Sorry, it's been a week since I've updated, so this is going to be a Cliff Notes version for times sake. First, big news that Haile Gebreselassie is running NYC this fall! Here is an interview with him and race director Mary Wittenberg. Also, James Carney did a blog about BolderBoulder and RunColorado's impressive 2nd place finish in the team competition!
Sunday, got in an easy 2 or so miles with Tim and Shane around the Stapleton area. Was a pretty hot day and the sun was brutal. Legs felt like mush, and the surprising thing was my calves felt like I had climbed Mount Everest by the time I was done. It was most likely a combination of the altitude plus the billion mimosas we had all weekend long. Was literally counting the steps till we were done, haven't felt like that in years especially for a 2 mile easy run.
Monday morning, drove out to Boulder for the race! Normally, I would give a detailed report, but there isn't much to report since I had pretty much dismissed that I couldn't run this race very hard due to conditions, so was going to be a glorified tempo run. Got to the start a little late due to the long bag check-in line, and literally ran up to the start. Rick Reilly was the honorary starter, and was cool to see him out there (he actually wrote a little article about the race). Lined up pretty far up front, which was stupid since I knew I was going to get scorched by all the fast runners (I had qualified for the top corral, but even if we were racing at sea level I would have been at the tail-end of this corral). Gun went off, and pretty much rocketed out of the chute. Looked at my watch at the half mile point, saw 2:42 so was going waaaaaaay too fast. Slowed it down big time, hit the first mile a lot faster than I would have liked and kept slowing down. Breathing was a mess at this point, and really didn't want to die out there. Legs were pretty heavy, but tried to battled through it. Weaved through some neighborhoods, saw a ton of interesting people, and just tried to keep a somewhat respectable pace. Hordes and hordes of people were passing me at this point, and was demoralizing since there was nothing I could do about it since I was trying to maintain my strategy. Was a bit tired at the halfway point, especially since we had just hit a big hill, and hit a really low split. Started to feel better after the 4th mile, and picked it up slightly but didn't get out of control. Last mile, you head towards the stadium, and was feeling pretty good and was enjoying the run. Hit a severe but quick incline before heading into the stadium, and did a quick 1/2 lap around before finishing! 10K Time: 43:14 - splits were: 6:11, 7:09, 7:33, 7:12, 6:52, 6:49. Finished 1278/53,000.
Met up with Shane and Tim later on - Trish, Marc, and Heather were all in a later wave so we killed time at the expo. Got to meet Ryan Hall which was freaking awesome! He was super nice, and asked me about my Boston experience (was wearing a Boston jacket), and I told him about when he almost tripped on my feet at the 07 Olympic Trials! Tried to get him to do the Usain Bolt pose with us, but was denied lol. Walked back to the stadium to meet up with everyone and chilled out for a while watching people finish, then watched the elite races which was pretty awesome. There was a huge Ethiopian contingent sitting a section over that was going NUTS for their runners, who dominated pretty much every event. Watched a great Memorial Day tribute which included a flyby, and headed out to Fort Collins for the New Belgium Brewery Tour (super cool btw, please go there if you ever have a chance to!). A perfect way to spend Memorial Day with some of my best friends, and a very fun race :)
Got back into town the next day after a long, exhausting, but super-fun weekend, and pretty much crashed out all day. Wednesday, ran 4 easy. Felt great and had intentions of running a few more, but experienced some of the nastiest stomach pains and had to call it quits halfway through. Was so nasty and humid outside, I miss the Denver dry air so much!
Thursday morning, woke up early to do 3 easy. Amazed I actually was able to get my butt out of bed early to do this. Felt like garbage every step of the way, wasn't hydrated enough to battle the early humidity. In the P.M., did scheduled interval work. 1 up to the trail, 6X800, 1 down. Was nasty and humid yet again, and decided to pick the trail since I wanted the shade and wanted to simulate some terrain and challenge myself a little instead of the flat track. Felt really tired starting out, but definitely got my legs back. Hit some really good splits, and just hammered it out. Last split, had a head to head encounter with a cat, and had to slow down and veer off to the side of the trail which slowed me down a bit, but still hit my fastest split which was nice. Very pleased with this workout. Total mileage: 5 miles - 800 splits were: 2:42, 2:42, 2:42, 2:42, 2:43, 2:38.
Having a decent running week so far, which is good. Want to try to squeeze in a recovery run today, but may opt out because of general fatigue and early long run tomorrow with Mike and Crystal.
Shane and I pre-race
Tim and I postrace at the Nissan Tent
Shane talking with Ryan Hall
Race finish - pretty awesome!
Marc, Trish, and I
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