And then there were two...

Today was my 2nd running of the Blacksburg 10 miler. I was so lucky to be joined by my wife and sister-in-law for this run. They hold a 5k run along with the 10 miler. It was an absolutely beautiful day. Really you could call it the first day of spring in a way. Mostly sunny with temps well in to the 50's. Well to get to the reason for the title of this blog. I'll tell you about the start of this race. There were a little more than 350 people there. So you have this mob of almost 400 people that make their way down the street near the school we had assembled at.
I really didn't ask them to come with me on this trip they just sort of talked about it and thought it would be fun so they agreed to it about a month or more ahead of the event. My Sis-in-Law has been walking a lot over the last several months. My wife has been doing aerobic style tapes for quite some time in an on again off again manner. I knew neither of them would have any trouble walking the 5k (3.1 miles). Of course last year I had ran the 10 miler and didn't see the 5k finish or stick around for any of the awards.

So it was time to start this mob of people racing down the road. I went back to them and wished them good luck and we joked about how they asked over the bullhorn for the faster runners to get up to the front. I knew they were going to walk most of the race. I thought they might run a little but not much. They were in the very back of this big pack. I made my way up near the front of the pack. I think I was probably about 15 rows back or so. "On your mark"... "Get set".... "Go". I was far enough back in the mob that we walked a few steps or so before we could get running. It was crowded but after a few hundred yards the crowds started to thin down. I was trying to make sure I got on my 7:40 pace.

Meanwhile back in the "rear" A and Em were ready to go. When the race started they kinda looked around to see who would be walking this race with them... EVERYONE TOOK OFF RUNNING! Leaving the two of them to watch the mob of runners go down the street and quickly out of sight. I think my sis-in-law said "Well I'll never believe Mark again!" There was a bicycle volunteer out on the course who kept doubling back to check on the "walkers" and the race volunteers were pulling up the traffic cones behind them as they walked by. "Two more coming" they would yell down to the next volunteers. I think they had a good time even if they were a little embarrassed. I had no idea nobody walked! I am proud of both of them and they finished somewhere around 47 minutes.
Back out on the course. I was having gizmo problems. I didn't wear my ipod because I've found in "shorter" races I really don't want it or need it. Part of the race is run on a paved trail that has lots of trees down each side. My gps got blocked really bad at one section of the trail. I don't know if was the trees or what but I could tell something was really affecting it. It was right on till mile 3 and then about mile 4 I realized it was 0.11 miles off. This through my overall pace reading off. I was trying to hold a 7:40 mile.

By mile 5 I figured out I was already behind pace. I felt like I was doing as good as I could. I felt a little tired and a little bloated in the stomach. At mile 6 one or my running acquaintances, Bruce, passed me. Bruce is an exceptional individual who is tall and dresses to be seen during races. It would be nearly impossible to go to any race of less than a 1000 people and not see Bruce in the crowd. Bruce is 53 years old and if he's not hurt, usually runs faster than me. So at mile 6 he goes past me wearing a tuquoise "dew rag/turban" a light pink sleeveless shirt and purple shorts. Don't ask me why but his wardrobe is a much debated topic in running circles.

He got about 30 yards ahead of me and it seemed I was able to hold him there. He didn't say anything to me when he passed me. There was a turnaround at mile 7 and I said hey Bruce as we passed each other and he said hey back. By mile 8 I was starting to feel really good and I caught him and passed him and said "C'mon Bruce here is your rabbit, Let's go!" I could hear him drop farther and farther behind. I was doing really good running about a 7:30 mile. The only problem is the last two miles are mainly uphill and I knew it from last year. I pushed hard and was breathing just about as hard as I could. There was really no one around me, behind or in front. I knew I pushed my way back up the hill to the school and kept the hammer down. I finished officially in 1:18:52 which was about 2:12 slower than I wanted but it was just a goal. I was 39th out of 121 under 40 years old. I finished 8th out of 15 in males 30-34. You can check out the race results here.

http://civic.bev.net/striders/classic_2007/results_2007.html

I improved a whopping 27 seconds from last year. Hmm. I don't want to talk about that. I can't explain it. All the running I had done over the last year, the marathon, the speed work... I don't know. Anyway it was a fun day and I feel good about my effort and thanks to Bruce I had a really good push at the end.