So a week ago, I raced the Great Race 10k here in Pittsburgh. Normally, I would just say some pointless and boring dribble about how the morning was pretty typical and then the race started, void of interesting detail. This morning was completely different.
The race had a start time of nine thirty in the morning. Late by most race standards, suggesting the opportunity to sleep in. However, it is a point-to-point race so there were a few transportation logistics that we needed to work out in the morning so it was a six o' clock wake up call as usual...or it was supposed to be, anyway.
The plan was to get up at six, go to Mappleton's house by 7:50, drive downtown and park so we would have transportation at our fingertips after the race, and take his cousin's car to the start. Well, I shut off my alarm without much of a second thought as to what I was doing and before I knew it, Mapple was calling me and it was 7:45. Stress!!! I threw on my race clothes while Kayla whipped together a peanut butter bagel for me and threw me out the door. What? No coffee? No water? What was I to do? Surely the bagel would help a little and it was a short race, but I still wanted to do well. To make matters worse, I was part of the Pitt Cycling Club team that was running the race and first place in the Collegiate Division was on the line. Being one of the stronger people on the team, I felt that it was imperative to carry my weight.
We got downtown and back to the race start with plenty of time to spare - over an hour - and we had luckily parked right next to a convenience store so I could get some more fuel. They picked a good name for those stores.
Jeff (another PCC runner) and I worked are way up through the 12,000-strong crowd until we were about 1,000 people back from the start. We both knew that we would finish well ahead of most of these people too, but space was tight and moving up really wasn't an option.
The start was an absolute melee because of how many people we had to run through. We had a great system of working our way through it though, as I would dive through holes while he stayed on my heels. At one point, we were on the sidewalk and grass banks, streaking past other runners. If I hit a jam, Jeff had already found another hole and pulled me through it. I was getting audibly irritated at this cluster of people who should not have even been that far up at the start of the race. A note to those people to may be reading this: Get the &%@# back from the start line at a race like this, it's chip-timed. Nope, even farther...yep, keep going. Little bit more. Okay, good. Seriously, you're annoying. And get that stroller out of the way.
Even so, we hit the mile 1 marker at about 6:08; a slower pace than I wanted to average for the race, but not bad considering the stressful first half-mile. There was quite a bit of downhill in mile 2 and the road was starting to clear up nicely, so that mile went by in about 11:30 something.
The first set of rollers stopped around mile three as we ran through the Oakland area of Pittsburgh. It really required quite a bit of power to keep up a pace near that of mile two for this section. 5k time: 18:22.
The hardest part of the race came at around mile five as the course held a steady grade past Duquesne University. I was definitely starting to slow, but still finished that mile in 30 and a half-ish. Keeping with tradition of most races, I ran the last mile without regard and came in at 37:23. According to the lovely Garmin on my wrist, the course was 6.31 miles, giving me an average pace of 5:56/mile. My pace according to official race postings was 6:01/mile.
The first person in the PCC ran about thirty seconds faster than me and the third (only the first three counted towards our cumulative time) close to 41 minutes. This was enough for us to win the Collegiate Division by a margin of about 5 minutes. First place: Party on the Gateway Clipper. I can't wait.
I finished in 106th place overall and 99th among males. It was pretty cool because they published the top 100 male and female finishers in the Post-Gazette; Grandmother would be so tickled.
P.S. Kevin Greene came up to us after the race and said we had awesome cycling jerseys, wondering where he could get one.
P.P.S. Mapple left his keys at the other car. Put it together yourself.
Cheers!
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