Novartis 10K

Lovely 10K (6.21 mi) event. The weather was fantastic! A bit nippy (low 40's) at the start, but quickly warmed to a wonderful race temp with a gentle breeze and very few gusts. We had three racers today, as David and Jasmine ran the 2 miler. Cornell was at track practice, and Jen didn't like racing so she went back to the treadmill last year. But, as always, my Jen got us registered, organized, picked up our packages, then got us all ready in the morning and out the door on time for a lovely race day. What a joy and a privilege it is to have such a supportive wife and mother!

Before I yak about me, I want to boast my children. This was Jasmine's first ever 2 miler, and only her second race. It was a chore for her and she walked in several spots, but she finished in 29:24, or 272 out of 307 runners. She averaged a 14:42 pace. More importantly, she stuck to it and finished! Woo Hoo Jasmine!

David ran brilliantly. He finished in 20:47, which put him in a 3 way tie for 156 place out of 307 runners, most of whom were adults! He averaged just under a 10:24 mile. I don't know the times, but he apparently ran a fast first mile, and ended up walking a portion of the second mile. I would love to get him training from someone who knows how to establish a good pace (I'm still trying to learn this for myself), because I think he would run even better with a little training from a real track coach. Unfortunately, the only track club we have found for kids practices on Sundays, and Sunday is our Sabbath day so we don't do those types of activities on that day. Most of the people who finished behind him were adults, so I was enormously proud of how well he did.

My times show that I am still behind where I was last year, but I am finally catching up a bit. In some ways, I did better on this race than I did on last year's Novartis 10K.

Overall, I finished in 1:10:42, which is exactly two minutes slower than last year. This compares to the State Farm 10 miler, where I finished 9:05 slower than last year. I started very tight, and the first couple of miles were hard. I reached the half way point in 33:42, which was 2:03 slower than last year. However, I finished the last half in 37 min, which is 4 seconds faster than I ran that same distance last year.

My mile times are weird, but very very instructive and point out a trend that I need to correct; I don't properly utilize the down hills stretches. Not even close. I noticed the same thing with my 5.5 hill route and my 3.3 speed route. Both share the same down hill stretch, and I seem to zone out or something instead of capitalizing on a chance for an easy reduction in my time.

To understand the issue, one must first know the race course. This particluar race begins with a loop around Holmes Lake Park. We start out pretty flat, and at about a third of a mile begin a very pronounced down hill slope. It levels off to finish the mile, and a short distance later we begin to ascend the other side of the hill and the level out again, and begin a nice descent as we approach the 2 mile mark. The route is relative flat for the next mile and a quarter or so, then we begin the long, steep climb up 56th street. I run this same stretch as the toughest portion of my standard 5.5 mile hill route. We go most of the way up the hill, but turn around about 50 yds or so short of the intersection. and head back down. We pass the 4 mile marker on the way down, and after a taper and some flat terrain reach the 5 mile mark. At about the 5.5 mark we begin to ascend again, and at the 6 mile mark we head down the same slope we experienced in mile 1, going .21 miles to the finish.

As noted above, I started out very, very tight. I finished the first mile in 10:18, which is about the same time I run the first mile in most of my practice runs. I ran the second mile, which contains the first uphill, in 10:57. We then began a mile that has nice down hill, then flat. My time? 11:07, which is slower than my time with the up hill. My time should have been in the low 10's. Then begins a short flat stretch followed by the long up hill, which I ran in a respectable 11:57. In fact, I was very pleased with my uphill time. But, I completed the next mile, which contains most of the long down hill, in 11:32. The times don't neatly compare because the mile markers don't precisely match the up hill and down hill legs. However, I can say that I ran a mostly pronounced uphill mile only 25 seconds slower than I ran a mostly pronounced down hill mile? The down hill drops about 150 or so feet of elevation, so I should have been in the low to mid 10's as well. Several folks passed my on that down hill, but I passed noone on that slope. I think I either zoned out, relaxed too much, or was abducted by space aliens and lost the time (just kidding). The bottom line is that I did NOT capitalize on that hill. I croaked on the next flat and uphill to finish mile 6 in a horrible 12:41, then had a kick at the end to complete the final .21 in 2:05.

Some good things. I reached the 5 mile mark at 55:53. Three weeks ago at the State Farm 10 miler, I finished the first five miles in 59:30 on a very flat course. Today, I was 3:37 faster on a course with a big hill. Further, I was only 47 seconds off my marathon five mile pace, and the first five on the marathon is a very flat five miles. I finished strong today, in comparison to last year when I thought I was going to croak on my way to the finish line, and this time I recovered much quicker. And, despite my slow start, my time to complete the last 5k of the race was faster than last year's last 5K.

The bottom line: I'm still behind last year at this time. I probably won't catch up, but I might get close. Given the year I've had, I'm pleased.