This was a local 8K I ran. It turned out to be another race that I actually did far better than I had hoped.
Here's what I thought of it in 1995:
I wasn't sure how the race would go, or even if I'd run it because of
my ankle. I had twiested it badly playing basketball about a month before and on my Wednesday run before the race I had twisted it
again and each time I ran there was always some minor misstep. But I iced it after running and took ibuprofen. It
felt okay, maybe 75-80% of normal. So I went to the race.
It was a nice sunny cool morning with lite winds. The course was a
little less hilly than the previous years and the turn out was very high,
between 250-300 people. I had my new racing flats that I got through Dave Haushalter and
Etonic. So I was ready to go. My ankle hurt in warm ups, so
I tightened my brace and got ready. But I was sort of down because of my
injury and lack of training.
The race started and I took it out hard. Not as hard as Dave though.
But the end of the first half mile he was out in front, alone, by about 15
seconds. For a short time I was in second place, but that ended well before
the first mile. I settled down into what felt like a quick, but manageable
pace. I dropped back into the middle of the pack following Dave. He was still
pulling away from us. At the first mile marker I looked at my watch, 5:57. I
had thought I was running a lot faster than that, maybe the marker was
misplaced. I asked the guy next to me what he thought and he seemed to think
that 6:00 per mile was about right. The good news was that my ankle wasn't
hurting, maybe it was the adrenaline. So I figured I just push hard and see
what happened. Maybe I could still finish in the top 20 and that wouldn't be
so bad.
At this point I was sure that I had screwed up my training too much
because of my ankle to even attempt a sub-3:00 marathon. I was pretty
depressed, but still pushing hard.
Mile two came at 12:24. Great, now I was down to a 6:15 pace and had
just run a 6:30 mile. This race sucked and I was all but ready to skip the
fall marathons. The turn around point was just ahead, so I knew I only had
half way to go. Dave yelled as he passed going to other way so I tried to pick
it up a little. I had been passed by around four guys between mile on and mile
two, but was holding steady now.
After I turned around I lost focus a little. I looked at the people in
the main back that were headed the other way. After a few seconds of this I
realized what I was doing I tried to get my head back in the race. Not that it
mattered since I was running so poorly. I had been hoping for a sub-30:00 for
the race. Last year's time was something like 29:21, so I had hoped to run
about the same this year. But with my ankle and lack of training I was not
very confident.
The third mile came quickly. There was a marker painted on the ground
and my watch read 17:00 as I passed. Hmmm, maybe the other two markers were
screwed up. If they were I was running a 5:40 pace to that point, which was
more like what I had hoped for. But just down the road was a guy at another
marker painted on the ground for three miles. He read off 18:34 as I passed,
for a 6:11 pace and a 6:10 last mile. So maybe I sucked after all. I couldn't
tell which was right. I was running hard and keeping my place though.
The next marker was the first mile marker. I ran by it at 23:00. So
now all I had to do was run the rest of the course in less than 7:00 for a
sub-30:00. I was confident I could do that. We were going down hill along
airport road towards the CoRec. I passed what was supposed to be the fourth
mile marker at 24:12, for a 6:03 pace and a 5:40 mile. Well maybe the distance
between mile three and four markers was accurate, but hopefully they we're in
the right spot with respect to the start.
As I went down the hill I pressed so that I could pass the guy ahead of
me. I decided I wanted to pass at least one person before the finish, even if
he came back to pass me. So I got him on the down hill and held him on the
flat part. As we rounded the corner across from Hort Park I decided not to
look at my watch since I was sure I couldn't break 30:00. Plus I heard
footsteps and I knew I was going to get passed. It turned out to be another
guy. I pressed hard down the straight away, but got passed one more time.
When we rounded the final corner Dave yelled that it was only 28:15 and
I could break 29:00. The guy who had passed me was just ahead. Dave yelled
for me to catch him, so I started my final kick about 400 yards of the finish line. I didn't manage to catch the guy, but I was
less than a second behind. My watch read 28:33.84, much better than I had anticipated and almost
a minute faster than last year's time and 15th place overall, fifth in my age
group. Overall it was a 5:45.53 per mile pace, maybe 5:40 for the first three
miles and 5:54 for the last 1.96 miles, but even that sounds wrong to me.
Dave ran about a minute faster than last year, so that could mean that
I'm in about the same shape I was last year, which would be okay with me. But
I'd to think that a better time means I'm faster. Anyway, my ankle injury
seems to have affected me less than I had thought.
Back to the Running Vita of James B. Elliott