2008 Alabama A&M 10k
Huntsville, Alabama
Saturday, June 14, 2008
USATF Certified AL00009JD
Certified Course Map
Official Race Results
This was the race that almost wasn't; for me that is! I was up early, as I do with other races, rising at 4:50am. I never looked at the start time online but just assumed that it was 8:00am. I normally arrive an hour early for races and today wasn't any different. On the way, I had awake-nightmares that the race was at seven am. Then again, I always have these and they never are real. Then I pulled into campus and saw a full force of police officers, followed by an aid station worker already standing at her station. When I pulled into the lot, I saw many other runners warming up, which was unusual for an hour early. Then I realized that the race was at 7:30am! I had but 20 minutes to change, warm up, stretch and get my head into the game.
When lining up at the start, it was an all-star cast of fast runners. Many more fast runners than I have seen in a race, well since Tuesday. Although, I knew that today was a race for everyone, while the XC races are not. Early favorites looked like Varick Clay, Jason Reneau, Donald Bowman and new guy Brad (whom I will later discover his last name). The first 2 miles of this is relatively downhill and you generally need to put some in the bank in these miles with the hard hills coming in miles 5 and 6. The gun was off and so was Clay. He sprinted out to a 50 meter lead, almost trying to prove something to the field. The rest of us climbed the small hill at the start and then began to run east toward the out and back. After Clay was Bowman and then Reneau by the 1/4 mile mark. I decided to throw in a short spurt of speed and put some other runners behind me. Little did I know that this would be the difference maker! Despite the low temps (mid 70's) the humidity was 90% after an overnight rain. I cruised through the first mile in 5:45. Marty Clarke yelled at me for looking at my watch too often too early... it is funny, but that is how I run. I use that as a data point along with how my body feels as to how I push the pace.
Just after mile 1, I could hear a click-click-click behind me. It sounded like track spikes. It was new guy Brad making his push after an easy start. He and I ran together and chatted a little to the cone turn around at Moores Mill. It was then that I got my first look at who was trailing, and by how much. The nearest group was Marty, John Elmore and David Purinton. John has been running well lately and Marty has fresh legs. I wasn't sure about David, as he just spent two weeks on a Church Mission trip in Peru and I didn't know what his rest/training/eating patterns had been like. Nevertheless, they were all close.
It was nice to see so many people that I knew after the turn around. It was almost like everyone coming through was someone I knew! I wished all of them luck, from Wayne to Tom Smith to Joey to Linda to Ben to Shannon and so on and so on. Brad laughed that I was the only one he knew:) Brad and I ran shoulder to shoulder until before the 2 mile mark. He said that he wanted to hold 5:45 pace or better and I knew that he could. Today I was hoping for a high 38 maybe. He took off and would eventually drop out of sight, passing other runners as well. My second mile pace was 5:50.
I struggled a little on the third mile back toward campus. A 6:02 pace doesn't sound horrible, but I was really struggling to hold onto this pace. We were coming back uphill most of the way with the hardest part of the course yet to come. Mentally I really thought about just walking off. It didn't last long, but I did think about it.
Once back on campus we climbed a small hill and then ran the back stretch downhill area to which we would repeat later on. I really cruised downhill and clocked a 2:54 first half mile of this section. I could still see Bowman and even though he was not pulling away, I was not getting any closer either. Making the right turn into campus, I got another look behind me, though it was very quick. I could not see any blue singlets, which were Fleet Feet team wear and worn today by all of the team members. Just before the hill climb we hit the 4 mile mark at 5:49 pace, bringing my total to 23:26.
The first time that I ran the hill was very humbling. I thought about walking, but was still in the middle of the race. My pace slowed drastically in this mile, clocking a 6:19, which included a 3:22 and a 2:57 half mile splits. The hill was everything that I had heard it would be. I ran it on Wednesday in training, but racing this hill was a much different story. I really had a hard time getting my legs back under me after the climb. I really didn't feel good again until going down the big hill. I think some of this was from tired legs, having done another 70 mile week and a hard 10 mile tempo on Thursday night. I did find a little lift seeing other runners on their first loop; passing by gave me a little motivation to run harder and finish strong.
The final mile started at the bottom of the big hill and would mean another hill climb toward the finish. I snuck another peak behind me turning into campus and thought that I caught a glimpse of blue. I could feel a push by Marty. I thought about walking the hill again, but at this point, I only had less than a half mile to go and pushed hard on without walking. The second time on the hill wasn't as bad as the first, despite tired legs because I knew that after the top and a fast recovery, it would be a downhill finish. Hitting the six mile mark, my split was 6:16 and I realized that I had a chance to break 38. I don't know where my head had been in the last half hour, thinking that I would be lucky to break 39? It was like out of no where that I know realized that I was going to run a faster 10km than Cotton Row a few weeks ago on a much tougher course in my opinion.
I had one last look behind me on the final turn and crossed the finish line in 37:44 (6:04 minute per mile pace). I was gassed at the end, taking off my soaked blue Fleet Feet singlet and gasped a little for air. I would find out later that I finished 6th overall of 105 people and 2nd in M30-39 of 18. I ended up 1st in age group prize awards as Mark Temple could not accept the prize money for 3rd overall (he still runs for UAH and this is against NCAA rules) so Jason Reneau was moved up into the money.
I am not sure of the finish order, but it probably was Clay, Temple, Brad, Jason, Bowman and then Charette. It was a close battle for 2nd in masters with Purinton, Clarke and Elmore duking it out. Many others had a good race including Eric Schotz who ran very well. New guy Brad is a great runner and is going to win a few races in this area before it is all said and done. Emily Hardin was top female, followed by Candace Jacobs and Linda Scavarda. In the end, the weather was on our side with cooler temperatures. The humidity was a factor, but not as difficult as the course.
Overall splits were 5:45, 5:50, 6:02, 5:49, 6:19, 6:16, 1:37.
1. Varick Clay Jr Age 26 34:32
2. Brad Schroder Age 24 35:24
3. Mark Temple Age 20 35:28
4. Jason Reneau Age 32 35:55
5. Donald Bowman Age 40 36:52
5. Eric Charette Age 32 37:47
So for the race that I nearly missed out on, ended pretty well. Now I need to figure out if I had something extra today or if I should have run Cotton Row faster, as I ran 10+ seconds faster today.
Thanks to Mike Greene for good race direction, Dean Bentley for the prize awards and many others for volunteering.
