Iron Horse 10K 5-31-2009

It was touch and go whether I was going to run at all. I have had a cold for three days and in bed at night I am hacking whenever I lie down, but I think it is more of an allergy related cold than a true cold. My phlegm wasn’t the deep lung mucus, but more of the bubbly white allergy sticky phlegm.

I stayed up till midnight last night after working 16 hours. I got up a few times during the night and then after my alarm went off, I laid back down for awhile. Then I got up, dressed, but then got back in bed deciding I didn’t feel that well and better to rest and race another day. Then I got back up five minutes later and thought, well maybe if I eat something and take my allergy medicine, I’ll be all right. I can always drive there and if I badly, just not pick up my number.

This is why I like to do races so close to home. It took me about 15 minutes to get there and the parking lots were way more packed than last year. I took my Claritin and then gave myself an extra nose squirt of Nasonex (drug-testers be damned). I had to wait in a long line to get my number, and then a long line to get my tee-shirt. Fortunately I had pre-registered so they still had an Xtra-large for me. Then I waited in a long line for the port-a-potty to finish emptying. I wanted to walk back to my car and dump my shirt and goodie bag, and get a last drink of water, but it was too close to the race start, so I asked a guy if I could stick my bag under his front tire and retrieve it later.

The race went off only a minute or two late. I confess to feeling a little light-headed and did worry it might turn into a full white out, but I kept on running very easy and slow. My goal was simply to beat my last year’s time of 1:06:50 ( a 10:46 mile pace) with a secondary goal of finishing the race without passing out..

The first mile I clocked in at 10:42, so I was slightly ahead of pace, plus the first mile is always a little long with several seconds between the clock starting and actually crossing the starting line.

It was a very nice day, clear, warm, but not humid with periodic shaded portions of the course of the largely flat course that ran along the river and through farmland.

Mile 2 I clocked in at 10:30
Mile 3 10:33

I was feeling good and just kept cruising along at my easy pace. I took advantage of the three water stops they had to grab a water or Gatorade and drink it all, instead of drinking some and tossing the cup. I kept running with the cup, and slowly sipped it all down in time. The one bad thing was with the first two cups, I crumpled them up, and shoved them in my pocket, but with running each time they worked themselves up and then the next thing I knew they had popped out and were litter in the street. I kept going. The last water stop though, I crumpled up the cup and ran all the way to the finish with it.

I kept an steady, slightly increasing pace throughout and felt like the race was actually going fairly quickly. I wasn’t looking to kill myself, just beat my last year’s pace and not set too high a bar for next year.

There was one guy doing a frenetic run/ walk who was dripping sweat. He and I passed each other about twenty times. I zipped by him on the homestretch. After hitting mile six, I stepped it up a little.

As I saw the finish, I couldn’t help myself, but broke into a sprint as did many of the runners around me, but I had so much gas left, I blew by quite a number of people, and cruised in 1:04:51. a pace of 10:27 I came in 286 out of 365, 137 out of 149 in my age group, 19 out of 20 Clydesdales. Had I run last year's time I would have come in 307 out of 365. Last year I was 248 out of 272.

Here are all my mile splits compared to last year:

This year / Last Year
10:42 / 10:15
10:30 / 10:28
10:33 / 10:58
10:39 / 11:07
10:22 / 11:06
10:15 / ?10:47

Now last year it was very humid, but last year I wasn’t sick. I’m still waiting for my final time, but I beat last year by two minutes, so I’m glad I ran.

They handed me a bottle of vitamin water when I crossed. I do confess to one coughing fit shortly after that almost caused me to puke, but after only coughing up some allergy phlegm, and sitting down for a minute, it passed and I was okay.

Down in the tent area I got a banana and a bagel. They had banana pancakes, but I was out of fluid then, so in walking back to where they had more water, I was already headed to my car. My shirt and bag where right where I had left them.

All in all a good day. I’m glad I raced.

Me 1, Old Age 0.


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