Buffalo Grove 10K

I ran the Buffalo Grove 10K with the intentions of 1) gaining some CARA Circuit points in my age group, and 2) for a trial of miles to give myself confidence heading into Moscow. I went into it thinking that this should've been a reasonably important race. A 10K PR should've been a gimme.

If I rate my race based upon those thoughts, then I failed. Horribly. However, given the circumstances, it wasn't a total loss.

Let's start with the weather: The race was run in the middle of a nasty, early September heat wave. We had about 8 days of 90+ degrees and humidity. There were claims that Sunday was possibly the hottest day of the year... easily mid-90s. The race was run mostly through a forest preserve, at 7:30am. That meant, it was either blazing hot in the sun or choking humidity in the preserve's shade.

Under ideal conditions, I thought a 5:25 paced run would've been possible. Given the heat and the fact that I was sitting on my peak mileage, tired, and sore... I was willing to adjust that goal pace. I thought maybe go out at a 5:30ish pace and see what happens.

It started out ok, with the first mile right around 5:31. It was on suburban streets and felt hot but reasonable.

Incidentally, at about 400 meters into the race, point number one from above came into play: After a very brief jockey for positioning, I found myself in 5th place. In front of me were four runners that I knew I wouldn't beat (well maybe one of them if he had a really horrible day). Otherwise, they were talented guys that could bury me even when they're out of shape. Inconveniently for my original intentions: Three of the four were in the 35-40 AG. Unbelievable!

Let's put this into perspective... even at this year's Shamrock Shuffle, which is probably THE most competitive race in the city and the USATF 8K national championships... I placed 4th in my age group! And that was a bad race for me!! Had I not sucked and been a giant pussy that day, I should've placed second. So here I find myself at some podunk, Buffalo Grove Stampede race on a holiday weekend when most guys should be off camping and drinking beer... and I'm in fifth place overall and fourth in the 35-39 AG!! All I could think was, Don't these guys have lives!?!?

After that first mile, I wasn't too far behind the lead (only maybe 5 seconds) but I knew that wouldn't last. It was clear though that the gap behind me was widening. Barring my own death or a freight train coming from behind, I pretty much had the 5th place locked up. 5:31.

By the second mile, we were in the forest preserve and the lead pack started to pull away from me. It was only a matter of time. There was no question that I shouldn't follow them. We crested a small hill with me only about 20m behind, and by the bottom they started to hammer. I ran 5:35 that mile, and could only see them farther and farther in front on straight aways. I was all alone from there on.

By the third mile, I was in the position of having nobody to work or race with. I slipped a little in pace (5:45). Fortunately I couldn't see anyone behind me. My sole purpose became to defend my position and attempt to maintain effort. The fourth was another 5:45. The race then exited the forest preserve. The humidity took its toll. I was completely soaked in sweat and my feet were sopping wet.

Outside of the preserve and blanket of humidity, I was able to pick up the pace towards lower 5:30's. I maintained that through the finish. In the end, 34:59. Averaged about 5:38s. Fifth place OA, fourth place AG.

This was a joke considering I ran SF10 in 55:31... or a 5:33 pace.

The silver lining could be seen in the fact that the lead pack finished at least minute slower than I would've expected (results). Also, I didn't completely die during the run. It certainly was very difficult given the conditions and I did lose motivation without having other runners around me. But the takeaway was a hard heat-indexed effort, that would've been much faster under better circumstances.

I now look to this week's 20x400 track workout to fine tune my speed. The weather has finally let up and my mileage has started it's slow decent towards a taper.