Yesterday I ran the Army 10 miler in DC. This is a fairly competitive race, about on par with the field I ran against in Broad Street two years ago. It was a perfect day and from what I knew about the race a fast, flat course. I was hoping for a new PR beating my (downhill) Broad Street time of 49:56 and my real goal was to run 49:30, the average mile pace I want to run in 3 weeks in Philly. I ended up not running nearly that well and came in at 50:25 for 8th overall.
Thing about the race I am happy with: It was a great training stimulus for Philly on 10/31, which is the real race that matters in the end. Even if I had run 45 minutes for this race if I can't put it together for the half it doesn't matter much. I was happy with my effort on the day and I think I put forth a good honest race effort. I was on the edge after about 5 miles and did a good job sitting right on the red line.
Things about the race I'm not happy with: I wanted to be running 5 seconds a mile faster with the same effort. Much of this was because I was alone for a lot of the race. I went out conservatively because I knew the top group was going out under 4:50s and I did not want to get caught up in that. Unfortunately for me there was a big gap between the top group and the rest of the field. I was pretty much the only guy in between the lead group and guys who finished 2+ minutes back. The only exceptions were the guys who tried to hang with the front pack and blew up, which happened to a few guys that I passed and one that I didn't. The effect this had on my race was that I went out slow in an attempt to run with a group (15:15 or so through 3 miles) and then struck out alone and started running ~5:00 pace after that. There was definitely some mental deflation that occurred after the first mile in 5:05 when I realized I wasn't going to have an amazing race. Perhaps that ended up slowing down by subconsciously not letting me push 100% in the tough, lonely middle stages of the race.
Overall I am not super happy with this, but I'm confident I can improve markedly on this in 3 week's time. I am assuming that there will be some guys shooting for the 1:05 mark just like I am and I'll have company for much of the race. I'll also see if I can fit in any last-minute speedwork to try and make 5:00 pace feel a little slower in the beginning stages - I know I'm strong, but I need to work on being a little smoother and confident in the beginning of the race.
