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Varsity Lake

11 Thursday Dec 2014

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Running

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Alex Leslie, Audi Li, Balch Field House, Colder Bolder, CU Cross Country, Griffin Beggar, Katie Hoyt, Massage Envy, race tactics

race photo 1The 2013 Colder Bolder is hard to forget with its brutal conditions.  It set the record low with below zero temperatures.  This year’s race though will stand out for me as much more memorable.  I haven’t raced like this in decades.  This is what I remember.

I purposely maintain a slow pace the first half mile.  I accelerate to my normal pace after that, sans oxygen debt. I not only pass countless runners, I do so with strength.  I find myself in several short races as younger runners try to fend me off.  I get a little winded myself trying to hold off a CU Cross Country runner who passes me around the two mile point.  Either he started off crawling, or he launched in the wave 90 seconds behind mine.  I recover along Broadway and launch into a long half mile kick to the finish.  If you click on the photo below, you can see the fatigue in my face after yielding to the cross country runner.

recovery after racing CU XC runnerI begin my kick with a bold surge through the hairpin turn at Broadway and University Ave.  I hope runners behind me are taking notes.  Before the turn I swerve wide to the left.  I then launch into the right-hand turn at a smart angle enabling me to accelerate through the curve, while others lose their momentum.  This helps me to pass a handful of other runners as there is also a short hill just after this turn – heading toward Varsity Lake.  With a half mile remaining, optimizing this curve isn’t critical, but it gives me more than momentum.  Like jumping off the ledge, I’m both emotionally and physically committed now to accelerate to the finish line.

bridge over varsity lakeAfter the hairpin, the guy wearing the blue shirt in this photo, 19 year old Audi Li, matches my stride as I surge past him.  He even tries to retake me but I demonstrate my ability and willingness to run as fast as he wants.  Although quite frankly, I’m a bit surprised he is so eager to start sprinting this early.  I discover why as we cross the bridge over Varsity Lake.  He is positioning himself for the cameraman on the far side.  He doesn’t want me blocking his photo.  He doesn’t seem to mind blocking my photo though.  I maintain my lead over him out of spite.  He fades behind me after we pass the photo shoot.  My pace drops off very little and I keep passing runners along Pleasant St., next passing Alex Leslie in the orange shirt.

Pleasant StreetI don’t know it yet, but Alex never really fades away.  He stays right on my heels for an imminent showdown in the field house.  31 year old Katie Hoyt and 11 year old Griffin Beggar are racing each other in front of me, obviously on their kick.  My money is on the older lady to beat the boy.  I strategically, almost recklessly, pass them just before the turn into Balch Field House.  Nearly as sharp as the hairpin turn earlier, I need to pass them to obtain the angle required for this speed.  The volunteer road marshal manning this entrance nearly panics thinking I’m out-of-control and can’t make the turn.  I make the turn.

field house kickI’m happy taking this pace to the finish but am determined to hold off that girl and little boy if they come after me.  I imagine they might be upset with me cutting them off.  Instead, 19 year old Alex Leslie rockets past me like a screaming comet.  Prepared to fight off the other kids, my legs are primed to respond and I close the gap.  He immediately surges back ahead of me by a full stride.  I never intended to sprint this fast.  My mind considers the risk of injury but my heart is in this race and makes the call.  I pull even with Alex again.  Only momentarily though as he surges ahead to cross the finish line in front of me.  Little Griffin finishes two seconds behind me, likely fueled by his anger with me cutting him off before entering the field house.  Audi Li finishes another nine seconds behind Griffin.

field house kickI rarely kick.  I mostly run marathons and half marathons.  What’s the point?  In fact, sometimes I purposely slow down the final half mile to cool down.  But wow!  This entire kick from Broadway to the finish line was a total blast.  I feel like a kid after this.  Even though I actually lost at the end, I’m ecstatic from the experience.  Although it also helps to know from the race results that I beat Alex by one second chip time.  We’re the first anomaly in the results where my time is faster than the runner who places ahead of me.  I’m 49th and Alex finishes 48th out of 1556 runners in the open division.

kick 3I like this final shot because if you click on it, you’ll see we are both airborne.  I still won’t consider sprinting balls out like this in longer races, but I might add more 5Ks to my racing season.  The kick is an intense microcosm of racing.  A chance to relive my youth.  Sprinting to the finish line is throwing caution to the wind.  It’s a complete disregard for the doctor’s orders.  A mental lapse of my corporeal limits.  I’m not 52 years old when I run that fast.

Like Icarus, my hubris leaves me with a hamstring pull.  Which is fine, I already have a referral from my doctor to treat my injury with massages from Massage Envy – meaning my treatments (massages) will be covered by my insurance.  I know a thing or two about recovery.  I can’t wait to do this again.

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The Surge

06 Saturday Dec 2014

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Running

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Alex Leslie, Colder Bolder, race results

startToday is Brit’s 23rd birthday.  I celebrate by running the Colder Bolder 5K across the CU campus.  I invite Brit of course but she has to teach voice lessons this morning at Wildflower School of Voice.  Ellie was going to run with me but she’s been down and out all week with a brutal virus.  All my other running buddies are up in Fort Collins running the Jingle Bell run.  Just me and 1000 co-eds.

The race is nothing like last year, when only 1000 runners braved the negative temperatures.  This morning is a balmy 39° and there are 2000 of us.  I race in shorts.  I carry all my gear with me by wrapping my blue North Face jacket around my waist.

My initial race strategy was to run/walk with Ellie.  I employed the ellie strategy earlier this year at the Bolder Boulder, where we mostly walked.  Subsequently, I did not get an invitation to run in a specific wave for this event.  I am running in the Open division.  This turns out to be a plus and I intend to run in the Open division ongoing.  More runners make for more fun, even though they stagger waves by 90 seconds.  As a gentleman runner, I appreciate the later start.  With Ellie DNR, at home sick, I change up my strategy and decide to start out slow and see if I can’t run either mile two or three (ideally both) under a 7 minute pace.  I’ve run all three miles under 7 minutes per mile in a 5K last year.  That was a flatter course and I had better weather that day.  The CU campus is noticeably hillier than that course.

I can’t tell really if I start in the 7 minute per mile wave or 8 minute.  Feels like a good fit as we start running.  I let the initial surge pass me, running slow and steady the first half mile down Colorado.  As soon as we leave the street for the campus bike paths, it becomes obvious the 90 second waves are smart.  Bottlenecks would have been brutal otherwise.  My slow start strategy would have stayed slow if there wasn’t room to pass.  I put on my first surge after a half mile.  This is the lowest elevation of the entire course at 5325 feet.  This is also the steepest hill of the course, but relatively short.  From this point on, I mostly pass other runners, although in spurts.  I’m surprised to run my first mile in 7:08, because despite the varied strategy this is nearly the same time I ran last week for my first mile in the Prospect Turkey Trot.

Many of the runners I pass are college kids.  Passing them isn’t easy.  Oftentimes they match my surges, but eventually they yield.  Somewhere in the middle of the race, I get passed by an athlete running super smooth.  He’s decked out in CU gear and looks like he might be on their cross country team.  I follow after him.  For about ten seconds, then I fade.  Chasing him might hurt my overall time but racing him felt so good, it was worth it.

Alex LeslieI’m certain I run my second mile faster and I do marginally in 7:02.  I actually expected to run under 7 minutes.  I felt so fast at times but I wasn’t maintaining a steady pace.  The constant slopes on this course make holding a steady pace difficult.  I simply go with it and enjoy passing groups of runners when I feel like surging.  For some reason, breaking 7 minutes is important to me and I start my kick early, with a half mile to go.  From this point on, I run under a 7 minute pace.  I’m nearly sprinting as I enter the field house.  Sonofagun if a 19 year old doesn’t immediately pass me on a surge of his own.  I surged passed him earlier in the race and apparently he followed after me.

Alex Leslie, a student from Redmond Washington, passes me with just enough distance left in the run for me to chase after him.  Or perhaps he is leaving me just enough rope to hang myself.  As soon as I catch him, he surges again.  Doh!  We’re running out of runway but somehow I find another gear and catch back up to him yet again.  Alex seamlessly shifts into yet another gear of his own and surges across the finish line ahead of me.  This was maybe over a 100 yard stretch inside the field house.  I don’t mind Alex beating me, racing him was so much fun.  I of course gave him grief afterward for beating up on a 52 year old.  I feel even better now after having seen the race results.  I beat him (chip time) by 1 second.  We finish just under 22 minutes.  I learn in a text that my buddy Keith ran almost the exact same time for his Jingle Bell 5K in Fort Collins.

BritOn the way home, I stop off at Whole Foods to buy some KBCO CDs as Christmas gifts for my Texas relatives.  And I pick the girls up some mobile gear at Car Toys for the drive down to Austin.  The rest of the day is spent celebrating Brit’s birthday for reals.  Cake from the Romana Cake House.  Tea at the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse.  And finally a movie at Flatirons – Penguins of Madagascar.

Tomorrow, I start training again for another marathon in February.  I hope to run twenty miles.  I may have pulled a muscle sprinting after Alex.  I’ll see how it feels on tomorrow’s run.

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