gianmarco
Footballguy
Hot Chocolate 15K Race Report
Coming into this, as I already mentioned, I've been feeling good health-wise as my achilles hasn't given me any problems and I was able to run 30 miles last week comfortably. While my fitness still isn't anywhere near where it was, I felt it was good enough to try and give a good effort here. My goals were to negative split this race (force myself to start slower) and see if I could at least beat my time for this race from last year since this was my first repeat race. Last year, I had a good start and then struggled mightily from miles 5-9. I remember how awful that felt for the entire 2nd half of the race. My official time to beat was 1:17:28 (8:19 mile).
My wife has been much more relaxed about racing and arriving early. It's awesome. With it being even colder this year, we didn't want to get there too early. Got up at 5:30, did the business, had some yogurt with jelly and honey as well as some coffee for breakfast. Temp this morning was even colder than expected at 18 degrees. Put on my new fleece lined tights over the wind resistant boxers and a pair of shorts (mostly for the pockets). Thermal base on top, t-shirt, then a running jacket top. Neck gaiter and hat and the new gloves. Picked up some slightly thicker saucony socks yesterday at the expo and wore those (the only new thing I hadn't tried) with the new Kinvara 9's. Ended up dressing perfectly for this thing. Left the house about 6:40, drove 10 minutes to the park and had a little over one mile hike to the start line. We jogged the mile and it was a perfect warmup, arriving about 15-20 minutes before race start. I will say the gloves I linked above were fantastic. Hands never felt cold the entire race and I truly can't recommend them enough. Saw our friend, took a couple pre-race pics and then we were ready to go. I decided to stay near the 8:30 pacer to start.
Mile 1 -- 8:28, HR 153
It's a big race with lots of people but we were placed in Corral A because of our times last year so we are at the front. This was nice as it wasn't terribly congested. Nice easy start and this mile ticked away pretty quickly. I was happy with the easy effort and the pace. I could see the 8:00 pacer ahead of me and was far enough behind as he kept gaining distance which was perfect for me. I knew the 8:30 was close behind and I was pleased that I kept it slow enough the first mile. A decent uphill at the end of this mile but I managed it well. Good start.
Mile 2 -- 8:13, HR 161
This mile had a steep downhill to start so I let it go and tried to get a little time with it since it was early on. That was followed by a continuous uphill the rest of the mile. Still a decent effort but when I saw the pace to finish the 2nd mile, I would have preferred it be a little slower. I didn't want to fall into the trap of going out to fast too early and had to remind myself that I really wanted to negative split. While I felt good, I wanted to make sure I kept the effort easy.
Mile 3 -- 8:09, HR 163
This was a relatively flat, net downhill. I consciously was making sure I was holding it back. I ran almost the entire race without looking at my watch so I was basing it all on effort. This was a pretty comfortable mile and I was surprised at the time. But, it was making me nervous because this was now going to make a negative split more difficult. And I knew more hills were going to come.
Mile 4 -- 8:34, HR 167
And here was the hill. And this mile sucked. I started thinking I was going to get into big trouble again here. So I backed it off and tried to reset here. I wasn't going to make the same mistake as I did last year and I kept reminding myself of my primary goal. In hindsight, I think this was my best mile because of this. I kept it disciplined. Also stopped at the water station with a water and short walk with it. By the end of the mile, I started feeling much better.
Mile 5 -- 8:12, HR 167
I knew at this point if I wanted to negative split, I needed to start to pick it up a little. Started off with a downhill and then another uphill but this one felt much better. I was in good shape. Then, toward the end of this mile, the 8:30 pacer starts running next to me. WTF? This didn't make sense to me because I knew I was at a faster pace than that overall. We crossed the 5 mile marker and he goes "we're right on pace". I'm looking at my watch and it says 42 minutes. I asked him and he said his pacing was to account for the extra distance that we'll end up running which made sense. I'll admit I was initially a little disheartened to see that but I figured I could now use that as a little motivation. I ran with him for most of the next mile and then knew I'd have to keep picking it up. I also knew that my next split was unlikely to be faster than my first 5K. And I thought of this thread and me posting about wanting to negative split. Time to HTFU.
Mile 6 -- 8:13, HR 166
Another relatively flat mile. Pretty uneventful. We hit the turnaround toward the end and I started passing the runners behind us. I was feeling good. And I remembered how awful this was for me last year and how much better this was for me this year. A little over 5K to go and I was in great shape. I felt like I had enough to keep this up and hopefully push at the end.
Mile 7 -- 8:09, HR 167
This was a net uphill but it didn't get to me at all. I was feeling good. I was feeling strong. And I kept a nice steady pace despite the uphill. When I saw the final lap split I was thrilled. I was going to make it.
Mile 8 -- 8:38, HR 166
And then mile 8 happened. Started off with a nice downhill and then another awful uphill. This was bad. My level of fitness caught up with me. My legs felt good but I was working on this hill. I knew I had to slow down or I was going to blow up. So i bit the bullet and slowed it down. Stopped toward the end of the mile at the water station, walked a little bit at the station knowing I had a little over one mile to go. I wasn't too happy with the split but overall I knew it wasn't the end. I knew the last mile was going to suck.
Mile 9 -- 7:43, HR 167
Time to make the negative split happen and finish strong. And thankfully this was a good downhill to make it happen. I started picking up the pace and told myself I was a BMF. I made it this far so let's HTFU and give it all I've got left. So I did. I knew I was picking up earlier than I probably should but in doing the quick math I figured I had a shot to PR from last year too. The only bad part was that I couldn't see the finish line for any kind of motivation but I knew it was coming up. One last little uphill and then time to finish.
Mile 9.3 -- 7:11, HR 169
Screw it, I'm starting the final kick early. I'm giving everything I have. I could see the finish and I'm just passing people left and right. Only one person passed me in the final 1/2 mile. I was strong. I'm thinking I might puke but I don't care. The last 2/10ths were truly a blur. I crossed the finish line, saw my wife was waiting, and almost passed out.
Final -- 1:17:16 (8:18 pace), 281/2784 overall, 21/107 in AG
Well, good enough for a 12 second PR from last year's race. Considering where I'm at just coming back from not running, I'll definitely take it. And better yet, a negative split. Goals accomplished. So, while not the best time in the world and I know I have better in me with more training and ideal fitness, I'm thrilled with the result. On top of that, I overall felt so much better for the entire race compared to last year. I feel like I raced it much better and much smarter. Really didn't have anything left at the end. Almost fell after crossing the line from being dizzy and needed a couple minutes to get it back. Feel great now. Dressed well, new shoes were awesome. Sidenote, my wife also PR'd from last year by over 30 seconds (8:01 on Strava) and just smoked it. 6th in her AG out of 206. So proud of her. She keeps getting faster and faster and she hadn't even run much this last month either overall.
Time to rest a little and enjoy some football today. Have a good weekend, fellas.
ETA --- Not sure whose idea it was to put ice in water for the water stations when it's 18 degrees outside but that was awful. I couldn't really drink the water because of it. That hurt.
Coming into this, as I already mentioned, I've been feeling good health-wise as my achilles hasn't given me any problems and I was able to run 30 miles last week comfortably. While my fitness still isn't anywhere near where it was, I felt it was good enough to try and give a good effort here. My goals were to negative split this race (force myself to start slower) and see if I could at least beat my time for this race from last year since this was my first repeat race. Last year, I had a good start and then struggled mightily from miles 5-9. I remember how awful that felt for the entire 2nd half of the race. My official time to beat was 1:17:28 (8:19 mile).
My wife has been much more relaxed about racing and arriving early. It's awesome. With it being even colder this year, we didn't want to get there too early. Got up at 5:30, did the business, had some yogurt with jelly and honey as well as some coffee for breakfast. Temp this morning was even colder than expected at 18 degrees. Put on my new fleece lined tights over the wind resistant boxers and a pair of shorts (mostly for the pockets). Thermal base on top, t-shirt, then a running jacket top. Neck gaiter and hat and the new gloves. Picked up some slightly thicker saucony socks yesterday at the expo and wore those (the only new thing I hadn't tried) with the new Kinvara 9's. Ended up dressing perfectly for this thing. Left the house about 6:40, drove 10 minutes to the park and had a little over one mile hike to the start line. We jogged the mile and it was a perfect warmup, arriving about 15-20 minutes before race start. I will say the gloves I linked above were fantastic. Hands never felt cold the entire race and I truly can't recommend them enough. Saw our friend, took a couple pre-race pics and then we were ready to go. I decided to stay near the 8:30 pacer to start.
Mile 1 -- 8:28, HR 153
It's a big race with lots of people but we were placed in Corral A because of our times last year so we are at the front. This was nice as it wasn't terribly congested. Nice easy start and this mile ticked away pretty quickly. I was happy with the easy effort and the pace. I could see the 8:00 pacer ahead of me and was far enough behind as he kept gaining distance which was perfect for me. I knew the 8:30 was close behind and I was pleased that I kept it slow enough the first mile. A decent uphill at the end of this mile but I managed it well. Good start.
Mile 2 -- 8:13, HR 161
This mile had a steep downhill to start so I let it go and tried to get a little time with it since it was early on. That was followed by a continuous uphill the rest of the mile. Still a decent effort but when I saw the pace to finish the 2nd mile, I would have preferred it be a little slower. I didn't want to fall into the trap of going out to fast too early and had to remind myself that I really wanted to negative split. While I felt good, I wanted to make sure I kept the effort easy.
Mile 3 -- 8:09, HR 163
This was a relatively flat, net downhill. I consciously was making sure I was holding it back. I ran almost the entire race without looking at my watch so I was basing it all on effort. This was a pretty comfortable mile and I was surprised at the time. But, it was making me nervous because this was now going to make a negative split more difficult. And I knew more hills were going to come.
Mile 4 -- 8:34, HR 167
And here was the hill. And this mile sucked. I started thinking I was going to get into big trouble again here. So I backed it off and tried to reset here. I wasn't going to make the same mistake as I did last year and I kept reminding myself of my primary goal. In hindsight, I think this was my best mile because of this. I kept it disciplined. Also stopped at the water station with a water and short walk with it. By the end of the mile, I started feeling much better.
Mile 5 -- 8:12, HR 167
I knew at this point if I wanted to negative split, I needed to start to pick it up a little. Started off with a downhill and then another uphill but this one felt much better. I was in good shape. Then, toward the end of this mile, the 8:30 pacer starts running next to me. WTF? This didn't make sense to me because I knew I was at a faster pace than that overall. We crossed the 5 mile marker and he goes "we're right on pace". I'm looking at my watch and it says 42 minutes. I asked him and he said his pacing was to account for the extra distance that we'll end up running which made sense. I'll admit I was initially a little disheartened to see that but I figured I could now use that as a little motivation. I ran with him for most of the next mile and then knew I'd have to keep picking it up. I also knew that my next split was unlikely to be faster than my first 5K. And I thought of this thread and me posting about wanting to negative split. Time to HTFU.
Mile 6 -- 8:13, HR 166
Another relatively flat mile. Pretty uneventful. We hit the turnaround toward the end and I started passing the runners behind us. I was feeling good. And I remembered how awful this was for me last year and how much better this was for me this year. A little over 5K to go and I was in great shape. I felt like I had enough to keep this up and hopefully push at the end.
Mile 7 -- 8:09, HR 167
This was a net uphill but it didn't get to me at all. I was feeling good. I was feeling strong. And I kept a nice steady pace despite the uphill. When I saw the final lap split I was thrilled. I was going to make it.
Mile 8 -- 8:38, HR 166
And then mile 8 happened. Started off with a nice downhill and then another awful uphill. This was bad. My level of fitness caught up with me. My legs felt good but I was working on this hill. I knew I had to slow down or I was going to blow up. So i bit the bullet and slowed it down. Stopped toward the end of the mile at the water station, walked a little bit at the station knowing I had a little over one mile to go. I wasn't too happy with the split but overall I knew it wasn't the end. I knew the last mile was going to suck.
Mile 9 -- 7:43, HR 167
Time to make the negative split happen and finish strong. And thankfully this was a good downhill to make it happen. I started picking up the pace and told myself I was a BMF. I made it this far so let's HTFU and give it all I've got left. So I did. I knew I was picking up earlier than I probably should but in doing the quick math I figured I had a shot to PR from last year too. The only bad part was that I couldn't see the finish line for any kind of motivation but I knew it was coming up. One last little uphill and then time to finish.
Mile 9.3 -- 7:11, HR 169
Screw it, I'm starting the final kick early. I'm giving everything I have. I could see the finish and I'm just passing people left and right. Only one person passed me in the final 1/2 mile. I was strong. I'm thinking I might puke but I don't care. The last 2/10ths were truly a blur. I crossed the finish line, saw my wife was waiting, and almost passed out.
Final -- 1:17:16 (8:18 pace), 281/2784 overall, 21/107 in AG
Well, good enough for a 12 second PR from last year's race. Considering where I'm at just coming back from not running, I'll definitely take it. And better yet, a negative split. Goals accomplished. So, while not the best time in the world and I know I have better in me with more training and ideal fitness, I'm thrilled with the result. On top of that, I overall felt so much better for the entire race compared to last year. I feel like I raced it much better and much smarter. Really didn't have anything left at the end. Almost fell after crossing the line from being dizzy and needed a couple minutes to get it back. Feel great now. Dressed well, new shoes were awesome. Sidenote, my wife also PR'd from last year by over 30 seconds (8:01 on Strava) and just smoked it. 6th in her AG out of 206. So proud of her. She keeps getting faster and faster and she hadn't even run much this last month either overall.
Time to rest a little and enjoy some football today. Have a good weekend, fellas.
ETA --- Not sure whose idea it was to put ice in water for the water stations when it's 18 degrees outside but that was awful. I couldn't really drink the water because of it. That hurt.
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Thankfully it felt better after the shower but that was weird. 
Keeping my fingers crossed - I'd love to participate.
(and have a great bruised knee to show for it now).
