Tempo Race

This morning, the fall marathoners (and me) gathered for the 4 mile tempo run. Even though Gilbert always tells us that it's more about pacing and striving for a negative split, this workout is almost always just a race. As Patrick joked this morning, you run this 4 miler at 5k race pace and that's about right.

Easy warmup and drills, and then it was time to get moving. It was dark and would remain dark for the duration of the 4-miler, but more on that later. I scouted out the crowd at the start line, and couldn't think of anyone in line that I could definitely say I would finish ahead of. That's a serious crowd! I felt okay warming up, but I was resigned to finishing last in a fast group.

For the first mile, I trailed everyone. I could see the pack with Richard and Jan ahead of me, but I was concerned only with running my own pace. Since it was so dark, I couldn't see my watch, so this became a case where I was truly "running how I feel." As usual in the first mile of any workout, I felt like I was gasping for breath, but I settled down by maybe the 3/4 mile mark. Peering through the darkness, I finally saw the footbridge, and crossed over for my first mile. Split was 7:47. I didn't know that at the time, however.

Mile two was where I settled down, and I even felt a little lighter on my feet through this part of the course. I passed a lot of folks on the trail here, even though none of them were my fellow Gazelles. As we approached Mopac and the turnaround, Greta came from behind me and passed me. I think she started late. I could also see Jan ahead of me for the first time since early in the run. By the time we hit the turnaround, I was only 50 yards or so behind Richard, and maybe 10 yards behind Jan. That was encouraging after being left behind so quickly in the first part of the run. My split at the turnaround was 15:15 (7:28 for mile two). That's a little short of a full second mile, but that's where we turn around. I think it's 40 yards short of a full second mile. So, I did see that halfway split, and I thought I had a shot at a personal best for this course if I just kept moving smoothly.

I caught Jan at about 2.25 miles, and we exchanged quick greetings. I couldn't tell exactly where Richard was ahead of me, so I just kept running down people wearing a dark shirt instead. It was really dark, remember. For some reason, it was easier for me to run the second half of this run, maybe because the miles were counting down as I went by the trail markers. For whatever reason, I picked it up in mile three, with a split of 7:14. I didn't know that information while I was running, but I hoped I was doing well.

Crossing the bridge, I kept chasing shadows ahead of me, but it wasn't until I was about a half mile from the finish that I could confirm that the runner ahead of me was Richard. He had 50 yards or so on me, and I tried to close that gap in the final bit of the run. I think he knew I was back there, and he matched my accelerations pretty well. I would guess that he got me by about 15 seconds. I heard Gilbert yelling for the runners as they approached the finishing line, so I kicked it up a notch, and motored through to the finish. Good job.

I was gasping, but very happy to see a final time of 30:03 for the run today. That's a PR for me by about 12 seconds. The previous PR was set on a perfect running day with crisp temperatures, so that made today's effort that much more special. Final mile split was 7:34. Overall pace 7:31, which was fun to see. Also a big negative split, 15:15 versus 14:48 coming back. Mission accomplished.

We did 8x100m striders afterwards, and these felt just fine from the start. I hung out with the peeps for a while, and then went back to RunTex to retrieve my dry clothes. A couple of happy conversations later, and I was headed home. Naturally, I was drenched again, but I really think the weather is finally changing for the better.

Hurricane Rita promises to dump a bunch of rain into Central Texas this weekend, so Saturday's 12 miler through Scenic might be a wet one. We'll see.