Marin Memorial Day 10K

Last week I was telling Dana (my lovely wife for those who don't know her) that I was really excited for the next two races - the Marin 10K and the Dipsea Race.  This spring season hadn't featured the consistently high mileage (by my standards) and epic workouts that I logged the prior spring, yet my race results have been much much better.  I decided to not get so caught up on how my training looked on paper, rather be patient - work really hard when I'm able, but rest when I needed to.  Also, a big mistake I made last year was trying to train through competitive races.  It has been a small adjustment, and if you compared my training log year over year you might say I'm not training as hard, but it's tough to argue this is working better when my 5K races have been ~30 seconds faster than the prior year. 

On memorial day I laced up the flats for the Marin Memorial Day 10K.  The race is on a flat, fast course in the shadows of Mt Tam (where I'll be racing the Dipsea in a week).  While it's a great opportunity to run fast, this race really had my number the prior two times I ran.  The only question mark for me was whether the 5K focused training would translate to twice the distance.  I just had to hope the occasional progressive tempo runs, the two 10 mile races from the early season, and even the Bay to Breakers centipede effort would fill the gap of not doing longer interval sessions.  Regardless, I told myself to push it all out of my head and just be confident as I've had great momentum recently.  The goal was to run 5:15 pace - a mid 32 minute effort.

The race went off & I just didn't feel very smooth.  In the 1st mile I settled in behind a couple masters runners, including the mighty 55 year old Brian Pilcher.  I was a little concerned with how I felt, but tried to stay as loose and relaxed as possible.  I hit the mile mark in 5:11, not a bad split, just wanted it to feel easier.  By the 2 mile mark, teammates Rookie and Gus ran by & opened a small gap.  I hit that split in 5:19.  It was a very slight uphill, but had to make the decision to ignore how I felt, and just trust the training that I'd be fine to push a bit harder.  So I threw a surge and caught up to my teammates, and even led the train for a while running the 3rd mile in 5:06.  There wasn't a 5k split but from the 3m I guessed half way was about 16:10.  Feeling more energized, on pace, and even thinking how I just ran the first half faster than most my 5K races last year, I kept pressing on. 

Our group strung out a bit in the second half of the race, but just kept as close to Gus as I could, telling myself to relax, and throwing little surges when I needed to catch up.  From half way I moved up 1-2 positions each mile.  The 4 mile split was 5:13, the 5th in 5:14, then the 6th in 5:21 (with a slight headwind).  The race ended with 250 meters on a track, and I kicked it in when I heard some footsteps behind.

The final time was 32:26 for 19th place - my fastest 10K since the 90s!  Our West Valley team had a very strong day with 7 guys under 33 minutes (I was the 5th).  It's exciting to see how well our team is doing, and that it's a combination of new guys joining, and existing guys working hard and getting faster.

The race was satisfying one because I set a challenging goal and accomplished it.  It also was good to have a day where thing didn't just automatically click - like those rare days you always dream about - but was able to stay tough and confident, and race hard the entire way. 

Next up is the 102nd Dipsea!  I've been pretty tired this week, but that's to be expected.  I'll take a decent taper week, and can't wait to show up in Mill Valley Sunday morning feeling strong.

* The finish