passed me. It is not for long, however, as the course just as quickly turned back downhill which allowed me to catch and pass him. Of course, this being Highlands Ranch the course once again started to go uphill as we approach mile 3. The orange shirt guy passed me again and opened up a gap on me. Meanwhile, we were both catching up with and passing about two or three other people ahead of us on the course.

As we continued climbing uphill, I thought that it strange I had seen no one running back the other way since the I knew the turn-around was coming up. Finally, there was one guy running back. Then, just behind him a pack of three people. There was a couple of more and then I started to lose count. I need to do better job of counting the number of people ahead of me. In my defense, usually there are so many that I can't keep track. As I crested the top of the hill, I thought I could see the turn-around. I was kind of surprised since not much time had passed since I had seen the first runner heading back (at the end, not really surprising since I think his pace was around 7:12 min/miles - where were all of the fast runners?). Anyway, the turn-around came pretty quick. At that point, I would guess there were about 20 or so people (maybe 25) ahead of me on the course.

As I headed back, the course again went downhill. I quickly caught the guy in the orange shirt. He was clearly a bit stronger than me on uphills but I was faster on the more flat and downhill sections. As I caught him, I told him that he was strong on the hills. He agreed but pointed out that it wasn't doing him any good since I was catching and passing him on the downhills. I laughed and told him not to worry because there were plenty of uphill portions left for him to catch me on. In truth, I was thinking that I had been holding back a little on the downhill and uphill portions and that I had no intent of letting him pass me again on an uphill portion since the race was more than half over.

I slowly started to pull away from him on the downhill. I could tell since I could no longer hear his footsteps or his breathing. After opening up a gap on him. I began focusing on trying to catch people ahead of me on the course. When I passed a person, I would then focus on the next person that I could see.

As I passed mile 4, the course again turned uphill. This actually proved to be helpful as I would slowly but steadily closed the gap between me and the person just ahead of me as the course went uphill. Just before mile 5, the course reached a peak. I could see the 5k and 10K course below. From this vantage point, I observed the course went downhill for a short distance and the headed uphill again. I also thought that I saw Brenda walking on the 5K course. I was excited to see her since I knew that I would pass her as we headed towards the finish.

Once I past mile 5, the course again started uphill again. I saw two woman and a man just ahead of me. One by one, I caught each one of them and passed them. Then I saw Brenda just ahead. As I went past her, I said hi. There were two guys ahead of me but they had a fairly large gap on me. As we neared mile 6, the uphill got fairly steep. While I was making up ground, it wasn't fast enough. Once we got to the top of the hill, the last 0.2 miles was pretty much downhill. Although I picked up the pace, they also picked up the pace. In the end, they finished about fifteen seconds ahead of me. As for the orange shirt guy, he never caught me again once I passed him for good on the downhill section just after the turn-around.

After finishing the race, I got some water and waited for Brenda to finish. She came through at around 45 minutes. She actually walked faster than some of the people who jogged/walked the 5K. I was very proud of her. Plus, since she was not last, I was off the hook for buying her an expensive dinner.

Overall, I was pleased with this race. I felt strong enough at the end of the race to run another mile. Also, other than the early back and forth with the orange shirt guy, I was never passed in the race. I also was continually improving my place as the race progressed. The results showed that I finished 12th out of 66 participants. Best of all, I got my wave qualifying time as I finished in well under 72 minutes with a time of 51:36. In short, it was a very fun and successful training race.