FAYETTE striders
Michael Stenson - Cherry Blossom April 4th,
2004
- 1:07:29
The weather:
I woke up to rain pelting the side of the window. It was
about 43F in the morning, with wind! By
race time the rain had stopped, and the sunny was trying to peak through the
clouds, but the wind did not let up.
What I wore:
- Nike
shoes
- Asic
socks
- Zoot
spandex shorts
- Long
sleeve dry-fit shirt
What I ate:
I had a strawberry yogurt cereal bar and a blueberry cereal
bar at 6AM.
How I felt:
I did not feel real good, kind of a sick stomach, might be from
the cereal bars? My legs felt ok, but
not as great as I would like them to. Oh
yea, I was cool, the wind when right through my cloths, but I was comfortable
while running.
Warm-up:
We ran about a 2 or 3 minutes then stretched some more and
then ran back. I would have liked to run
a bit longer and felt that there was a little too much time between warm-up and
the beginning of the race.
THE RACE
1st mile
marker – What first mile in 6:38! Way off course, but at least I didn’t start
out too fast? I better kick it in! I felt horrible the whole first mile, my feet
were sliding in Nike shoes, I thought if the whole race is going to be like
this, I might as well just drop out now, I am going to have blisters all over
my feet!
2nd mile
marker – OK, 6:28 for the second
mile, I felt like I ran a little faster than that, but that is right where I
want to be! The first up hill incline
(not steep) was at the start of the second mile. I passed a fair amount of people running up
the hill. My feet stopped bothering me,
OK I can run this!
3rd mile
marker – The third mile marker occurred while crossing a bridge. Wind crossing the bridge was brutal, I was
getting pushed around! And it was
noticeably slowing me down! 6:50 pace, that puts be about 50 seconds slower
than the 5 miler 2 week prior in Grafton.
4th mile
marker - Oddly enough, the wind back across the bridge wasn’t quite a tail
wind that could boost me. This mile was
really flat from what I remember. After 8
minutes I realized that I must have missed the mile marker.
5th mile
marker – 13:21 for two miles,
that’s not too far off course (6:40)! Mile 5 was mostly flat till the last quarter
or so where there was an incline, again not steep. That puts me at 33:17 for five miles, I am
about 1 minute slower than Grafton’s 5 miler and now I am looking at a 1:06
something finish, if I can continue this pace.
I really wanted to maintain a 6:30
pace, and the way I feeling now, I am not going to hold this pace!
6th mile
marker – 6:53, ouch! That
was at slight incline the entire mile.
Good thing I have to run back down on the way back!
7th mile
marker – 6:54, oh that
hurt. Mile 7 was almost half up hill and
half down. I slowed down right before
the turn around to get a drink of water, just enough to wet my whistle! I saw Tammy
and Shelly running up the hill, Tammy wasn’t
too far behind me, Go Tammy!
8th mile
marker – 6:56, why do I
run? Why do I put myself through this
pain? Just think how great you will feel
once you finish, that is why!!! Mile
eight was mostly down hill turning flat towards the ¾ mile mark. It was amazing to see how dense the crowd
running up the hill just past their 5 mile marker was, tons of people!
9th mile
marker – 6:51, I just can not
get my legs to turn over any faster, I have blown my wad! Any second someone that I know is going to
pass me. I kept thinking the whole mile,
ok just 8 laps around the track, piece of cake, you should be able to do this
in 6 minutes!
10th mile
marker – Yes!!! I am done!!! 1:07:29! See you could push it further, the
last mile was 6:36, hum those fast
twitch muscles must not be trained enough!
The course wraps around onto the same road that you start out on. It must be close to ½ mile of completely flat
and straight track along the river. I
had a little difficulties judging the finish, because I was looking for the
clocks above the road, here they moved the clocks down and to the side of the
road, because of the wind. Yes, it was
that windy!
RACE NOTES
What could I have
done better:
- Trained
harder?
- More
sprints?
- Better
pre race week?
But I can’t complain, the winner was two minutes slower than
last year, was it from the wind? And hey,
compared to my previous year, I wouldn’t have been able to finish the race at
this time last year! Overall, I am
pleased with my performance!!!