The Cherry Creek Sneak 10 miler was my first running race back from an achilles tendinitis injury that plagued me all throughout last year and really limited the amount of running I was able to do until about September of 2011.
In the 2010-2011 offseason, I had really focused on running, and had dramatically improved my pacing durnig training runs. I had been looking forward to testing out my newly-found run fitness at the Ironman Boulder 70.3 triathlon and had set my overall goal to race a sub-5 hour race. Alas! It was not to be, as the injury never really resolved, and I chose to drop out after the bike rather than risk more serious injury.
After resting, massage, and about a hundred other things, the injury seemed to resolve toward the end of September. I resumed my run training, and was surprised to learn that I hadn't lost that much fitness. After learning about the unfortunate and untimely death of an acquaintence and Endurance Nation team mate at the Philadelphia Marathon in November, I resolved to run the Colfax Marathon in his honor (I later decided to dial it back to the half marathon instead). The Sneak was to be a tune up for that race.
I arrived early to pick up my race number. It was a little chilly, so I wore a base layer long-sleeved shirt under my race shirt. I warmed up for about 20 minutes with easy jogging and a few short accelerations. Soon, we all headed to the corrals, and after the national anthem, the race was set to begin.
Goal Time - 70 minutes -- Actual Time - 68.5 minutes (40th OA, 4th in M40-44)
When the gun went off, I was near the front of the 7 min/mile group. I tried to get to clear ground as quickly as I could, and I was running at a very fast (too fast) pace. However, once we made it a quarter mile or so, things thinned out a bit, and I settled into what felt like a comfortable pace. At Mile 1 I was running 6:44/mi pace. Mile 2 was all downhill, and I was able to up the pace to 6:31/mi without really increasing my effort. Mile 3 included a very short, steep hill at the beginning, which slowed me down a lot, but I was able to make it back on the corresponding longer downhill into mile 4.
Miles 4-6 were a steady climb up Speer Blvd, Downing St. and 7th Ave to Cheesman Park. Tehre were several people a short distance in front of me at this stretch with whom I seemed to be pacing well. As we entered Cheesman Park on the latter half o Mile 5, I really picked up the effort (although, Mile 5 was by far my slowest at 6:55/mi) and passed several people. The last half of Mile 6 was a nice downhill section of the Cheesman loop, and we headed back onto 7th Avenue for another mile of steady uphill. Again, I kept my effort and turnover high, and managed to pick off a couple of others ahead of me before the turnaround at the Mile 7 marker.
Miles 8-9 were a welcome downhill stretch back down 7th Ave to Downing and back onto Speer. I was feeling very good after the Mile 7 turnaround, and I picked up the pace to take advantage of the downhill section. Mile 8 was my fastest at 6:22/mi. During Mile 9, I started to feel the fatigue, and I slowed down to 6:33/mi. When I hit the Mile 9 marker (1 more mile to go) we started a slow climb up to the finish line.
Mile 10 was a struggle, as I could feel the efforts in Cheesman and on 7th starting to come back to haunt me. I slowed quite a bit in the first half mile, but as the finish line got closer, I was able to pick it back up and finish strong.
I was very glad to be finished, and really wouldn't have wanted to run any further. But, the accomplishment felt great, and was a nice validation of the training effort I'd put in. I managed to finish 40th overall (out of about 1400 competitors), and nabbed 4th in my age group (Men 40-44) out of 119 competitors.
Looking forward to the Colfax Half Marathon in a few weeks!
