Decker Challenge 20K [Entered 12/4/06]

Another Distance Challenge race, more hilly terrain, some wind and some nice cool temperatures...a potentially fun mix of ingredients, if (a) You're ready, (b) You use some strategery (sic), and (c) The stars align with respect to food/hydration/digestive issues. So, how did it go on Sunday?

The Decker race, as previously noted, is my favorite Challenge race. It has been so from the first time I ran it, and this was my fifth time in this event. I've run it twice in its 12 miler configuration, and now 3 times as a 20K, on the third variation of the 20K course. I think they've got the course nailed down, if you ask me. The changes made between last year and this have eliminated the interminable looping in the parking lots and grounds of the County Exposition Center that made the last couple of miles of the race last year so mind-numbing.

My internet research last night was right on as far as the weather conditions were concerned. It was in the high 30's, with a 10 mph north wind. The temperatures were perfect, and the wind was mainly an issue in the first 3 miles of the race, running a long straight stretch right into the teeth of the breeze. It was also annoying in the last 3/4 mile or so in the parking area and finishing stretch at the Expo Center, but everything's annoying in the homestretch of a distance race, so what's different about that, anyway? :-) I dressed appropriately for the conditions, with my warm hat, gloves, two long-sleeved shirts, and shorts. It wasn't cold enough for tights. And, although I'm not superstitious, I wore my lucky red long-sleeved Gazelles shirt as my outermost layer. Come to think of it, I also wore my lucky gray BOA shorts with the GU pockets. But, I'm not superstitious. Really. :-)

On top of that stuff, I wore a bunch of other layers for warmups, as it's just not much fun to get down to your racing gear until you have to do so. I need the extra warmth for warmups. Of course, I got to the race site and was parked and ready to go about 45 minutes before I needed to be there. I overestimated the time necessary to get out to Decker, as well as worrying a little much about potential traffic jams into the race site. Oh, well, better early than rushing to get there at the last minute. I was the second car in the parking lot. What a goober I am sometimes! So, I hung out in the car, finished off my pre-race beverage and banana, and waited on more folks to arrive. After some quality XM radio tunes, I finally rolled out 20 minutes until 7:00am, when we were going to embark on the warmups with the Gazelles.

A quick pitstop on the way (port-o-johns are chilly places on days like Sunday!), and soon enough, I found a clump of Gazelles gathering inside the warm Expo center. At 7:00 sharp, we took off on the course for warmup reconnaissance running. We did the last mile of the race, out and then back, so at least we knew what to expect in the home stretch when we were probably going to be a little goofy. It was a beautiful morning, with a great orange sunrise coming up, and only the wind was annoying. Coming back from our turnaround point, it was cool to see that the rising sun worked to activate the reflective running gear of those running towards us. Maybe it was just me that thought this was interesting or noteworthy, but that's the way my brain works sometimes.

After those 2 miles of easy running (9:48 pace), the gang scattered all over. Some did the drills, some darted back inside to wait for the race start, some went to their cars to ditch gear, and some just hung out at the Gazelles tent near the start/finish line to change into their race gear there. I was in the car option group. I did some strides in the parking lot on the way, and then climbed into the Tahoe to change out of the many layers of pre-race clothing. I managed to remember to pin on my race number, always a good thing, and reappeared some 10-15 minutes later with all my stuff ready to go. I still had on an extra long-sleeved shirt, but I dropped that at the Gazelles tent with about 10 minutes to go before race time. I remembered to take my pre-race GU, taking advantage of the water that was there at the tent (thanks, Kenny, for taking care of us!!!). After dropping the shirt, I wandered over to get in the midst of the throng waiting for the horn to sound.

As I looked around, it was funny to me to see that we had a tidy little clump of Gazelles gathered right in the middle of the crowd. Brad, Jan, Chad, Frank, Sue, Diana, Amy, Shannon, Rich and Marcy were all within a 20 foot circle. Some last-minute bantering was had in the mob, the National Anthem was sung, live, and then the horn hooted, and we were off. I was a lot closer to the front than normal today, maybe just 20 seconds to the line. We made a quick left, then right, and we were headed out of the Expo Center for our big loop in the country. Amy and Chad pulled on ahead during the first mile as we cornered and headed north into that wind, and I figured I might see Amy again, maybe, but Chad would be long gone. Sue joined up with me, and once again, she and I made up our tiny pace pod for the rest of the day.

The first mile was more or less right on goal pace, which meant I had gone out a little faster than I needed. No worries, though. As we turned into the wind, I tried to run to a perceived effort level rather than fussing with pace, and that worked out pretty well. For the day, I grabbed water at every stop, which was about right. Sue and I rolled through mile 3 and finally turned the corner out of the direct wind just at mile 4. As I sipped my water there, I clicked my lap split, and noticed that Amy was ahead about 50 yards. So far, so good. Everything was checking out just fine. I was a few seconds over 8:00/mile pace after the windy miles, but I knew that those seconds should be easy to retrieve, based on the last couple of Challenge races and on last year's Decker splits. Time to get going, though.

Splits miles 1-4: 7:54, 8:08, 8:06, 7:58. 8:02/mile overall pace.

I didn't get my GU taken at the mile 4 water stop, but I figured I'd just wait. I put the GU packet in my glove, though, so that it would be a little less like gummi bears and a little more like the syrupy texture we've grown to know and love. :-) Sue and I rolled up on Amy during mile 5, and as I passed her on a short little hill, I figured that was it. Based on previous races, I would have been correct. But, Amy reappeared pretty quickly, and we started an unofficial pace group from that point until quite late in the race. Amy would generally push up the hills, dragging Sue and me along, and then my longer legs would pull us down the hills. We caught up with Diana during mile 6 on a hill, and although there was some leapfrogging back and forth, she also joined us in our journey around Decker.

I must admit, I got a little worried when I realized that we were going to stay with Diana. I'm not accustomed to being anywhere near her during the longer races, as she's much faster than I've been. Today, though, the combination of my slight speed increases lately and the fact that she's still getting her speed back after a summer away from Gazelles World brought us together for this race, at least. I settled down once I confirmed that I wasn't doing any crazy HR number to stay around her, and we continued on with our business. The Gazelles water stop was crazy fun, and it was great to hear the support of our fellow herdspeople as we grabbed water (and I took my GU).

I hit the 10K split more or less right at 8:00/mile pace, which was my announced pre-race plan. So, if I was correct, it was time to start grabbing time back to head towards my 7:50/mile pre-race goal pace. I did the math in my head (well, duh! It's not like I had a calculator, pencil and paper with me in those pockets in my shorts!), and figured I just needed to grab back 60 seconds over the next 10K, or some 10 seconds per mile. That was math I could handle.

I picked it up immediately, albeit a modest pickup, and we rolled through mile 7. As we hit the dirt road portion of the race (due to construction), our little gang caught up with Chad. That was surprising, but so much that was happening today was that way...what's just one more thing? Anyway, we rolled up the long steady incline there during mile 8, and hit that mark after a surprising mile split. It seems I had already recovered all my "lost" time, and I was at my goal pace for the race already! While that scared me just a little, thinking I'd messed up with too big of a surge with so long still to go, I once again settled down by confirming that my HR was right in the pocket, and I wasn't feeling too toasted. Starting to feel some fatigue, but nothing awful. It's a race, after all!

Splits miles 5-8: 7:51, 7:39, 7:31, 7:24(!). That 7:24 mile included some decent climbs, too. What's up with that? Overall pace at mile 8 was 7:49/mile. I was already trying to talk myself into running a little more conservatively, but my body wasn't listening. The group mojo of the Gazelles crew was capturing me, and I had no choice but to let it take me to the finish.

Mile 9 had a couple of long ups and downs, but nothing terrible. I took my Enervetine ("runner's crack") right during there, as well. Fuel for the finishing kick! Mile 10, however, had the tough long hill that was formerly around the mile 9 mark of the old course. It's a double decker affair (oh, God, a pun! I honestly didn't realize it until I read this completed post...really!), and those of us who've run the course before knew about it. A woman who pushed past us on the first part of that last hill was unpleasantly surprised to see part 2 ahead, and audibly mumbled as she realized that her big push may not have been as decisive a move as she had hoped. :-) Chad pulled slightly ahead here, but I tried to keep him in sight, at least. The others were slightly behind me, but I was trying to do the old "GO!" strategy after that last bad hill at the 10 mile mark. It was all about the individual from here on. It had been great running with everyone to that point, but it was time to turn within oneself now, and to press as hard as you could to the finish.

Diana was also ahead of me, but I tried to keep her a little closer than Chad. I was working hard now, and the wind was more of an annoyance now that we were heading back west. The last tailwind had gone away. I was really begging for that 11 mile marker, inside. Fortunately, the markers were big and blue, so I could see it from a good distance. I let the marker sort of pull me towards it...that elastic band mind trick you can sometimes use. Once I got past mile 11, I did a last quick calculation, and saw that I still had 20 seconds or so "in the bag" ahead of my 7:50 pace goal, so although I was still working hard to maintain my pace, I knew I could still have a great race even if I messed up the last mile a little bit. That helped me to get through the last mile.

Somewhere during the modest hills of mile 12, I caught up with Diana. It might have been as late as the mile 12 marker or even after, but it was certainly close to the finish whenever it was. I was a little dizzy feeling as I slogged up that tough little hill entering the Expo Center, but once I passed the actual mile 12 marker, I was on top of that hill, and it was pretty clear sailing from there. The wind made that bit a little less enjoyable than it might have been, but surely I could hang on from there? I felt a little like I was running in slow motion, but I was passing people, so that was just another example of time distortion that happens late in a hard race effort. I didn't get past Diana until the last couple of tenths of a mile, about when I saw Pete and Patrick and some other Gazelles jogging back along the course. They screamed at me to race hard to the finish, and the (later) funny thing was that some folks I was passing also turned to me and told me to race hard to the finish. By name! Weird, that. But, it helped, and I found a little bit of a finishing kick as we made that last turn and burned up the finishing stretch. Done!

After the traditional post-race gasping for air in the finishing chute, I found Sue, Chad, and Diana right away, and we moved towards the land of warm clothes and post-race food. Amy came up just a little bit after that. It had been a unique race for me, running more or less in a group with that many people for most of a race. It worked out pretty well, too. Hmmmm...maybe I should consider making pace pals for the marathon? :-)

Oh, yeah, the numbers. Splits miles 9-12.43: 7:21 (again, what's up with that?), 7:49 (the big last hill was in here), 7:47 (and I thought I had slowed down during mile 11), 7:58 (oops!), and 0.43 miles in 3:18, a modest 7:47 finishing "kick." Overall time 1:36:45, a 20K lifetime PR by some 2:39 over last year's race. Overall pace 7:47/mile. I beat my McMillan time by a little bit, and beat my pre-race goal by 30-some odd seconds. I did a big negative split Sunday, going 49:26 for the first 10K, and 47:18 for the last 10K. And, although I don't count PR's set this way, if you take my time from the 5K mark to the finish, I even scored a lifetime 15K PR by 15 seconds. It was a great day at the running office!

Shannon and Rich celebrated their return to racing in a big way, with monster races, and it seems like most of us set PR's today. Once again, all those hills and such that Gilbert puts us through in training came through in our races, as we were able to deal with the hills a little more efficiently than those around us.

Shannon and Amy joined me after we put on our post-run warm clothing, and we did a stupendously slow cooldown jog around the grounds of the Expo, retracing last year's finish. On the way, we caught up with Frank, who joined us on the way back. Those super slow miles were quite difficult, but as we finished up, I could already tell that they had helped my legs work out some of the junk that accumulates during a long hard race.

After that, it was time to go inside and tell our race stories to all our buddies. It always tickles me to see how fast we can put aside those memories of angst and pain once a very short period of time has passed. Everyone seemed pretty happy, and I saw a bunch of friendly faces from Galloway days and from Gazelles, of course. I even got in a tiny bit of stretching once the main crowds had dispersed, and that helped a bunch to alleviate the stiffness in my legs as well.

As the runners had gotten their fill of Krispy Kremes (I just can't eat those yummy treats so soon after a race...but Alex would have loved them!) and other goodies, we finally headed out to a nearly deserted parking lot to start the journey home. It had been a wonderful day, and another celebration of life and fitness. One just can't ask for much more than that.

For the week, only 36 miles, because I failed to do any of the recovery runs. Still, I'm quite content with my running week. :-)