48F, 71%, SSW 7. 60F at finish. Traveled to Grand Rapids, Michigan to run the Fifth Third River Bank Run, a very large 25K (the unusual name can be blamed on the local bank sponsor) that doubles as the national championship for that distance. I have been traveling all week, so got a forced taper, 10 miles on Monday and 6 on Wednesday, ran 3 at race pace each time. Don't have my notes for those days, I'll fill them in later.
My dad lives here, and he met me last night at the airport with his wife. We went over to the expo and picked up my bib, checked out the logistics, etc. The race is well-run. Went to bed and slept well. My alarm went off at 5:30 (a luxury compared to races out west) and got to the race area at 7:00 for an 8:20 start. Plenty of time to get everything done.
They started the 5K at 7:00 and the 10K at 7:40, we never saw them, had the course to ourselves. Loop course, it finished about a block from the start. My goal was to hit 7:43 per mile, which for a true 25K distance comes in right at 2 hours. I ran it in 2:01:47 (just under 7:46/mile) and measured it at 15.69, about 0.15 further than 25K. (These courses are all certified, but if you read the certification rules, they want them to measure it long so that if anybody sets a record the measurement will hold up. I missed one or two tangents but wasn't off by that much.) Official pace was 7:50 per mile. My heart rate was sky-high, 182 max, averaged 176. 858 overall out of 5565 finishers, 29th in age group out of 176. Splits and heart rates were as follows (as usual, no accurate heart rate data to start, seemed to kick in OK by mile 2 though):
1: 7:37; 2: 7:36 (170); 3: 7:40 (172); 4: 7:37 (172); 5: 7:37 (173); 6: 7:45 (172); 7: 7:30 (176); 8: 7:30 (177); 9: 7:33 (178); 10: 7:50 (178); 11: 7:31 (178); 12: 7:57 (179); 13: 7:45 (177); 14: 8:16 (175); 15: 8:15 (176) and 16: 8:24 (177).
The course was essentially flat in the first half, then rollers until about mile 12.5. The rollers were not difficult, but again I showed my inability to sustain hills late in a race. I felt strong through mile 9 and managed to hang on through mile 11, didn't fall competely off the wagon until mile 14. Got hot and couldn't sustain the heart rate any longer. I think this is the highest heart rate I have carried for a longer-distance race.
But I felt strong in the first half, could have laid down the hammer at any time. That is the first takeaway. I never ran more than 11 miles after coming back from my injury a few weeks ago. But the weight lifting and other cross-training have given me better speed. Solution is to get back to longer mileage and longer runs, that is what gives me the depth to sustain what is now an easier effort to get to these kinds of speeds. It's almost like I'm a younger runner who is naturally faster but undertrained.
Second takeaway is a rude wake-up for Boston in a year. I have never run a course before that is ea.sy for the first half then gets hard before getting easy again. Again, I need more stamina, but I have time to get it if I can maintain proper training cycles.
Really glad I came up here to run this; it is a good distance. Hoping to convince some of my brothers and sisters into running it together next year.
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