Ran a 10k - Official Thread (4 Viewers)

[xulf]

Xulf crushed the first lap at 1:34:34. If timing mats can be trusted he’s given back a bit of time the last 2 or 3 miles. Less than 4 to go.

That time was spot on. My dumbass still thought I could get in <3:10 to secure a Chicago bid. That didn't last too long on the back half

 

[Dr_Zaius]

Xulf crushed the first lap at 1:34:34. If timing mats can be trusted he’s given back a bit of time the last 2 or 3 miles. Less than 4 to go.

That time was spot on. My dumbass still thought I could get in <3:10 to secure a Chicago bid. That didn't last too long on the back half

You know, the 2021 Half I ran with pbm I gunned for 1:32 and I blew up pretty good and was pretty pissed about it, but Paul afterwards gave me props for laying it out there on an ambitious goal. I always thought that was great perspective.

 

[Dr_Zaius]

Consider me a sort of last minute addition to the racers this weekend. Last night I signed up for a local “rundown” event this afternoon. There’s a 1.6 mile cyclocross course in a grass field. You have 20 minutes to run a lap. Then 19:40 to run the next lap, 19:20 after that, etc. until there’s one person left.

No idea what to expect. Course has a bunch of serpentines and switchbacks so it’ll be super slow. Seems like there are usually only a couple dozen people or so that do this. I’m going to head over with water and some snacks to consume at the end of laps and just see what happens.

So I showed up at this and it was a pretty cool experience. The wife also trailed along which was much appreciated. About 20 people showed up, most of whom looked intimidatingly fit. The wife commented how everyone's legs were more muscular than mine. I wanted to do at least 10 laps (16 miles) and figured after that I'd just see how long I could hang on.

Course was indeed really slow. In addition to all of the turns, there was a section of whoops, a couple of serpentines that went alongside of a hill, and a couple of boards to jump. Also while the wind dried out most of the course, a lot of the turns were still mud on the inside from the rainy bike race Thursday night, so your choice was to carefully walk while hugging the inside, swing wide around the mud, or try to run the inside without slipping. Course also was largely downhill first half and uphill second half, which meant you really didn't want to fall behind pace early in the lap because it would be hard to make up. They actually changed the format so instead of 20:00, 19:40, 19:20, etc. per lap it was 20:00, 19:30, 19:00, etc., so things were going to come to a head sooner.

I would have liked to have 1:30 or so left over each lap, to give myself time to walk over to the board and check my box for a completed lap, sit down and get some water and utilize my snack pile. I tended to err on the side of too much time left, which was maybe a mistake later on. A couple of guys were really putting in fast laps, but they didn't end up having the fitness to keep that up and ended up flaming out near the end.

First laps were uneventful other than some blisters developing and getting pretty painful laps 4 and 5. I switched out to a different pair of shoes for laps 6 and 7 which made them worse, so I tried a third pair lap 8 and those worked to keep them annoying but manageable. We started losing people around this time, and when lap 10 ended only 9 of us made the cutoff, one poor guy missing by 2 seconds.

On lap 11 we were now one pack, albeit a bit spread out. I was in the back and it was clear going up hills or out of turns I had no more pop in my legs, but I was still feeling decent all things considered. When I finished I told my wife I definitely had one more in me, maybe two. Lap 12 went fine, but I finished without much time to spare and by the time I marked the board and fished out my headlamp (which I should I have had the lap before), I had to start 15 seconds late so I took off hard, thinking I had maybe a 20% chance of hitting the time. I was trying desperately to bank a bit of time on the downhill portion but between the darkness and the mud and the shot legs I felt like I was running like a drunken man, slipping around corners and such. I checked my watch around halfway and I was still 5 seconds or so behind pace with uphill switchbacks to go and knew I was cooked. I didn’t want to be a baby, though, so while I took my foot off the gas I forced myself to keep at least running. I ended up finishing 1:24 past the clock. Another dude timed out maybe 20 seconds ahead of me, so only 5 took off on lap 14. As it turned out only 1 made the cutoff on lap 14, and him only by 10 seconds, so that was it.

With better pacing in laps 7-9 I’m almost certain I could have survived lap 13. Lap 14 would have been a stretch, though. Still it’s a really fun idea and I’ll probably give it another go next year. I wish it was a little better organized, as there was no official clock and looking at my lap times I’m not sure time was kept super precisely, but hey for a low frills low key local race it’s fine. There are worse ways to log 20.8 miles. Only problem is I’m not sure when I’ll be ready for speedwork to try to sharpen for the Turkey Trot. Still, I don't feel too bad today and should be up for some lawn mowing and leaf raking.

Lap 1 - 15:31, 3:45 to rest
Lap 2 - 16:17, 3:11 to rest
Lap 3 - 16:39, 2:18 to rest
Lap 4 – 16:13, 2:21 to rest
Lap 5 – 16:16, 1:41 to rest
Lap 6 - 16:13, 0:46 to rest
Lap 7 – 15:13, 2:16 to rest
Lap 8 – 14:38, 1:53 to rest
Lap 9 – 14:07 , 1:50 to rest
Lap 10 – 14:45, 0:46 to rest
Lap 11 – 13:57, 1:02 to rest
Lap 12 – 14:07, 0:24 to rest
Lap 13 – 15:24, timed out