So yesterday’s race didn’t exactly go according to plan. Long story short, I ran 42:44 for 7.6 miles to place 6th overall and didn’t see a split until the 5-mile mark, which I hit almost two minutes ahead of schedule. Minus passing some suffering soul about 20 minutes into the affair, I ran by myself from start to finish. The effort level was right where I wanted it to be but the numbers on the watch were not what I expected to see. All in all, I’m pleasantly surprised to have run completely on feel and sustain a solid pace off very little quality work. I wasn’t much worse for the wear this morning but made sure to refrain from running and took a 1-hour recovery ride on the spin bike to give the old legs a chance to bounce back. Results of the race can be found here, but it appears a few chips went unaccounted across the timing mat, including that of yours truly and two of the guys who finished in front of me.
Adding to yesterday’s excitement was having two of my athletes PR at their respective races, as Doug Sylvester turned in a 1:48:15 at the Jones Group Realtors 10 Mile Road Race in Amherst and Heather Roy spun a 1:06:44 at the Polar Bear Run. Congrats to them both!
In the day’s other big news, USA Track & Field announced that the men’s and women’s Olympic Trials in the marathon will be held in Houston on January 14, 2012. Like many others, I’ve been eagerly awaiting this announcement for a while, and even though my recent race results suggest I have no business even thinking about making a run at the Trials, I know I possess the ability of others in my position and am confident that if I can stay healthy a qualifier is not out of the question.
I don’t have much else for this entry but if you’re hungry for more then I check out my latest piece for runnow.com on race fueling. Take it easy out there.