Before I forget - Kris Erickson wanted me to tell everybody that there is no day of race registration for Draper Days 5 K. So everybody who would like to run, register in advance. You can register at SportsNuts or download the registration form. I recommend everyone to run this race. It is a fast course, but not so fast that your PR crosses the boundaries of what I consider legitimate. I estimate it to be about 10 seconds faster than a perfectly flat 5 K in Salt Lake City. You get very good competition, and I have run this race enough times to where I can tell you what is going on with your training and fitness by studying your Draper Days splits.
Jeff and I drove to Vivian Park from my house. We left his car there. Warmed up 3.26 to the start of the Provo River 10 miler at 7:56 pace average up 3% grade. I originally wanted to run a 10 mile tempo, and the rest easy, then on the way up I changed my mind to make it 12, then 13.1, then decided to make it 15. My body was telling me I was fit enough to benefit from a 15 mile tempo at marathon race pace. Another reason for making it 15 is that it would avoid running at threshold for a good portion of the tempo thinking it was marathon pace. The longer tempo would have a humbling effect with a better inclination to face reality. It would also be a better test of marathon fitness - in most of my marathons I have been able to predict my finish time with a minute accuracy from my splits up to 15 and analyzing how I felt. The tempo had a total drop of 1160 feet starting at 5675 ft, then dropping to 5200 ft in the first 3.23 miles (3%), then a more gradual drop to 4800 in the next 6 miles (1%), then a drop to 4700 in the next 2.5 (about 0.5%), after that a rolling drop to 4535 at the finish (less than 0.5%). We were a bit sluggish getting started, but then eventually worked into a nice 5:30 rhythm. Hit the 3.23 mark (wheel-measured) in 17:38, then the 5 mile mark on the course, which agreed with the GPS in 27:31. Dropped Jeff off at 6 miles, he ran back to the car. Hit the standard 3 mile tempo stretch from Nunns to the mouth of the canyon in 16:42. 55:45 at around what I thought was the finish of the Provo River 10 miler. The GPS showed 10.10. I was checking it against the trusted marks and it was accurate everywhere expect about a mile stretch on mile 2 of the standard 3 mile tempo. I think the Provo River 10 miler is really 10.05 - when it was certified, there was no bridge detour. Then Curt put in the detour but did not adjust the start or the finish for it. The detour is about 0.05 long. My 10th mile was around 5:40 - it flattened out by then, and the sun started to come out. I did not worry about the pace, and focused on maintaining the same effort with the realization that now it was going to be slower.
11th mile was 5:48 (by the dots). Then I needed to go to the bathroom. So I made a stop at Wills (11.2 into the tempo). Although I was feeling good, I wanted to stay as far away from running on empty as possible. So I bought a quart of Powerade. Ideally I would have gotten a smaller container, but that was the smallest they had. I drank about half of it. Not wanting to waste the substance, I decided to run with the bottle and empty it as I went along. It turned out to be quite a nuisance. I actually ended up not using it until I was done with the tempo. Had a rough start after getting out of Wills, 1:34 quarter, then figured out a good way to carry the bottle and got into a nice rhythm - 5:40-5:45 pace on a slight down, 5:50-5:55 on the up. The trail got back to the river, and now I was going under bridges and making a lot of turns - this slowed me down to a couple of 1:30-1:32 quarters, but then I shifted gears and started handling the disruptions of rhythm better - 1:28-1:29 quarters. Hit the half marathon around 1:13:50 - going by the GPS and adding 0.05 for the error in the Provo Canyon. Felt strong all the way to 15, finished it in 1:25:00, exactly 5:40 pace average on the dot. It was very tempting to try to run another 11 just as hard to see what I could get for the marathon. However, I was running out of time, and also there a bit of wisdom that I learned from years of running - Just because you can, does not mean you should! Stopped, and finished the Powerade. Now I was glad I had it with me. Had a nice recovery jog to get to the total of 20 eventually easing into a 7:00 pace, which felt very nice. Total time for 20 miles was 2:02:50. Afterwards, ate breakfast and went the children's parade. Ran 0.6 with James (Ted's son) there to fetch the van after the parade was over. |