8/23 - Lake Union 10K Race Report

The inaugural Lake Union 10K, was, as I had hoped, a really nice race. While the course was very familiar, since I run it 3-5 times a week, it had enough variations to make it interesting, and racing is a heck of a lot different than just going out for a run, even a hard one.

Up at 5:00, dealt with Toby and the morning routine, got suited up and out the door by 5:45. Drank my 16oz of water and ate my 2 CLIF nectar bars that have become my prerace routine on the drive down. Day of race packet pickup was 5:30 to 7:00 for a 7:30 start and I didn't want to screw that up. :) Pulled into the parking garage at work, three blocks from the start, and free, at 6:15, right on schedule. A brief pitstop. Ahhh, access to heated bathroom facilities before a race. :) Another selling point for today's race. :)

Walked down to the lake, looking for the 'expo', which wasn't quite where I thought it would be. For some reason I thought the finish was in the parking lot near the Center for Wooden Boats. Nope. It was in the parking lot just south Kenmore Air, which is where the start was.

'Packet' pickup was a little different from what I was used to. A separate table to check in and find out what your bib # was. Another table to get your shirt and really nice swag bag (a real Whole foods reusable shopping bag, in green). The bag was very nice and much more ecologically friendly. The pile of info from sponsors and races went into the recycle shortly after I got home though. Finally, a third table where you picked up your chip, ankle mounted with Velcro and a neoprene protector (Yay! After tearing my ankle up at Seattle it's something I pay attention to. :))

Back to the garage to drop of the cool new bag and my shirt, very pretty, and while technical, not obviously so. I actually wore it to the store later in the day and didn't feel like people would notice. Another pitstop, and then back to the lake at a light trot to start warming up. Apparently the coffee place across the street from work is the place the Seattle PD hangs out on Sunday mornings there were between 3 and 5 cars parked near it and our building each time I stopped at the office. It's amazing how 20 minutes can change the way a place feels. It's 7 now, and all the sudden there's more traffic. (I'm sure some of it was for the race, but still... :) )

Ran into a former coworker and friend, Jaime, just as I was about back to the registration are. We hung out, got what I suspected would be the only pictorial proof of the race (I was wrong. Pics aren't out yet, but there were photographers on the course.) It was nice to hang out and catch up on work, life and how the Rock and Roll Seattle Half (her first!) went. (2:29:49 for her first ever, and with starting too far back and having to dump lots of energy with that, and then some pretty severe stomach issues the last mile.)(Oh, Jaime, I suspect that may have been a reaction to combining the cytomax and GU. Or it was the under distance long run issue we discussed)




A final brief trot up to RockSalt and back and finally about 7:25 we all started moseying towards the start, and Jaime kicked me up in the queue to go run fast. :) The only thing that was a little squirrely about the race was the start. The start line was on the north side of the entrance to Kenmore Air's parking lot, which meant that there was a straight shot from the sidewalk to the south and then another feeder from the parking lot to the left (where I was). This meant a merge into a 10 foot wide sidewalk, with Seattleites, who are not known for their merging skills.

The horn went off with no warning, or intro or anything (very odd). A couple of us looked at each other and were like. Oh, I guess we're racing now. It was even more abrupt than Beach to Chowder in 2008. A bit of shuffling and button clicking and I'm over the mats and working to get my heartrate up to my target, between 172 and 176 bpm (per RW's HR recommendations for racing, 85-88% MHR)(last fast run was 173 bpm avg), and start racing.




Mile 1: 7:21 @ 166

Calves feel really tight and weak. Hope they're going to cooperate. Lots of bobbing and weaving, trying to to hit people and signs as I work my way through to the group I'm going to spend the next 40 minutes with. :) Good flat mile for warming up and getting up to speed.
We hit the mile marker to a symphony of chirps as everyone either split's their watch, or their Garmin goes off. :)

Mile 2: 7:21 @ 176

Calves are still a little off, but I'm still moving pretty well. Kept pace going up the hill to the Fremont bridge, and over. Photographer as we are crossing the bridge I think. Second mile marker, water stop, and portasan is just after Speedy Reedy. I don't drink on 6 mile or less unless the heat is up so I blow on through. Super happy about the weather and tep at this point. 55ish and cloudy. Close to perfect.

Mile 3: 7:40 @ 176

And as you can see, this is where I start hemorrhaging speed. Calves finally start working properly. We didn't go up onto the sidewalk like I thought when I ran the route on Monday, which was nice. Middle back is bothering me a little, as it has on a couple of other runs. More ammo for getting back to work on my core routine. It's getting a bit harder to get my legs to respond to keeping the pace. A little bit of a side stitch right when I hit the mile marker. Really tried to make an effort to thank the police and volunteers this mile.

Mile 4: 7:46 @ 174

The 'hill' was in this mile and it tore me up. We peak at all of 89 feet (a pretty big chunk of our awe inspiring 233 feet of elevation gain). I tried to hammer up the hill to the University Bridge, but it wasn't happening. As with last mile, it's getting increasingly difficult to get the legs to keep the HR pegged out. Spend a lot of time at 177, which was a little high, but I seemed to settle in there once I got there. I think I actually lost some pace coming down the hill at the end of the bridge, just too steep. Glad it was short. Another waterstop setup at the mile marker. Passed on the water, but thanked them. Really noticed the course markings, both the cool arrows on traffic cones, but also the detailed instructions on the sidewalk/roads.

Mile 5: 7:56 @ 176

About 4.25 miles is a short STEEP (or it feels that way anyway) hill that turns into an alley and with some steep rollers. Tore up my thighs and jacked up my HR, but fortunately there was a pretty nice downhill shortly afterwards. Pushing hard according to HR, but I lose another 10 seconds/mile. What do my calves look like when I run? That's what I see the most of during my races, even with my head up, so... May have to ask Val to take a pic someday. :) Cramp/strain of the abs right above my left hip flexor, nothing serious, but it's complaining and pressure seems to ease the pain. I can run through it, so I do.

Mile 6: 7:51 @ 175

Doing my best to push, but my legs are sluggish, and it takes them a long time to let me get my HR up. Need to practice running at race pace, but before I ran this race I had no idea what a valid goal might be. Ab pain comes back again, but dissipates rapidly. Pretty sure I'm going to break 48 minutes, but it's going to be close. Can't seem to do the math for the last 0.2 at current pace. :) About half a mile to go and I get passed by a pair of tan thighs in a grey underamour running on her toes. She proceeds to chick me and 2 or 3 other guys on her way into the finish. I try to give chase, but I've got nothing.

0.2: 6:52 @ 180

Only ~1050 feet to go. Let's get what little is left in the tank and see if we can't come in strong. And maybe I can close the gap on 'thighs'. :) Photographer just before the weave to the finish banners, I think he got a pretty good shot. No gap closure, but I come through the finish line pretty strong.

Final: 6.21 miles in 47:45 (7:41/mile) @ 174 bpm avg

Chip Time: 47:45 (7:41/mile)
Overall 89 of 689
Age 15 of 61

That's good enough to meet my goal of breaking 48 and a 1:45 PR, on am uch harder course. (Beach To Chowder was at 49:30, and had about 30 total feet of elevation gain. vs. 230. :) )

Winner finished in 34:09 (5:30/mile). Holy effing crap.

Walked throught he chute, took off my chip and dropped it in a bin, grabbed a bannana, chatted with someone handing out Team literature, and then started to head towards the car. Val texted me and asked how I was doing, and then said that she and K were OK, so I decided to head backwards onto the course and pickup Jaime and see how she was doing.

Picked Jaime up around the point I got chicked, and we ran and chatted our way in. I bailed out to let her cross the finish solo, then we met back up and chatted for a while. Then we both headed back home to start our days. :)

Any problems I had today were totally training for speed, and leg strength. No problems aerobically, which wasn't suprising, but was still very nice to discover. Time to stop running slow all the time and add some faster running.

Garmin doesn't seem to be turning off/ going into sleep mode since this race. It might be that I didn't reset after the race according to one blog. It also brought up my concerns about the 405 for >8hour efforts. Someone pointed out that the charging cable is USB, so you can just use on of those USB Batteries if you don't mind the cable hanging around. It still tracks data, you just can't see it. (Or dole out the money for the 310XT with it's 20 hour battery life and waterproofing. :)) More research required.

Firmware upgrade for the Garmin appears to have fixed the sleep problem, fortunately