So after those predictions yesterday I went out and ran 49:56, exactly what I thought I was capable of. It took a real race effort and great conditions as well as a guy right in front of me the whole time acting as the carrot.
First couple miles were very fast. I was 9:40 thru two miles, much of that due to the downhill and my desire to run in a group for as long as was reasonable. It ended up being the lead pack which was all foreigners and me. After I let them go some other Americans caught up to me and one went by. He remained a couple seconds ahead for much of the race.
Miles 3-5 were weird. I know the race it net downhill but these miles were very gradually rolling. Coming up on City Hall at mile 5.5 you make the only turn in the race and go around the building, staying on Broad st.
Miles 6-8 were my low point in the race. I was hovering just over 5:00 pace, and since I had built up that cushion on my goal time in the first two miles I was creeping over my goal average with these miles. My calves were starting to feel pretty tired and on the edge of cramping, which was not a good sign with almost half the race left. I pushed as hard as I could without going over the Red Line, but I was still by myself chasing the top American ahead.
After I survived those tough miles I kept grinding through, taking it a mile at a time. After mile 8 I started to really push, and I was slowly closing the gap on the guy ahead. After mile 9 I committed to a big move and caught him at probably 9.25. This is the point in the race where you go under I-95 and can't see the entrance to the Navy Yard so it's tough to gauge how far out you are from the finish. Once I saw the Navy Yard sign and hit the little downhill into the yard I started kicking. Not a very good kick because muscularly I was bankrupt but still as hard as I could go. I learned later it was 400m to the finish from the entrance to the Navy Yard, so a good time to go. The entire finishing stretch I was going as hard as possible but breaking down the whole way, so I was nervous the guy I passed was coming back on me. Last mile was in ~4:50.
I was pretty happy to finish just under my goal time and as (I was pretty sure even then) top American. This was definitely a 100% race effort, I was very wiped after and muscularly in pretty bad shape. Calves were used up and the cooldown was tough. Energy was OK on the cooldown trotting at 8 minute pace but even jogging in trainers was hard.
My parents and Emily came to watch (Emily was nice enough to drop me off at the start and drive my car to the finish) and we sat around for the awards, which were pretty poorly organized and took way too long (I'm still grumpy about this). I did get recognized for being top American finisher which was a big deal. However I was still 8th overall so I have room to improve. The winner was 47 low, which wasn't even near the course record of 45:51, crazy fast times.
Overall exactly what I was hoping for from this race. Now the challenge is to see if I can recover for a track 5k next Monday. Very easy recovery jogs should help but it will be a bit of a race against time.
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