With just two weeks of recovery from my all-out effort at 10 miles in Sacramento, I figured doubling back would be fairly tough. It was.
The intervening training was mostly recovery for the first week, with a mix of cycling and running (including a 15 miler on the 8th) and capped off with a final ski outing on April 9. Only 40 miles of running but I did manage 9 hours for the week.
Last week I kept the volume up to an hour plus a day through Thursday, with a couple of moderate to light tune-up workouts. It was warm out all week (70s and 80s) so I took advantage of the year’s first heat wave in preparation for Syracuse.
Traveled on Friday and that was a “rest” day, although I walked a lot. On Saturday I drove down to Ithaca, where we lived for a few years in the early 1990s, and caught some of the old sights and took in a 4 mile run (probably warmer and hillier than it should have been) through the Cornell University campus and arboretum.
Race Day
The forecast called for high 50s to to low 60s with some clouds and wind. It ended up being 100% sunny, low-mid 60s, and a very light breeze out of the south or southwest. Not bad but weather would be a factor.
I did a short 10 minute warm-up, and could tell right way that my legs were not fresh. I have been planning to peak for a 25K race next month and if not for that I would have taken it a little easier last week. I adjust my goal from repeating last year’s time of 1:21:42, and with the warmer temperature figured that a sub 1:23 would be a good day. So I wanted to lock onto 6:20 pace. My watch had me at 6:18 for the 1st mile but that may have been deceiving because I started it at the gun and it had a net uphill. In hindsight that and the very much uphill 2nd mile (GAP 6:10, 6:19) were probably too fast for the day, although I did settle down early in that 2nd mile.
We were pretty strung out and mostly single file with growing gaps by the 3rd mile, different from last year when the field was twice the size and we ran in packs because of the wind. My official 5K split was 20:05.
From then on through mile 11, it was mostly a matter of hanging on to the effort and picking off runners one at a time. I passed maybe 6 or 7 runners, and clicked off 6:20-6:25 pace through the lightly rolling hills, and long downhill of mile 9 one was about 6:15. My 10K and 15K splits were 40:13 and 59:54.
The 12th mile was the toughest of the day, running into a slight headwind and totally exposed to the sun, I could only manage a 6:37 and I thought a sub 1:25 might be in jeopardy. One guy passed in that stretch but I couldn’t match his pace. I did regroup at about 20K as we headed back into the downtown canyons with a more favorable wind and some shade. Another young runner passed me, and encouraged me to keep up, saying “I believe in you!” That was kind of funny but my stomach was getting queasy and I knew I was at maximum sustainable pace at about 6:20.
I could not pick up the pace over that seemingly endless 0.4 mile straight after the final turn. Over the final block the announcer called my name and age, and the crowd gave a rousing cheer. I was top 5 among those 50 and up, and he said I might be leading the age grade category. I was hopeful of that! But it wasn’t so.
I won my age group by a good margin, and ended up third in the age grade rankings, with an 88.3%. That was not at the <1:23, >90% I had hoped for but given the day, a win’s a win, and another podium age grade finish is still very satisfying.
Next USATF race looks to be a road mile in June, which they just added, and May the 25K and Bolder Boulder 10K. Then, I’ll need a short break.
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rrunnin234 