The race began just north of the high school heading south for a few blocks before turning north again toward the lake. Winds were from the north at about 10 mph, in our face for the first 3-4 miles, but nothing like the winds I experienced in my prior two races. The runners quickly thinned out with the small field today. I wanted to run a time around 1:08 which would be 3 minutes faster than my prior best 10 time at this distance. I settled into a 6:45/mile pace and found myself running behind a gentleman in my age group that I have crossed paths with in prior races. He was running the same pace, so I decided to let him lead the way as he is a grinder who does a good job keeping a strong steady pace through the race.
Around the 4 mile mark it settled into a 3 person pack. The leaders opened up a gap on the 3 of us while we opened up a gap on the field behind us. I continued to be the follower, making sure I didn't lose contact as the miles went by. My friend was doing a great job keeping us on pace each mile so all I had to do was make sure I didn't let a gap grow between us. Miles 5-6 took us south along the west side of the lake with the wind to our backs. I was surprised to suddenly hear footsteps behind me as I thought we had created separation with those behind, but a young runner in his mid 20's caught us and now there were 4 in our pack.
Miles 7 and 8 took us east along the south side of the lake and back into a bit of a headwind. The four of us began to close on a runner in front of us who I later discovered was also in my age group. The 5 of us were running together as a pack with nobody else in site ahead or behind. At the 8 mile mark the course took us up a hill and then turned south toward the finish line. The pace remained strong and I began wondering how this would play out among the 5 of us over the final 2 miles. Would one of us make a move and try to break away from the pack? I knew it wasn't going to be me. I was spent. My hope was to stay in contact with the others and try to make one final push with 400 meters to go to hopefully surprise the others.
Our 5 person pack held together through mile 8 with some minor jockeying for position but at the 9 mile mark one of the two young guys dropped back leaving four of us. 3 guys in their 50's and a 25 year old (first picture below). We turned south on Division St which is a straight shot to the finish line a little over a half mile away. I had been mentally gearing up all race to make one last push as we neared the finish line. I made sure I was stayed behind the pack so as not to give them an idea that I might have a kick left. Then with 400 meters to go I took off. I quickly created some separation from the other three and thought I was home free, but with 100 meters to go the young guy caught and passed me. My 400 meter kick came up 100 meters short as I simply was out of gas. However I was fortunate enough to hold off my two age group buddies who were right behind me as we entered the chute.
I finished with a time of 1:07:07 (6:43 pace). My best 10 mile time by over 4 minutes. Overall I finished 13th among 151 runners and 4th among 14 in my age group. A very strong age group I might add. 6 of the top 15 finishers were in the 50-59 year age group and the top two in my age group ran national class age group times finishing 2nd and 3rd overall in the race.
Race results:
http://www.onlineraceresults.com/race/view_plain_text.php?race_id=18886
Good call with the sneaky strategy. Crazy that six of top 15 were 50+!
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