Space City Alliance 10 miler: Race Report !!!
Prelude to the race:
I desperately wanted to RACE Space City Alliance 10 miler. It is literally a while (February) since I raced a race longer than 5k. I had mixed feelings going into the race. I ran this race last year for the first time and got busted in it. Last year, I ran it within 48 hours of getting off a really long flight from India. I was in India for almost 5 weeks and had opportunity to run only twice in 5 weeks. Needless to say that my legs cramped at mile 6 and finishing the race was painful but I still managed a time of 1:11:xx which was less than 2 minutes off the time I was expecting.
This year was a different story. I didn't slack off much during the summer and was running about 20-25 miles a week. I started running around 35-40 miles for August/September. The big difference came in the length of training runs I was doing. Last year, I was running more days in a week but was only running moderate distances like 4-6 miles per day. This year I changed my approach. Even though I am only running 4 days a week, my average runs are 10 miles or longer.
Race Report:
Dave & Lara picked me up from my place at about 5:30 am and we were at big purple tent around 6:10 am. Lara handed me down her camera and I clicked few pre-race pictures. I said Hi to my BCRR friends and at sharp 6:30 am Simon, Dave and I went for a pre-run warm up. The warm up was nice and easy with few strides. My legs felt fresh and springy.
While I was waiting at the start I did something which I will regret later. I thought my right shoe laces were too loose and tightened them little too much. At sharp 7 am, they fired the gun and race is on.
1st mile: I ran side by side with Scott Bounds and kept Rob Walters in my sight. Rob is ahead of my by about 5-10 seconds and the pace seems comfortable. We hit mile one around 6:31 min/mile.
2nd mile: I am running few steps ahead of Scott but suddenly I feel tightness in my right leg. I shrug it off and think that it will go away. I run about quarter more mile and I can certainly feel that shoelaces are too tight and I sure don't like it. I am debating what to do and run quarter more mile and now I feel some tightness around my hamstring. The demons from last year resurface and I feel uncomfortable. I have to make a decision whether I should just keep going and bear the tightness or spend 10-15 seconds to stop and untie/tie my shoelaces again. We hit mile 2 around 6:40 and I decided to address the problem.
I stopped at the curve and untied my shoelaces and loosened them up a little bit and tied them again. A bunch of people passed me in those precious 10-12 seconds. I heard David Piper shout, "Wait for us" but I started running before Simon and David could pass me.
Mile 3: I have lost the pack of runners I was running with in first two miles. Scott bounds is visible to me but he is too far ahead to catch up. I still feel some tightness despite loosening up my shoe laces. I make a decision to keep the pace around 6:40 or so until mile 5. I hit mile 3 around 6:46 and I am running alone.
Mile 4: I saw Stuart Muirhead and passed him without difficulty. The next guy to pass is Mark Conran. I ran behind him for about 10 seconds and he commented that my feet make too much noise for a light weight person like me. I passed Mark Conran without any resistance on his part. We hit mile 4 around 6:37.
Mile 5: My legs are beginning to feel warmed up and there is a big pack of people running about 50 yards from me. One of the guy stands out because he is wearing awfully long socks. I thought about speeding up but decided to wait until mile 5 mark. I desperately wanted to hit mile 5 mat around 33:30 to ensure that I am on track for a sub 1:07 race. I hit mile 5 in around 6:38 and counting the time for shoelace incident, total time is ~ 33:29.
Mile 6: I am feeling really good. In Fall 09/Spring 10, my major problem had been running out of breath. But, today I am feeling relaxed and I decide to push the pace little faster. I passed few people during mile 6 and hit it in 6:25. That's more than 10 seconds faster than previous mile.
Mile 7: I passed 2-3 more people and they don't offer any fight. I can barely see Scott Bounds and David Nemoto but they are quite far ahead of me. I set my eyes on two guys and a girl running side by side about 20/30 yards ahead of me. The guy offers some resistance but not so much and I passed him. The girl really showed some character and we go back and forth few times before I finally pass her. She was running strong at constant pace and I was in mode for some negative splits. I hit mile 7 in 6:26
Mile 8: I can see that David Nemoto has passed Scott Bounds. My calculations at this point revealed that I will run sub 1:07. The goal is to maintain the pace and see if sub 1:06 is possible. I passed few more people during mile 8 and hit mile 8 in 6:23.
Mile 9: I have my eyes fixed on Scott Bounds. I seem to be gaining on him slowly but the question is if I can get him by finishline at this rate. I count one turn and he is running 20-21 seconds ahead of me. I change one more gear and pass few more people. The breathing is becoming hard but still manageable. I am getting close to Scott Bounds and still not there. We hit 9th mile in 6:15. 6:15 is faster than my 10k pace but I feel that I can carry it one more mile.
Mile 10: I passed Scott Bounds around 15 km mark. I felt content and just wanted to finish remaining one kilometer in less than 4 minutes. I kept running hard and soon it was time to make left turn which meant only 0.2 miles to go. At this time I saw David Nemoto and Dale Lee running together. I gave my legs one final push to get close to them. It was less than 0.1 mile to go and they were still ahead. I took a deep breath and went all out. I passed both of them just after the turn for the finish line. But, they didn't seem interested. I think they both just let me pass them and didn't offer any fight. We hit mile 10 in 6:04. That's good stuff :)
Overall: 1:05:7.0 for 10 miles. I will count it as sub 1:05 because I spent 10-12 seconds in the shoelace incident :)
And, finally some pictures with classic windmill action.
(Less than 0.1 miles to go and both David & Dale are in front of me)
(I have passed David & Dale in classic Windmill action) 
(Heather took this picture of me flying at the finishline)
I desperately wanted to RACE Space City Alliance 10 miler. It is literally a while (February) since I raced a race longer than 5k. I had mixed feelings going into the race. I ran this race last year for the first time and got busted in it. Last year, I ran it within 48 hours of getting off a really long flight from India. I was in India for almost 5 weeks and had opportunity to run only twice in 5 weeks. Needless to say that my legs cramped at mile 6 and finishing the race was painful but I still managed a time of 1:11:xx which was less than 2 minutes off the time I was expecting.
This year was a different story. I didn't slack off much during the summer and was running about 20-25 miles a week. I started running around 35-40 miles for August/September. The big difference came in the length of training runs I was doing. Last year, I was running more days in a week but was only running moderate distances like 4-6 miles per day. This year I changed my approach. Even though I am only running 4 days a week, my average runs are 10 miles or longer.
Race Report:
Dave & Lara picked me up from my place at about 5:30 am and we were at big purple tent around 6:10 am. Lara handed me down her camera and I clicked few pre-race pictures. I said Hi to my BCRR friends and at sharp 6:30 am Simon, Dave and I went for a pre-run warm up. The warm up was nice and easy with few strides. My legs felt fresh and springy.
While I was waiting at the start I did something which I will regret later. I thought my right shoe laces were too loose and tightened them little too much. At sharp 7 am, they fired the gun and race is on.
1st mile: I ran side by side with Scott Bounds and kept Rob Walters in my sight. Rob is ahead of my by about 5-10 seconds and the pace seems comfortable. We hit mile one around 6:31 min/mile.
2nd mile: I am running few steps ahead of Scott but suddenly I feel tightness in my right leg. I shrug it off and think that it will go away. I run about quarter more mile and I can certainly feel that shoelaces are too tight and I sure don't like it. I am debating what to do and run quarter more mile and now I feel some tightness around my hamstring. The demons from last year resurface and I feel uncomfortable. I have to make a decision whether I should just keep going and bear the tightness or spend 10-15 seconds to stop and untie/tie my shoelaces again. We hit mile 2 around 6:40 and I decided to address the problem.
I stopped at the curve and untied my shoelaces and loosened them up a little bit and tied them again. A bunch of people passed me in those precious 10-12 seconds. I heard David Piper shout, "Wait for us" but I started running before Simon and David could pass me.
Mile 3: I have lost the pack of runners I was running with in first two miles. Scott bounds is visible to me but he is too far ahead to catch up. I still feel some tightness despite loosening up my shoe laces. I make a decision to keep the pace around 6:40 or so until mile 5. I hit mile 3 around 6:46 and I am running alone.
Mile 4: I saw Stuart Muirhead and passed him without difficulty. The next guy to pass is Mark Conran. I ran behind him for about 10 seconds and he commented that my feet make too much noise for a light weight person like me. I passed Mark Conran without any resistance on his part. We hit mile 4 around 6:37.
Mile 5: My legs are beginning to feel warmed up and there is a big pack of people running about 50 yards from me. One of the guy stands out because he is wearing awfully long socks. I thought about speeding up but decided to wait until mile 5 mark. I desperately wanted to hit mile 5 mat around 33:30 to ensure that I am on track for a sub 1:07 race. I hit mile 5 in around 6:38 and counting the time for shoelace incident, total time is ~ 33:29.
Mile 6: I am feeling really good. In Fall 09/Spring 10, my major problem had been running out of breath. But, today I am feeling relaxed and I decide to push the pace little faster. I passed few people during mile 6 and hit it in 6:25. That's more than 10 seconds faster than previous mile.
Mile 7: I passed 2-3 more people and they don't offer any fight. I can barely see Scott Bounds and David Nemoto but they are quite far ahead of me. I set my eyes on two guys and a girl running side by side about 20/30 yards ahead of me. The guy offers some resistance but not so much and I passed him. The girl really showed some character and we go back and forth few times before I finally pass her. She was running strong at constant pace and I was in mode for some negative splits. I hit mile 7 in 6:26
Mile 8: I can see that David Nemoto has passed Scott Bounds. My calculations at this point revealed that I will run sub 1:07. The goal is to maintain the pace and see if sub 1:06 is possible. I passed few more people during mile 8 and hit mile 8 in 6:23.
Mile 9: I have my eyes fixed on Scott Bounds. I seem to be gaining on him slowly but the question is if I can get him by finishline at this rate. I count one turn and he is running 20-21 seconds ahead of me. I change one more gear and pass few more people. The breathing is becoming hard but still manageable. I am getting close to Scott Bounds and still not there. We hit 9th mile in 6:15. 6:15 is faster than my 10k pace but I feel that I can carry it one more mile.
Mile 10: I passed Scott Bounds around 15 km mark. I felt content and just wanted to finish remaining one kilometer in less than 4 minutes. I kept running hard and soon it was time to make left turn which meant only 0.2 miles to go. At this time I saw David Nemoto and Dale Lee running together. I gave my legs one final push to get close to them. It was less than 0.1 mile to go and they were still ahead. I took a deep breath and went all out. I passed both of them just after the turn for the finish line. But, they didn't seem interested. I think they both just let me pass them and didn't offer any fight. We hit mile 10 in 6:04. That's good stuff :)
Overall: 1:05:7.0 for 10 miles. I will count it as sub 1:05 because I spent 10-12 seconds in the shoelace incident :)
And, finally some pictures with classic windmill action.
(Less than 0.1 miles to go and both David & Dale are in front of me)
(I have passed David & Dale in classic Windmill action) 
(Heather took this picture of me flying at the finishline)
Beautiful reporting. As if I was myself running!
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