Pueblo Spring Runoff 10 Miler RR

donskiman · Mar 3, 2008

March 2, 2008 Pueblo, Colorado What a difference a day makes! Saturday I drove to Pueblo to pick up our race packets and check out the course(s). It was a bit windy, but they had a record high temperature of 79. The course started in the parking lot at Dutch Clark Stadium, a big municipal football/track stadium. They actually have three races, a 5K, 10K, and 10 miler. All start together and share the same course before various turnoffs for the respective courses. The courses were primarily loop courses with the exception of an out and back for the 10 miler that extended off the 10K course. The first couple miles are on neighborhood streets and mostly flat. The next couple miles are in a city park and again mostly flat. Leaving the city park the course goes down a steep hill and the remainder of the course is on a paved trail along the Arkansas River - still mostly flat, but a few smallish hills and a gradual incline for a mile or so near the end. At the end the course goes up a short steep hill and enters the stadium, going about 3/4 around the track to the finish. On Saturday I ran about 8.5 miles of the course at an easy pace. It was a great day and people filled the city park and many were fishing in the river. As mentioned, it was a bit windy, but it was a warm wind. My scouting run provided me with a good mental picture of how to attack. The weather for Sunday was predicted to be nasty - and it was. We were awakened by the wind howling outside. As we live about 40 miles from the race, we were hoping it would be better when we got there. When we left home it was starting to snow and the wind was just fierce. As we drove, the snow stopped but the wind seemed to grow even stronger. The wind was a fairly steady 25-35 mph with gusts in the 45-50 range. Temps were in the mid 30s, making it quite cold. The only good thing is that the wind was out of the north and the course was mostly east/west. During my brief warmup run it was very difficult to run into the wind -almost looked like doing the moonwalk! Fortunately we started with the wind at our back, then it was mostly a cross wind for several miles. Vicki and Donnie were doing the 5K. I wished them luck and moved up so I could start near the front. The start command was given and we were off! I ran hard the first half mile, then settled into a more sustainable pace. After the 5K turnoff, the pack thinned out and soon it started to stretch out between runners. As I've been doing in my last several races, I started working on passing people in front of me. In the next couple miles I got past maybe 6-8 people and had closed to about a yard behind a woman, but she was doing the 10K and when I made the turn to do the out/back section of the 10 miler the next person was about 300 yards ahead. I chased that guy the rest of the race, but never caught him or anyone else. Nobody passed me either. The out/back section was along the river and parts of it were sheltered somewhat from the wind. Other parts had the cross wind trying to push me off the path. As the people ahead were coming back from the turnaround I got to see the lead guy just flying along. Second place guy was a pro triathlete from our tri club. Third place was a young woman. As I went along it dawned on me that there weren't all that many people ahead of me! After the turnaround I could see the nearest person behind me was several hundred yards back. There was a brief section where the course turned slightly into the wind and I felt like I almost came to a standstill. However I was determined to try to catch that guy ahead of me, while not being overtaken from behind so I kept pushing it hard. Finally we were back to where the 10K course had split off and there was just over 2 miles to go. I knew this area had a gradual uphill so I didn't let it affect me because I also knew there were a few spots where it leveled off to get a slight breather. I was finally starting to gain on that guy ahead, but not a whole lot. In the last mile I picked it up just a bit and ended up passing the stragglers from the 10K. The last half mile before the hill up to the stadium was out in the open and the wind was fierce again. The hill was a short, steep switchback and at the top it was directly into the wind for about 50 yards - ugh! Finally the turn into the stadium and I gave it all I had left. I closed to within about 75 yards of the guy in front and backed off just as I entered the finish chute because there was a 10K runner in front of me and I thought it would be rude to pass him in the last 5 yards. Finally I was done. I had never looked at my watch the entire race, just went hard the whole time. I was amazed when I came across the finish line in 1:14:28. I had set my 10 mile PR record 3 weeks ago and I broke that record by 8:55! I ended up 22nd overall and 3rd in my age group. Hardware! The guy I had been chasing for the last 6 miles was 2nd in my age group. I am thrilled to have ran that fast in less than stellar conditions! Vicki and Donnie didn't fare so well in the 5K. Donnie had played a basketball game yesterday and his team had no subs, so he ran a lot. Then he went to a roller skating rink for a couple hours and skated hard almost the entire time. I had figured he would do OK because I did a training run with him a week ago and he did 3 miles in about 29 minutes. Vicki had decided to run with him because we had never run this course before and wanted to make sure he turned at the correct spots. Well, he ended up just screwing around and moved at a snail's pace. Vicki got very frustrated. They ended up finishing around 36 minutes. As usual Donnie sprinted hard the last 50 yards and ended up beating Vicki by a few seconds which pissed her off since she had put up with his nonsense of being too sore/tired to run the whole race. Next race he is on his own again! I ended up with 73.05 miles last week, making it four straight weeks of 72+ miles. I ended up with 300.55 miles in February. I'm thinking maybe one more week of high mileage, then back off some to do some quality speedwork - if the weather gets nice. Our next race will be a 5K for St. Patty's in a couple weeks. My split times: Mile 1 - 7:08 Mile 2 - 7:26 Mile 3 - 7:20 Mile 4 - 7:19 Mile 5 - 7:28 Mile 6 - 7:34 Mile 7 - 7:41 Mile 8 - 7:25 Mile 9 - 7:26 Mile 10 - 7:14 .06 GPS - 0:23 - 6:35 pace

Tithers · Mar 3, 2008

great job! have you been talking to KC on how to BLAST away at recent PRs? That's an AWESOME difference in such a short time! 
Tithers congrtulates you<img alt="icon_salut.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/icon_salut.gif">

Stitcher · Mar 3, 2008

Great job..... 
Running in crap conditions makes the success all the sweeter.

kylemcm · Mar 3, 2008

That's some great splits in some bad weather! 
25-35mph. gusts up to 50mph. mid 30 temps. I salute you. I would have gotten back in bed.

donskiman · Mar 3, 2008

Thanks all. In the past 3 weeks I've broke my 10 mile PR twice by huge amounts. This new PR is almost 19 minutes faster than the PR I started the year with. I think with better conditions there is still more speed to be had. I checked the results of this race from last year and the two guys in my AG ahead of me both ran several minutes faster. I see no reason why I can't go faster as well since I hung in there with guy ahead of me. 
It is tempting to blow off these races in poor conditions, but so much of my daily running is done in crappy weather I've learned to deal with it pretty well. Plus if I waited for decent weather I'd miss out on racing for several months each year. I do look forward to nicer weather though. This time of year drives me nuts with the huge swings in temps from day to day.

jroden · Mar 3, 2008

Nice race, looks like you should have a strong season ahead of you, it takes a lot of extra oomph to run in the wind

donskiman · Mar 3, 2008

Thanks JR. The last three races I've done have been very windy. I'm getting pretty tired of it, but I do think it is making me stronger. I've been able to overcome the elements in all three races to finish strongly. That makes my daily runs in often poor weather seem more worthwhile. On one of my runs last week the wind was blowing as hard or more than yesterday and my route had me running into it, uphill for two miles. It is very tempting to quit on a day like that, or find a different route - but I get determined and perservere knowing that there will be a dividend. I'm just hopeful there will be good weather for the upcoming marathon. I had a good training lead up to a previous BQ try a few years ago only to see it all go for naught by having to run into a strong headwind for 24 miles. The wind in that race even slowed the lead Kenyan down by a mile a minute toward the end of the race and allowed someone to pass him. Hopefully these tough races will give me the mental power to keep going if the marathon conditions are less than ideal.

hobey · Mar 3, 2008

Sweet PR Don especially in such crappy conditions! Great job and congrats on the HW.

COcarrie · Mar 3, 2008

Well done!! Nice report on your race. How in the world did you pull off that PR in that junky weather?!!! Way to go!! 
The weather this weekend was indeed crazy! The skiing at Keystone was awesome on Saturday, even though I was really torn about staying in town and enjoying a nice long bike ride to go with my spring fever. Sunday sucked.

donskiman · Mar 4, 2008

Thanks. All the races I've done so far this year have had less than great conditions. At least yesterday I didn't have to deal with running in snow. Saturday would have been great for racing, and even today would be OK because the wind finally let up even though it's still kinda cold. 
The skiing has been great for several months. I miss going every weekend the way I did a few years back. I did see lots of cyclists on Saturday, but it was still really windy out on the open roads. Another month of varible weather and it should start being nice most of the time.

Yo Mikey · Mar 4, 2008

Way to go Don! Man you've got some impressive mental focus in such wild weather conditions! Plus altitude to boot! Kudos!!<img alt="icon_salut.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/icon_salut.gif">

Pueblo Spring Runoff 10 Miler RR

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