2015 USA 12KM Championships - Trip/Race Report
Part 1: Background - How I wormed my way into a world class race
A question that I hear often from people when i tell them I run races is "can you make money being a runner?". Well, there is relatively little running in money compared to the mainstream sports, but for some of the top tier elite runners in the country right now there is a road racing circuit sponsored by the national governing body fittingly named the "USATF Running Circuit". (
http://usatfrunningcircuit.runnerspace.com/) Throughout the year, there are 10-12 races across the country, each dubbed the "(Insert Race Distance) National Championships", where the distance ranges anywhere from a mile up to a marathon. While each race provides some prize money on their own to the top finishers, the series is scored grand prix style with the top-15 finishers at each stop invited to the year end "championship" race in Alexandria, VA duking it out for yet more prize money.
At some point during the year, I was fortunate enough to have cherry-picked arguably one of the lesser competitive stops on the circuit (The 25KM championships in Grand Rapids in May) and snagged a top 15 finish. Knowing that only the true elites in the running for some grand prix money would show up for the year end championship, I nonetheless decided it may possibly be a once in a lifetime opportunity for me to run in the year end race. So along with an excuse to visit my sister and friends on the east coast, I entered the championship race this past weekend.
Part 2: An unexpected meeting
Expectations for a fast time coming into the race were fairly low. I had gone for an Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier the weekend before in Indianapolis and fell off pace before even reaching halfway. (although I did hang on for 8K/5M/10K PRs before watching my shot at a half-marathon PR disappear over the last 5K). At the beginning of race week there were 25 entrants in the 12K championship race, but with a few more race week scratches it seems like I may have an outside shot at squeaking out a top-20 finish. (out of 20-22 starters
). I flew into Maryland on Thursday and spent a couple of days with sister and her husband just relaxing and enjoying myself before driving down on Saturday to spend the night before the race in the host hotel.
When I checked in, I was informed by the nice lady at the front desk my reservation had been cancelled. Well... shucks, I tracked down the event manager for the race and he informed me he was responsible for cancelling my reservation but because he was giving me one of the free rooms that race had for elite athletes! (I didn't initially qualify for one of these rooms, but I guess they had a surplus with the lower than expected turnout for this year's race). While free, the room would come with a random roommate, and my roommate for the night would be.... (drum roll).... 2012 Olympian Donn Cabral! (
http://www.usatf.org/Athlete-Bios/Donn-Cabral.aspx).
Moments after I was told of my room assignment and got my keys from the event manager, we were all ushered into a pre-race technical meeting where they went over the race logistics as well as a quick course preview. We were told to sign a W9 if we want to collect prize money the next day (I didn't waste their time or paper filling one out), and zoned out when they talked about where to go to get interviewed post-race. Right after the meeting, I grabbed my bib and shirt and started heading upstairs when a young skinny kid approached me:
"Hi, are you Steve?"
"Yes"
"Hi I am Donn, I think we are roommates for the night?"
Inside I am thinking to myself "!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"... "Oh yeah, Matt mentioned that when he gave me the keys before the meeting"
Part 3: You guys want to know what Olympians eat the night before racing for $20,000?
After Donn and I got back upstairs to the room and put our stuff down, he asked me if I had any dinner plans, which I didn't. He then mentioned that one of the girls competing in the women's race tomorrow had invited him to dinner with her friends/teammates at a nearby Italian restaurant (which sounded standard to me) but he doesn't do Italian the night before most races (what?!). After pulling up google map we found Mexican place around the corner, which he seemed pretty enthusiastic about, so Mexican it is! Alas, it was still early so he invited me to go for a shakeout run with him. With little/no expectations for the race the next day and an opportunity to log a few miles with an Olympian, I accepted. There is an urban legend that some of you may have heard that world class runners actually do their shakeouts/warm-ups/easy runs extremely slow, and while I have a small sample size to work with, my 3.5mi/31:30 run (9min/mi pace) sure didn't debunk that theory.
When we got back I took a quick shower and then we were on the way. This guy sure didn't mess around, he got their big burrito with beans / rice / mole sauce, even ordering a soup to go to snack on as we were relaxing in the room before bedtime.
Part 4: The calm before the storm
I slept pretty soundly, and almost past my alarm. Alas, my roommate who was actually there to race and try to make some money didn't, and woke me up. We went upstairs to the hospitality suite to grab some breakfast, some oatmeal and coffee. While I was trying to wake up, some girl started chatting with Donn. I quickly gathered they knew each other quite well, and when we left he casually remarked "sorry about that, that was my ex-teammate Julie Culley, she retired after the 2012 trials" "Julie Culley that won the 2012 Olympic trials?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_Culley?""Yep"
When we got back to the room we quickly grabbed our stuff and headed over to a pre-race area they had set aside for us by the start line. I used the porta potty and headed out for my warmup, coincidentally when Donn was about to start his as well. He looked at me and in an almost apologetic voice said "sorry man, I usually warm up alone", which completely surprised me since I wasn't even expecting to tag along, but for someone of that level to even make that consideration of me caught me off guard. "oh of course dude, do your thing". Surprisingly, I quickly pull away from him on our warmup, yet another example supporting the "elites warmup slow". When I got back, I had the pleasure of waiting behind Molly Huddle in the porta potty line, and the whole time I was just thinking about how jealous one of my good friends is going to be later. (he has a huge crush on her).
Part 5: The Race
This was fairly uneventful. The gun goes off and I am trying to run as comfortably hard as possible. I don't know why I am even surprised at this point, but due to the tactical nature of these type of races I am still fairly close behind the leaders at the mile. Then we crest a second hill and somebody up front started pulling away, or I start fading a bit. Fortunately for me, even though I was completely outclassed by everyone in my race, there is also an open race that runs in conjunction with the championship event, so there's a mass of open runners behind me. 2 miles or so into the race, a couple of the guys from the open race blow by me and I try unsuccessfully to latch on. After seeing my splits for the 3rd and 4th mile (both a few seconds slower than my half-marathon PR pace) I get more and more discouraged, then finally I just decided I would run the last half of the race as hard as I can without looking at my watch again. The downside to this strategy is that there are huge clocks at 8K and 10K marks and when I hit 10K I quickly realized if I don't close the last 2K of this thing somewhat fast I may end up running close to the women's course record and possibly get chicked if Molly Huddle breaks her own CR. Thankfully, with a mile to go one of my friends who live in the area cheer loudly for me and give me just the boost I need. I chase down one of the guys in the open race with half a mile to go and pretty much gun it as hard as I can the last 2 minutes of the race since I didn't want to get passed in the homestretch. Final result - 37:35 (5:02 pace) and 19th out of 20 in the championship race, I did get beat by 5 guys in the open race, then again 2 of the 5 have qualified for next spring's Olympic Marathon trials. I plugged the time into a calculator and it's basically my half-marathon PR pace. Obviously I wasn't super psyched about it, but considering it was at the end of a hard training cycle and I managed to not get chicked I'll take it. Rough splits - 4:54, 5:02, 5:05, 5:07, 5:04, 5:05, 4:58, 2:17/0.49 (4:41/mi)
Part 6: The aftermath
I went for a cooldown after the race and then had a delicious brunch at a nearby cafe with one of my friends from high school who came to watch the race. On my drive back to my sister's house as well as on my flight home I had a lot of time to reflect on the experience. It was definitely a nice unexpected experience to spend a few hours with an Olympian and get a glimpse of a true professional runner's life, and overall while I ran below expectations compared to what my recent training and races indicate I should be able to do, it's definitely a performance I wouldn't have been capable of even a year ago, and light years ahead of where I was 2-3 years ago. I guess sometimes you just have to take a step back to put things in perspective. It's time for a couple of weeks of downtime before I make one last push for my last two shots at a trials qualifier.
