Healthy Kidney 10k: Race Wrap-up 2009

2009 Healthy Kidney 10k – Race Wrap up 

Getting There.  Got off to a great start this morning.  I wouldn’t say I slept like a baby last night, but I got a decent night’s sleep.  Waking up at 7am, we gave ourselves about an hour to get dressed and fed, before heading out the door a little after eight. 

Saw quite a few fellow Healthy Kidney runners on the 2,3 train and upon exiting at columbus circle, noticed the entire southwest corner of the park was overtaken by us.  The 2,3 train goes local on weekends, so the commute from the financial district took entirely too long, but we made it into the park by 8:40am, with enough time to hit the port-a-potties and hop into the starting corral just in time to see…

• the introduction of the elite runners
• a brief statement by the NYRR’s Mary Wittenberg,
• a briefer statement by some representative of Dubai
• the singing of the national anthem
• and the “runner’s on your mark… [air-horn blast]“

I had excellent starting position, per usual.  Maybe a few rows ahead of my talent level, as this is a competitive club points race, but not by much… and whatever this was an important race for me.  Right at about the time the horn sounded, a faint drizzle broke out.

I did a pretty good job at resisting the urge to go out too fast.  I went a little fast, but I don’t feel guilty about it, clocking a 6:12 first mile when I was shooting for 6:30-ish.  About a half mile later, the drizzle turned into a light rain.  I passed the 2nd mile marker at about 12:36, which makes my second mile split at 6:24, much closer to my “early race” goal pace and also a nice average split of 6:18.  Then the rain picked up quite a bit.

I strongly dislike hills.  I used to hate them, but Joe from www.runwestchester.wordpress.com talked me down a little bit as we conversed at www.pigtailsflying.wordpress.com’s runner/blogger event on Thursday night.  The first 3 miles of this course are a little hillier than the second half.  As I’ve been advised, I sort of “ran through them” without really letting the uphills and downhills affect my form or pace.  At the 3rd mile, my pace remained steady, affording me the luxury of crossing just after 19 minutes, with a 5k split time 40-some seconds later at 19:47.  I was starting to feel a slight lactic build-up.

By 9:20am it was fully raining, my clothes/shoes were soaked.  My shirt was getting heavy and flopping around so I tucked it in.  Also started to notice that my shoes felt heavier and my socks were squishing.  I passed mile 4 continuing my 6:20 pace at about 25:23.  This was the first time I realized my “best case” goal time of sub-38 minutes was no longer possible and my mid-38 “second tier” goal was highly unlikely as well.

Thank goodness for all the downhills in the final mile and a half.  Did anyone else appreciate them as much as I did?  I broke the rules of steady pacing and used them to build speed, then would catch my breath on the few straight-aways and the fewer inclines.  I don’t remember my mile 5 split time, but I’m guessing it was my worst one, probably in the high 6:30’s.  

Because once I hit the final mile, I started flying again.  To average 6:21’s overall, I must have run a sub-6 minute final mile and my 800M kick was of the start/stop variety, but still quite strong.  I doubt more than a couple people passed me in the final half-mile and I definitely passed more than a few.  I was about 100 meters away when the finish clock hit 39 minutes, and crossed the line at 39:23 chip time which was pretty much gun time as well.

Quick thoughts on my personal race performance.  Thank goodness I set three goals, because making even one of them feels pretty damn good.  And besides, my speedier first and second tier goals were set recently and might have been in haste.  I calculated them based on an awesome 5k performance under absolutely ideal conditions (flat course, straight point-to-point, small field of runners).  Back in early April, I was projecting a few second shy of 39 minutes, which is more or less where I ended up.  All things considered, great day.

Elite runners are really fast.  The rain today was a bit of a bummer, and I’d like to blame it for causing me to fall a little short of loftier goals, but Ethiopia’s Tadese Tola set a freaking course record today and stole the excuse right out from under me.  His blazing fast record-breaker was a 27:48 10k, which is 4:29 miles.  This course record nets him an additional $20k in addition to the $7,500 for 1st place.  If that’s not motivation to become a better runner, I don’t know what is.  He probably gets appearance fees and crap too.  There was a battle for 2nd place with Kenya’s Patrick Makau and Boaz Cheboiywo coming in at 28:28 and 28:31 respectively.

And it was a day for the Irish.  Not only did Ireland’s record holding distance runner Martin Fagan kick ass with an 8^th place finish and a 28:45 finish time…  But two of Pennsylvania’s finest also posted excellent times with my beautiful fiance running a 54:25 and soon-to-be father-in-law coming across at 54:54.

For Further Reading:

• http://tinyurl.com/HK10K-Blogs-NYCin310
• http://tinyurl.com/HK10K-News-NYCin310
• http://tinyurl.com/HK10K-Results-NYCin310

That’s all for now.  Drink plenty of fluids, take some ibuprofen, stretch and get some rest.  Oh and pig out, you earned it.  Plenty of race coverage to follow, probably including… 

• some HK10K number-crunching
• HK10K photographs
• post-race recovery strategy
• re-entry into training
• obsessing over the next race (chase corporate challenge, 6/10)
• and the one after that (achilles 5-miler, 6/28)
• and the next one (NYC half, 8/16)

Thanks for reading, if you liked the post leave a comment!  Make sure to bookmark my site and come back often. Feel free to email me at Jason@nycin310.com. You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/NYCin310.

J

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