4/29/12: Pikes Peek 10K Race Report

I love the 10K.  It's a great mix of endurance and speed.  It's an event I've been improving in dramatically over the years.  Believe it or not, 34 minutes on the track was all I could muster in college(several years ago).  Now, to be able to say I've run 30:56, is a really great feeling of all the hard work and intelligent training I've put in.  Even in 2008, I was still running 34s on roads.  I am not the same runner I used to be.  After yesterday, I have put myself into a new "zone" for the 10K.  And part of that is being able to run sub 5:00 pace for 6.2 miles, averaging 4:58s. 
After waiting around forever(the start was delayed by 12 minutes), the gun went off and I surged ahead with the lead Africans.  What are you doing??? I thought.  RELAX.  We made the turn onto Redland.  I looked around for any other white guys.  Where are they?? Then Karl Dusen(who owns a sub 30 10k PR) pulled up next to me and together we turned left onto 355 for the long, straight, race about to begin.  The Africans at this point started to surge ahead(OR I found my own pace and smartly didn't run with them).  Then Karl surged ahead as well and I sort of drafted off of him.  I could see he was at the tailend of the African pack and I was the 2nd white guy in the race.  Very gradually he would pull away but I at least kept him in my sight for most of the race.

So, with Karl up ahead, I was running pretty much alone, just trying to keep him and some of the Africans in sight.  I was in a very "grey" area.  A bunch ahead, a bunch behind, but not many right near where I was.  I split 4:54 the first mile.  The second mile I slowed a tad, hitting 9:53 for 2 miles, splitting 4:59.  I split 15:22 or 15:23 for the 5K, and was on good pace for sub 31(side note: my last road 5k from sept last year was run in 15:22, 2 weeks before I went 1:08 for 13.1).  I then began to see an African runner who had fallen off the pace up ahead.  I very gradually began reeling him in at Mile 4, and in the process of doing so, another runner passed me who I recognized from Cherry Blossom(2002 Marine Corps Marathon Champ Chris Juarez).  Just like the last race, he was passing me again.  Arrrrrrrrgh.  I stayed tough and drafted off of him but his turnover was going strong.  At least we both caught the Ethiopian(Seife Geletu) and continued to hammer.  I started losing ground on Chris a little bit though.  He would go on to finish 10 seconds ahead.  I found myself alone again approaching mile 5, when Jordan Zwick came alongside of me and gave me encouragement.  My legs began to wake up and I went with him, and together we passed 5 miles in somewhere under 25:00, and I realized if I was going to break 31, I better start running fast.  Very fast.  I began to withdraw all the speed workouts I've done this year and with pure sheer WILL ran faster, and faster.  Jordan stuck with me.  I suddenly felt like I was running an all out mile.  We sprinted home with crowds cheering and saw the clock 30:40...41...I hauled ass down the hill and Jordan pulled away just slightly to beat me by 3 seconds, finishing in 30:53, and I finished in 30:56.  I ended up as the 4th white guy and 16th in the race.  The top dozen were all East Africans.
1   1/149      1 Julius Kogo           26 Chapel Hill NC     28:12   28:11#  4:33
2   2/149      3 Abiyot Endale         25 Bronx NY           28:16   28:15#  4:33
3   3/149     76 Zenbaba Yigeze        29 Bronx NY           28:20   28:20#  4:34
4   1/184     25 Tariku Bokan          30 Herndon VA         28:48   28:47#  4:38
5   2/184      7 Kitema Nigusse        31 Bronx NY           28:49   28:49#  4:39
6   4/149     12 Fikadu Lemma          28 Bronx NY           28:54   28:54#  4:39
7   3/184     24 Birhanu Alemu Feyissa 30 Silver Spring MD   28:55   28:54#  4:39
8   5/149      4 Deresse Deniboba      29 Bronx NY           28:56   28:56#  4:40
9   1/199     15 John Itati            38 Royersford PA      29:00   29:00#  4:40
10   4/184     14 Kennedy Kemei         33 Chapel Hill NC     29:21   29:20#  4:44
11   6/149     74 Eric Chirchir         28 Jackson Heights    29:38   29:38#  4:47
12   7/149      6 Worku Beyi            25 Bronx NY           29:42   29:41#  4:47
13   8/149     26 Karl Dusen            29 Rockville MD       30:05   30:05   4:51
14   1/211   1005 Chris Juarez          41 Alexandria VA      30:46   30:45*  4:57
15   9/149     59 Jordan Zwick          25 Arlington VA       30:54   30:53   4:59
16  10/149     27 Chris Sloane          28 Rockville MD       30:56   30:56   4:59 
17   5/184     77 Seife Geletu          30 Washington DC      31:22   31:22   5:03
18   6/184     30 Jake Klim             31 North Bethesda M   31:33   31:32   5:05
19  11/149   1074 Carlos Renjifo        29 Columbia MD        31:48   31:47   5:07
20   2/199     33 David Wertz           36 Arlington VA       31:59   31:58*  5:09

I have one more race between now and the USA Half Marathon Championships.  I will compete in the Swarthmore College Outdoor Track 5000m like I did last year and make an assault on my 5k PR.  The 5K is obviously not my best event but it is important for me to work on this distance to help me get faster in the long stuff.  I'm looking foward to doing some 1k repeats!  Race is on Monday, May 14th, and the meet starts at 5 pm.  An odd time for a race but good thing I have Mondays off.  It will be a long night however as my race probably will be later that evening.