2010 Colonial Half Marathon

The weather seemed to be too good to be true before the race started. I warmed up with Pat from my hotel and it was just hot. I thought I was going to be too hot in fact. The field looked pretty loaded with local talent-- me, Dave Hryvniak, Jared Campbell, Ryan Carroll, Michael Wardian, John Piggott, Chris Sloane, and three Africans.

I went out in the pack and quickly let myself be swallowed up by the other guys. Wardian, Kenyans, and Dave ran away and everyone was pretty strung out. I was in 9th with a 5:20 opener. I slowed down to 5:27 and caught Jared and the back of Chris and the Ethiopian. Mile three was 5:22 (downhill), followed by 5:53 (uphill) with Jared. He fell off on the way to a 5:32. Meanwhile the temperature has dropped and it's pretty windy, even on Country Road.

I'm keeping my distance behind #6&7, but too far behind to actually move up to them. I got off Country Road at mile 6 in 5:49 and decided to try to catch them while not having many hills. I ran 5:20 for the 7th mile to get back onto Country Road, and really struggled with the crowd coming the other way to a 5:48 and 5:39. I was trying to keep track of how far behind 5:30 pace I was and it wasn't looking good at this point. I hadn't lost any ground on 6&7 yet either, but the next mile in 5:38 started to bother my right quad. I was very surprised and disappointed when my 11th mile was 5:51 since it was largely downhill and I expected to be under 5:20 for that mile. It was at this point that I realized that a PR wasn't in the cards for today, and I felt a little pull in my right groin. The next mostly uphill mile was 6:08. I was a minute behind Chris there, and the Ethiopian started to fall off from him pretty rapidly.

Coming back onto campus, I was making up a lot of ground on #7 while my own wheels were falling off. Every time I tried to be aggressive, I'd feel a pull somewhere. Both hamstrings, my right quad and my right groin ended up feeling bad. Also my feet. (I'm retiring these flats after christening them in Las Vegas 2007.) I was probably 15 yards behind the guy at mile 13 but I could do nothing about it. I walked across the line with everything pulling, running 6:27 for the last 1.1.

I'm pretty disappointed, obviously, that I wasn't able to PR again. But I realize that between January 30 and February 21 I averaged my highest mileage ever. I was mentally in it for the PR today, and even felt like I had it in the bag for most of the race. Things just came unhinged I suppose. I got 8th place and collected another pewter mug.

Both Chris and Dave said that it was a slow day too. Dave broke 70 last year and this year was in the 71s. Chris wanted to be in the 71s and was barely under 73. Jared, in his debut, said that "everything hurt." So it's nice to know I'm not the only one who suffered. The cool down was rough. Pat and Kyle and I did teardrop. Very slowly.

On to Shamrock.