Abe's Amble

Today dawned for me at about 0500 when my son woke up and needed a diaper change and a bottle. This was fine with me as I had set my alarm for 0530. I ate a breakfast of water and Fig Newtons. Nathan decided he was awake so I sat on the living room floor with him and his mommy and stretched. At about 0600 I ran a mile warm-up around my neighborhood, kissed my wife and son goodbye, picked up my neighbor and drove to the Illinois State Fairgrounds.

The weather, before I left, was 75 with winds 3 mph out of the NNE and 69% humidity. Not bad, but a far cry from the beautiful 66, ESE11 and 61% we had yesterday morning. It drizzled a bit on the way there and continued to do so the rest of the morning.

I picked up my timing chip and jogged a half mile and did a few strides. I felt pretty loose and ready to go. After the National Anthem was sung the gun went off and the race was underway.

I was standing next to David at the line and he took off like a bat out of hell. I wondered in the back of my head if this was the race where he broke out of his slump. I had him in sight at the mile and watched him go through in about 6:08. He looked pretty strong but I decided not too worry unless he was still ahead of me at 5k.

I hit my mile split, well ahead of where I wanted to be, in 6:36.01. I didn't feel like I was breathing hard or was in any danger of going into oxygen debt so I made myself shrug it off and keep going.

David was still quite a way ahead of me heading to the two mile mark but I could still see him. I don't recall what his two mile split was but I could tell that he was feeling his 6:08 first mile. I ran a more conservative second mile in 6:45.92 and had a total time of 13:21.93. I was still feeling pretty good but knew the race didn't really start until the 5k mark when we started hitting the hills.

Mile three, once we entered Oak Ridge Cemetery, has a few rollers that I didn't remember from last year but I lowered my arms and shortened my stride and let myself go on the downhills to try to make up for lost time. On one of those rolls I caught and passed David as he pulled up and went into survival mode. I hit the three mile mark in 20:12.96 with a 6:51.03 split and went through 5k, 41.7 seconds later, in 20:54.66.

There is a pretty nice hill going up out of Oak Ridge and even though I didn't charge it too hard I still passed two or three people as I went up. I was also passed by the woman who earned runner-up. Ironically, the only people I remember passing me the whole race were women. The winner, runner-up and fourth place finishers all passed me at some point on the course. The winner passed me entering Oak Ridge, the runner-up passed me exiting Oak Ridge and the fourth place finisher passed me just after the mile mark. After the first or second mile I don't remember being passed by any males.

After exiting Oak Ridge I starting surging so that I could stay in contact with the lady who had just passed me because she was really moving. I ran a 6:53.67 mile and hit four in 27:06.63. I was still acceptably in my time range although I was in the upper limits of what I wanted and I knew at the four mile mark I was probably going to have difficulty running in the 41:00s like I wanted.

There was one last big hill at about the 4.25 mark that you had to run up to get to Lincoln Park. It isn't that it was a steep hill it was that it was 200-300 meters long and at a bad point in the race. This is actually the hill that broke me in my half marathon back in March so I respected it and eased up it cautiously. As I hit the top I could feel my shoulders tighten and my breathing increase so I had a bit of a weak moment as I made myself latch onto a group and hold on when I should have been pushing the pace a bit. I was nervous because I knew there was one more hill before the five mile mark and I wanted to regroup before I hit it.

Once I hit the "hill" I felt like an ass because I hardly noticed it. I had wasted just enough time being cautious that I ran my slowest mile of the day, and the only one over 7:00, and probably cost myself a shot of going under 42:00. I hit the five mile mark in 34:08.39 with a mile time of 7:01.76. Damn.

After seeing my string of sub-sevens go "ker-sploosh" I got a little angry and decided to take it out on the three or four guys ahead of me. I started throwing down surges as I left the park and when I got close enough to pass anyone I passed them so fast they couldn't respond. I saw that the lady who eventually finished fourth wasn't too far ahead of me and I made it my goal to see if I could catch her. I could tell I was making up ground on her and the fifth place female and I ran myself into oxygen debt by the time I passed the fifth placer at the six mile mark. I hit six in 40:50, a nine second improvement from the Passavant/Powerade 10k in June, with a mile time of 6:42.46. I knew at that point that I was going to have to vomit to break 42:00 but I went for it anyway. I sprinted the last 0.2 of the race in 1:14.19 and crossed the finish line in 42:05.04, by my watch.

I didn't catch fourth place lady but I probably would have it I'd had another 0.2 or so. I also didn't vomit although I did almost fall on the girl cutting the chip off of my shoe.

My official time was 42:06 and I placed 36th overall, which is exactly what I placed ten days ago at the Parade Run. The guy who won the race did so by over three minutes and went under 32:00 in doing so. My friend Jordan P. placed fifth in 37:02 and my neighbor placed second in her age group and got a cool little plate thing.

I also ended up placing second in my age group and just about sewed up the Points Series title in doing so. I still need to race well at the PPR and the Shoreline Classic to lock it up for sure but I went a long way toward doing it this morning.

The Bionic Woman was the third overall female and ran a time in the low 41s. I should have run with her. Oh well.

I didn't hit my time goal but I improved my 10k time by ten seconds on a more difficult course that the Powerade 10k. My fifth mile needs improvement and I think more tempo runs and hill running will work that out by next year.

My fastest mile was 6:37, slowest was 7:01. I ran a fairly even effort as I hit my first 5k in 20:54.66 and 21:10.38 for the harder second half of the race.

I think I can break into sub-41:00 territory next year.