I thought that, if there was any course that could get me to that goal, this one would be it. The paths and roads around Lake Union are flat as a pancake. And the event wasn't well-publicized, so not a lot of runners participated. I assumed (correctly and thankfully) that I'd be able to run as quickly as I wanted, without worrying about crowds slowing me down.
In order to finish in 60 minutes, I figured out that I'd have to run 9:40-minute miles. Since I'm comfortably doing 10:00 miles on long runs -- and have managed 9:20 miles on 4-milers, I thought I could probably pull it off. But I still had enough uncertainty to feel motivated, excited and a bit nervous about the run.
After truly gigantic downpours on Friday night, Saturday dawned cool and cloudy -- but not rainy or windy. What an encouraging omen! And, as my friend SAJ says, ideal weather for running with all the oxygen in the air. I got up at 5:00, ate breakfast, got dressed and rode my bike down to the race start at Gasworks Park. The fact that it was first-time event showed in the details but everyone was in a good and forgiving mood and there were no catastrophes. The organizers started people in unofficial waves -- basically letting groups of roughly 50 runners start together, and signaling those behind to wait. My wave was probably the 6th or 7th to start out.
I didn't feel great at the beginning: my nerves were showing. My stomach was jumping around and I had a hard time catching my breath. I told myself that I had trained to be able to do what I was attempting, that I wasn't reaching for an unreasonable goal, and distracted myself with my iPod. I could tell before the first mile was even complete that it wasn't going to be one of those wonderful runs that feels great and empowering; it was going to be a push to finish in the time I wanted. But I kept working for it -- reminding myself of how happy I'd be if I pulled it off.
It helped that I was able to get ahead of most of the people in my wave fairly quickly. It's a rare occasion for me to be able to pass other runners, so I did relish it every time I was able to do it. At other times, when I sensed my breath starting to get away from me, I'd park myself behind a runner who was going a bit more slowly -- matching the pace until I felt strong again. Then I'd swing out from behind and pass. How glorious!
The course was well marked in kilometers, so I was able to entertain myself trying to convert my kilometer time into mile time as a way of seeing if I was on track (I am terrible at math). At the 5k mark, I was at just over 28:00, and seeing that number totally spurred me on. (It also was the first time I was definitively able to see how I was doing, since my math skills are so pathetic. When I reached 5k, at least I knew I was halfway done and could reasonably double my time to predict the finish.)
What did I not anticipate? The stinky hills in the last couple miles of the course. Yes, the paths and roads around Lake Union are super flat -- with the exception of the section that leads from the lake shore to the Eastlake Bridge. At that point, the course took us on a series of three small but extremely steep inclines that slowed me down and also totally winded me. You know how I had wickedly been enjoying being able to pass other runners? Suddenly, there they were again -- passing me by and getting up those brutal little hills easy as pie. I started feeling discouraged but kept pushing.
Directly after the final hill was the bridge. Adding insult to injury, it's on a long, slow uphill slope. More runners passed me but I kept at it. I passed the 8k marker and tried to do the math to see if there was any way I could finish in 60 minutes. It wasn't looking good but because my calculating skills are so weak, I couldn't be sure -- so I pressed on. I kept thinking of how proud I'd be to make my time. I really wanted to be able to tell SAJ that I'd done it.
A note about SAJ here: it's because of her that I was even aiming for a 60-minute time. After one of our tempo runs a couple months ago, she said in her charming way, "You know Anna, you're on track to run a 10k in an hour." I pooh-poohed her but of course it stuck in my head. And dammit if I didn't want to do it just because she put it out there. Oh SAJ, you are a trickster!
At the 9k marker, I checked my watch again. Unbelievably, I was at 52:30. Could that be? Did I actually have a full seven and a half minutes to run a single kilometer? I did some more ridiculously ignorant calculating, trying to figure what a kilometer is, compared to a mile. I guessed .7 miles -- plenty of time to make my goal. (I know now that 1k = .62 miles, thanks to the handy app on my phone. I probably could have come to that on my own, seeing that I knew 10k = 6.2 miles. But give me some credit, I was running hard and not at my best intellectually.)
While I was figuring, I was still doing my best to go fast ... but I sensed that I was slowing. I had fantasized about a sprint finish, but that wasn't to be. In all honesty, I felt pretty close to my edge. I tried to turn off my brain and just make my body move. I played counting games -- taking 30 breaths while looking no further than 10 feet in front of me, then raising my eyes to see how far I'd progressed. I counted steps. And then, thankfully, I rounded the final bend and saw the flags leading to the finish. Finally, I was able to step it up a bit -- I went as hard as I could until I crossed the chip timer line, then hit the stop button on my own watch's timer. And here is what it said:
Can I get a yahoo? I'm so thrilled. That total adds up to an average pace of 9:26! I'll yahoo myself: yahoo!I couldn't get my watch to show the time and distance on the same screen, so here's a second picture that confirms I ran the actual distance. It's on the lower right (6.21 miles, so I even ran even a tiny bit more!). The big "53:16" number is what the watch thinks is my pace at the moment; I'm not sure why it's reading like that because I was standing still to take the picture.
What a happy, happy run. After it was over, I got back on my bike -- with some fatigue but mostly exhilaration -- and pedaled home. All that before 9:00 in the morning, pretty divine! And, as a happy P.S., I looked up the results today and I placed 8th in my age group. Eighth out of 22, but still, I'm happy. Overall, I placed 140th out of 326. I'm less excited about that, but it's still way better than I used to do.
Onward!
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