Great report, Brian. Totally applicable, I think, to anyone who has run in a dark, lonely place – no matter what your pace is. RTB is proud of you!!! And proud of all our finishers today. J
GREAT Day!!
| Ok. I'll make it quick as it is 8:20 and is bedtime for this old geezer... Lined up directly at the front of the 3000 competitors and looked around for NJ (….Nick Johnson – fellow RTBer) who was nowhere to be seen. Gun went off and so did my plan for starting out with a 6:20 pace. After a half mile I looked at my Garmin and I was already sub-6 (5:30) and running with the Club Northwest runners. So I slowed a bit and let them pull ahead. I maintained a 5:50-6:00 for the first 3 miles and was running alone in between two primary groups. I could also see that the elite group ahead was already starting to split. At mile 3 I bridged up to a splinter group and ran with them for the next several miles. At the halfway mark I had averaged a 6:05 pace. I had dropped a few in the group that I bridged up to as the course started to head upward. After the first hill my legs tightened up significantly, then loosened back up as the course flattened out. Then a series of several stair-step hills continued to take their toll on my quads and calves. By mile 9, the feeling of looseness was only a romantic and very distant memory. At this point I was surprised that the course still had elevation gain considering that I was still in Seattle. I didn't know Seattle proper had such cruel elevation. At mile 10, I slowed significantly and lost a couple of spots. I was in a dark, lonely place and was running alone. I was trying to latch on to the back of each person that passed which was a good tactic. It helped psychologically, compared to letting them just run away. I NEEDED someone to help me through this trying time. Finally I latched on to the back of this kid that was running 6:15's and used him for the last two miles. He finally pulled away with a half mile left. Two more came by me as they had a final kick. Turned into the stadium and was thankful that the course was not longer since I was quickly going backward by this time. Final time was 1:22:47. My garmin showed a 6:15 average pace and a 13.3mile run. Adjusted to a distance of 13.1, the average pace was 6:19/mile. Finally saw NJ come through as I wandered zombie-like around the stadium field. -frig |
