Race Recap: Bayou City Classic 10k

Jer and I have been on a racing frenzy the past couple weeks. It’s been a lot of fun, especially because we get a chance to see a little pay off for all the training we’ve been doing. Like I’ve said in the past…we don’t train to stay in shape, we train to reap the benefits of it in our races. We live for the race, it is our motivation…always aiming for faster times while our bodies will allow us to.

We did our first road 10k of the season this past weekend in Houston, the Bayou City Classic 10k. It’s a USATF certified course which keeps us from having to guess whether the course was accurate or not. We’ve done it for the past three years straight and it’s a great event. My first time, in 2010, I came in second overall with a 36:04. It was a HUGE 10k personal best for me, mainly because the last time I raced one was a hot and humid day at the conference meet, on the track, from my sophomore year of college (2006). It was near perfect weather conditions in 2010 and a couple weeks later I ended up taking 36 seconds off my 5k personal best at the Rice meet. Last year was pretty disappointing. I ran over a minute slower at Bayou City, 37:08, and that’s when Jer and I knew something was obviously wrong. We finally figured out it’s because I was training with a dangerously low ferritin level of 8. I went into a little more detail about that HERE, but needless to say the spring of 2011 was a crap show of races for me. Finally we got things sorted out and here we are, a year later.

I ran 35:45 this past weekend, a 19 second PR from two years ago, in much worse conditions. It was 52 degrees and raining, but that wasn’t really the bad part, because I can deal with some cool weather and rain. The most difficult to deal with was the wind…the god awful wind that I didn’t even realize existed until the turnaround! It was a trifecta of not so great weather. My first 5k was 17:33 and I felt absolutely amazing. I have never felt so strong and so certain that I could maintain that pace for another 5k, but upon turning around on the mostly out and back course, I realized it was because we had 20mph winds aiding us on the out portion. The entire way back we were completely exposed to non-stop wind, and let’s not forget about the rain. It was brutal, but this is the very thing that separates the strong from the weak. Two years ago, even a year ago, I would’ve just eased up on the gas and put on the brakes, but not this past weekend. I fought through that awful wind the entire way back. I told myself that I was going to get a PR, no matter what, even though I knew the chances of me running a low 35 were slowly slipping away with each passing mile. I was even able to crank out 5:46 for the sixth mile after having a losing battle with the wind over the previous two miles.

The DETERMINATION

I was pretty pleased, but it obviously left me hungry to find out what my true potential is for the race distance. later I was thinking how I much rather would’ve run that 10k on the track in the same conditions as you can at least get some relief every 200m instead of being blasted by the wind for nearly the entire second half of the race. The one thing this race assures me of is that my fitness has never been better and that my mental strength has never been stronger. I even found myself chatting with Jer about the possibility of running a 10k on the track this season.

I wasn’t the only one who was left a little hungry after this 10k. Jer made his debut into payday placing for this race and also ran a personal best time. He cracked 32 with a 31:52, and bested his old time (set at the same course last year) by nine seconds. Luckily, he had the benefit of having company while fighting through the wind with Ben Zywicki, the guy who ended up winning, and our good friend Chass Armstrong, who got second. The three guys ended up separating themselves from the other competitors by mile two and ran together until the last half mile. Six seconds separated the top three men, which is most likely the closest finish the Bayou City Classic has seen in a very long time.

The top three during the second half of the race

Jer and I are taking this coming weekend off from racing and will be competing at the highly competitive Rice Meet on the 23rd. It’ll be Jer’s last go at a track race this season before he starts preparing for his June marathon. Training wise I’m starting to sharpen up a little while also trying to maintain some aerobic fitness. This past week I reached 90 miles with 3 hard efforts: a ten mile steady run at 6:46 pace on Sunday, 7x1000m with 400m recovery averaging 3:21 on Wednesday, and of course the race was on Saturday. I’ve spent the past few days recovering from that before getting back to the workouts! Jer got up to a little over 100 miles last week and spent more time on the aerobic stuff: a 22 mile long run on Sunday, and a workout of 8x1600 with 400m quick jog recovery. He averaged 5:13 or so on the repeats, but did the recoveries fast enough that the whole 10 miles averaged 5:32 pace.