the race report
this past weekend, i ran the shit out of the lasse viren 20k. i ran it fast and put in a new pr in the (almost) half-marathon category. i ran so hard that i think i blew out my bronchial muscles (if they exist). i’ve never heard of that before, but i think it can happen when you redline from start to finish. anyone?
the lasse viren 20k isn’t a big race, but it brings a pretty fast field. it’s about eight miles worth of fire roads and 4 miles of asphalt; a decent hill in the middle and pace-threatening/leg-breaking dips throughout. i stayed with the same three or four guys after the people who went out too fast faded away. the scenery seemed nice, though i didn’t see much of it because i was 100% focused on the people in front of me, wondering if i could pull some of them back. this shit is all business.
the hills were hard and i put in some work, trying to shed some people. i did, but they pushed the pace on the downhills, not leaving any time for recovery. the last six miles, though flat or downhill, were as hard as the first six. dudes were pushing hard. at mile eight, i was close to giving up, but then someone else popped and i knew that i couldn’t be that guy.
i passed two guys between miles eight and nine. at mile 10 it got a little easier because i could picture the last two miles of any run back to my house. i settled in and realized that i would be able to hold it, but the guy i was running with found another gear and pulled away. he wound up beating me by 20 seconds. what’s amazing is that he’s 20 years older than i am. dude is in awesome shape.
i love running, but it’s hard to write about it in any kind of meaningful way.
stats
race distance: 12.43m
clock time: 1:21:16
pace: 6:32 min/mile
i came in: 15th
though you can’t add mileage and have it be a meaningful stat, if this were a half marathon (13.1m), i would have run: 1:25ish (pr by 3min). and it’s really hard to think that a 3:05 marathon isn’t within my grasp if i had any kind of intelligence about training.