Chesapeake Bay 10k

The weeks training hasn’t been my best and after 4 days of no running in Vegas last weekend, I was half thinking I’d lost all my hard earned fitness – not the best thoughts to have with the Frederick Marathon only 1 week away.

If nothing else, today’s Chesapeake Bay 10k would be a good indicator of my current fitness level and I was keen to find out how I’d perform. As a guideline before the race, I plugged my 17:46 5k time from a couple of weeks ago into the excellent McMillan Running Calculator and out popped a 36:54 10k. I figured this would probably be a bit quick, but stored it away in the back of my mind anyway.

Anyway, fast forward to race morning. I arrived with an hour to spare, picked up my bib number and timing chip (something I’m not used to doing, but seeing as though I had my personal chip stolen from my car a few weeks ago, I had no choice) and jogged back to my car to start a 2 mile warm up and 5-10 minutes of stretching. The weather was beautiful along the Chesapeake Bay – pleasantly warm with a nice breeze out of the south – and it was one of those mornings where it just felt great to be out running.

Race start time of 8:00am soon arrived but the event was delayed almost 20 minutes due to construction on the course. Some runners seemed agitated by this, but I kept on stretching and just stayed relaxed and focused on the job in hand. At 8:20am we finally lined up on the start line, but somewhere in the distance emergency service sirens could be heard and seemed to be getting louder. Sure enough a fire engine was speeding towards us and we all had to scramble to the side of the road to avoid the fire truck – what a bizarre way to start a race.

Eventually we were off and I soon found myself in fifth place and running at a good pace. The lead two runners already had a huge lead and third/fourth place were already running away from me too. The guy in fourth was also an over 40’s runner and seemed to be staking his claim for the $150 1st Master Runner cash prize. Oh well, better luck next time eh? Mile #1 came in at 5:54 and felt very comfortable – probably helped in part by the slight tailwind.

Mile 2 was slightly quicker (5:51) and I started to wonder why I didn’t feel this good earlier in the week when I was really struggling to find any kind of form. The third mile mark also served as the turnaround point and as I approached the timing mat and cone I saw how spread out the first four runners had become. I rounded the cone and didn’t see another runner for at least a couple of minutes and knew at that point I was probably safe in fifth spot. I also noticed the wind was quite strong and would be in my face for the next 3.2 miles, but at this point I was still feeling good and ready for the challenge. Mile 3 was the quickest of the race at 5:47 by the way.

I slowed a fair bit into the wind on the next two miles (6:01 and 6:05), but didn’t really feel threatened enough to push it to the limit. With a marathon to run next weekend, today wasn’t the day to risk a silly injury. I did however try to pick the pace up in the sixth and final mile and managed a weary 6:02 with just a final loop around a park to finish off the race. Amazingly, I crossed the finish line in 36:56 – just 2 seconds slower than the McMillan prediction and only 24 seconds slower than my lifetime best! Not a bad performance at all and at the end I wasn’t as exhausted as I usually am. In actual fact, 36:56 is my third fastest 10k ever with the two faster efforts coming at the tail end of 2006 (my best ever running year).

So maybe all is not lost after all. My confidence is back and my legs seem to have followed suit. About time I say! Now I can confidently continue the marathon taper and maybe look to McMillan for another prediction. This time, based on today’s 10k time, I can expect a marathon time of 2:53:20. How accurate do you think this will be? Anyone have any other predictions they’d like to share? Anyone dare to predict something faster??

Full GPS details of today’s race can be viewed by clicking on the MotionBased map below:

PS I ended up in fifth place overall (almost 5 minutes in front of the sixth place guy!) and was the 2nd fastest Masters Runner missing the $150 first place prize money by a couple of minutes. Better luck next time eh?

🙂