The OBX festival is now over and was a lot of fun this weekend. It was mostly nice for me to get away after some recent happenings with me in the trials of life. Despite being pretty sick from the start of the trip things ended up really well considering. I think that after a few weeks of off time and then 3 build up weeks of training I did pretty well considering.
Saturday night consisted of dinner at the elite house with dan, caitlin, garret, megan, ben, bill, mike, kent, myself and glenn. It was nice to finally see everyone and to see that everyone seemed mostly loose about the race to follow the next morning. The pasta was really good and the chatter was even better. After we left the house and made it back to the Ramada inn, I made it clear that I needed to go to bed very shortly. I prepped all of my race gear and decided to take 4 melatonin to relax me for sleep. Surprisingly I went to sleep at 9:30pm and woke up on my own at 5:04am w/no alarm.
I felt good actually i wasn't sneezing or having to blow my nose every 2 minutes. We made it to the start and had plenty of time to do a short warm up and a good stretching routine. We lined up in the 1st corral which was very small and the gun went off pretty quick. Right away I knew I would be running with Kent for awhile since the first group hit the mile in about 5:19 while Kent and I ran 5:32 which I honestly think was a little short because the 2nd mile was 14 seconds off . I felt really good and relaxed, kent suggested to do the "you lead a mile i lead a mile" technique. I changed it up to try every 1/2 mile which certainly helped the both of us out while giving each other company. We kept the pace mostly steady in the mid 5:40's and occasionally hit some upper 5:40's which was really worrying me.
After the chase pack almost disappeared with dan leading the charge we were on our own but managed to pick off a couple guys along the way. Once Kent and I hit highway 158 for the last time I knew it was time to start picking it up. Our 7th mile was a little slower than I wanted being about 5:52 according to my calculations from Kent's split he gave me, so I took the lead and pushed the pace a bit more. At about 8.5 I told Kent I had to go and shoot for the guys about 400m in front of us because I felt so good.
I pushed the pace and was soon by myself on the bridge running in the 5:30's where i intended all along. In my sight was a Kenyan who had fallen off of the pace and it helped me keep focused. I passed the Kenyan and kept my pace going until 12 miles when i caught my self being way too content because it was comfortable, so I pushed more and it never was uncomfortable. I finished strong w/my last 3.5 miles at sub 5:40 pace. I felt great after the race, no fatigue and no soreness, this was the first time in a distance race I felt good, leaving me to believe I left way too much on the course.
After finishing I changed clothes and shoes, then ran out about 1.5 miles to cheer on our marathon crc group and take pictures. Watching the leaders come through I knew something was a bit off when I didn't see Ben or Mike around 2:40, I was hoping that everything was OK, since it was starting to heat up a bit. In 7th place I saw Bill shires weaving through the field finishing strong and then Megan Hovis came out with a group of 2 guys and i jumped out and ran with her the rest of the way in because she said she wasn't sure where mike or ben where. It was still a pretty good day for bill and megan with a 7th overall/1st masters and a 2nd female overall award for each.
After this race it really made me think about my fitness level and the potential there is that I need to tap into. first I am going to go back to a strict diet along with that proper sleeping patterns. The next step of course if proper training for a goal ahead. I still have some time to set at least one more PR before the end of the year. This morning I did a 2.5mile shakeout w/Bill before we left OBX and then I ran 9.1m w/Logan at night which actually felt real good. Things are looking good....
Shout out to OBX runners, Megan, Bill, Ben, Mike, Caitlin, Dan and Kent.
Nice run Chris! -Mike
ReplyDelete