It was a near perfect day as I rolled out of the house this morning and headed to the church. It was a cool morning, the sun was shining and there was only a very light breeze I knew it would be a good day.
After teaching a class on the Anabaptists I headed into our 10:15 worship service. It was a communion Sunday and I pronounced the benediction at 11:20, just 40 minutes to race time. As normal I spent a few minutes shaking hands as people made their way out of the service and headed into the fellowship hall for coffee. It was now 11:30... 30 minutes to race time. I followed the crowd into the fellowship hall and spent a few minutes chatting with folks before making an early exit for my office where I would change into my running gear before heading to the race, 11:35... 25 minutes to race time.
After a quick change into my running gear and a bathroom stop I hopped into the car, 11:40... 20 minutes to race time, and drove to the start, 11:45... 15 minutes to start. Getting out of the car I walked over to the packet pick up and grabbed my race number and timing chip and pinned them onto my shirt, 11:50... 10 minutes to race time, I knew I could make it, lots of time to spare!
My race plan was to run a very conservative race today, I thought I'd be really happy with a 7:30 pace and content to plod through at a pedestrian 8:00 pace.
When the gun went off I was content to find a comfortable pace to run and was a little surprised when I ran through the first mile in 7:21, I certainly didn't feel like I was running that fast. I decided to tuck in behind Bob (I found out his name as all the course officials were calling him by name as we passed by) and the second mile disappeared in 7:02.
I wasn't sure what to make of this but decided to see if I could maintain this pace for a while and I just settled in. After 5 miles I was averaging a 7:12 mile and started to wonder if I could hold on to this pace and set a PR. The miles began to disappear, mile 6, 7, 8 still on a 7:12 pace, mile 9, still on a 7:12 pace.
As I entered the final mile I was trying to remember what my PR was and wondered if I might beat it. As I crossed the finish line I stopped my watch and it read 1:12:01. The official results currently say I ran a 1:12:07 but I think that has to be the clock time and not the chip time, as I can't see how I could be off by six seconds. Either way it was a clear improvement on my previous best of 1:12:47.
A great day and a surprising race result. I really like these races that start later in the day, I almost always run them better than I think I will.
Leaving the church I jumped into my car and drove to the start of the race
After talking it over with Jenny we realized they only used the chip timing to record finish times and not start time, so the six second discrepancy between my time and the official time was the time it took me to cross the start. I wasn't in a hurry as it was a "chip timed" race! So I did run a 1:12:01 but I can only prove a 1:12:07...
Posted by: Neil Craigan | November 09, 2010 at 04:23 PM