Monday 052509 Bolder Boulder 10k

• Picture courtesy of JP.
• I will look to wrap up this post on Tuesday with some more stats, shots, cross links  and video….
• I had hoped that I’d wake up today and magically feel great.  Being 39 and have been around this block maybe once, I knew that was highly unlikely.  I woke up and my legs felt like crap, as they have for the last few days.  I decided to hold off on analysis as to why.  Simply, why is that I am either not doing I am supposed to … be it I am over doing something or under doing something.
• Headed into Bolder nonetheless, and decided to make a good fight of it.  I knew it would be a stretch together a race of six miles, even at a slower pace than desired – but races are good reminders.  Good reminders of why we do this.  A whole post in that but for another time. 
• Parked at Scott Carpenter, and ran into Lucho and JK (his blog appears to have gone private) there.  I did a real slow warm up to the start (1.5 miles) and worked my way up to the A wave.  (I have some pre and post video but I am too lazy to post it right now).  It is rather ridiculous in there … Matt Reed, Chris Wellington, Dave Mackey, Colleen Dereuck … Olympians, champions, kick ass athletes in a 25 stretch of road in Boulder all at once.  I normally have lined up right at the front, but today I went right to the back. All the way to the back where I had lots of room to get ready.  The start was a bit jacked with the count down but I don’t think it really mattered with the chip timing (which BB really seems to have got down now).
• I tried to get out real easy and then settle into a rhythm.  I spotted Ric Bruess and thought I’d hang behind him for a few miles, just to be mindless for a while.  We got to a kilo and as I think because he knew I was there he let me slip ahead.  I was fine with trading places for a bit and so took the lead.  I quickly forgot Ric, as in this race, there are hundreds of people around you ALL THE TIME.  I mean TONS.  Kids.  Men,  Women.  It is a freaking party the whole way and it is easy to pick a target to run with even for a short period.  It seemed that from the kilo on, I was passing people.  Not in monster droves but in drips and drabs.  I got passed too by some, but it seemed to be a bit more in my favor post the kilo.  Saw lots of folks … in the race and on the side lines … Peter H, Simon E, Kerrie W, JP, GG, co-workers, etc.
• The race was a typical ten kilometer grind.  My legs felt like crap so I went through some tough patches – more than usual – from 2 miles on.  My body really did not want to be running but that was not an option for my head.  In the early stages, I kept the mantra of rolling but relaxed.  In miles 3 and 4 I was looking to maintain.  As I’d roll folks up, I’d get a bit of motivation to not get taken back.  We rolled down 19th, the long stretch to three miles and 5k, I noticed (per Forerunner) I was at 18:48.  I went through the mental calculations, weighing what I had against what times I desired.  I had a desire of getting sub 38, simply because that would mean I could use that time as an A wave qualifier next year.  I felt like crap, recalled that I pretty much had never negative split this course, and was doubtful about that as an outcome.   In any case, the thoughts quickly past as it was back to work.   I was able start  to smelling the line some post the Casey Hill and was able to maintain despite the quad and calf protests.  I did a watch check at 4, and began to wonder if I could hold for a sub 38.  At five miles, I saw I needed to hold a six through the finish to get sub 38.  As sad as it sounds, I was on the fence as to whether this would happen – I just have had too many death marches up Folsom from over extending in earlier phases of the race.  Back to work in any case.  I continued to feel like crud, but was able to keep momentum through the creek crossing at Folsom.  No kick into the stadium this year, the legs did not have that but as I passed the Frank Shorter statue, I was pretty confident that I had banked up for a sub 38.  Whew!
• 
  mile 1: - :05:55.97

  mile 2: - :06:06.85
  mile 3: - :06:11.59
  mile 4: - :06:08.36
  mile 5: - :05:58.58
  mile 6: - :05:59.10
  net time: - :37:36.91
• Saw lots of folks in the stadium post run, Jeremy, Bryan Dayton, Rickey Gate s, Stuckey, James Johnson, Dave Mackey, Brian Hill (who was goofing off and ran the race as the devil … I caught up to him at 2.5 miles but I think only because he had stopped to drink a beer!) … I love this part of the race … the post battle exchange where everyone is still walking around at 120 bpm, in the afterglow of a good battle, sharing what went well, what fell apart.  Got in 12 miles on the day (4.25 warm down) over 89 minutes
• … Sooooo … lessons learned, thoughts, post race rants …
  • Bolder Boulder seems to have the chip thing figured out.  Race results for individuals were actually posted that night, with mile splits.  Well done. 
  • I know I came into this race … wrong.  As I said above, I suspect I am either doing too much of something wrong, or not enough of something right.   My legs felt like I had run a 20 miler the day before for 3 days before this race and I could not shake that feeling.   When I look at my training over past years, and compare it to what I have done here in the past – I have to theorize that I came in over trained into this race.  I am still thinking about if at this point this is really a bad thing – for the big picture of the summer or not.  I might also be not doing enough of some other things like hydrating as well as I could, self massage, etc.  More on this later.  I need to think it out a bit.
  • All that said, I am not sure even with fresh legs I would have been able to suddenly run hugely faster.  Maybe sub 37. 
  • I am not stoked or disappointed with this result.  It is where I am.  I look forward to drilling this down over the summer.  I am pretty happy with the fact that despite feeling horribly, I was able to sew together (relatively) a good second half.  In fact, it appears I negative split – which I think might be a BB first for me!  Of course, this was my slowest Bolder Boulder ever!
    
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