RiverRun 10K: A Hometown Humbling

The 2014 RiverRun was set to be my last race in Iowa for a while.  Being as I would be leaving within the following weeks I set it up to be my last race in the Iowa City area.  Last year I was able to win the 10K so I signed up again, hoping to defend my title.

Race morning was very relaxed as I got to the race area and just kept myself contained and calm.  I met up with some of my teammates and then Matt Ampleman and I went out for an easy warm-up jog. I made my way back to the start line with about five minutes before the race started.

Race start with a tough headwind made for a hard effort.

The race is a tough one to predict as it is both a 5K and 10K event starting in the same spot so you have no idea who is doing which race.  The start pack took off fast and I figured it would be fun to go with them for once.  We had a big group of about 20 of us as we pushed straight into the wind.  I settled right behind Matt, who I knew would also be doing the 10K, as we made our way out for the first half mile.  It was at this point that I started to dread going out so hard.  The first mile we likely ran around a 5:15 and I ended up paying for it from then on.

The first aid station was just a table with cups, the volunteers stood behind it watching instead of out front handing waters to the runners.  Instead of slowing down to try to grab a cup I decided to just go without.  When I came up on the 2^nd aid station I made sure to yell up ahead for water so luckily a guy came out to hand one off to me.  This same set-up was the case at every aid station, a table with cups of water and volunteers standing behind watching, except for mile four where the volunteers were out ready to hand us water.  Luckily, I was able to call out ahead to most of them to have water ready.

The lonely feeling of seeing nobody ahead or behind started to set in at this point.

The wind really took its toll on me as I headed out for the 2^nd loop of the 10K.  I knew Matt was ahead of me by a bit but had no idea how many others were ahead or how much of a gap I had on the next racer.  I kept telling myself that I would get the wind at my back as I made my descent down the hill and it was about then that I saw that I was sitting in third place. My pace got a little stronger once I got the wind and I used it to prepare myself for the last hill of the day.

I really didn’t want to do this hill.  It is late in the race and just gradually gets steeper as you go up it. Your stride gets short and by the time you reach the top you just want to walk. Granted there was a lot of time during this race that I wanted to walk, I never actually wanted to as I crested the hill.  I told myself at the base that it was the last time I would have to do it and pushed myself up. Once to the top I could see the main group of runners coming out on the loop.

Some of the 5K runners who I have ran with over the past year were out on their cool down run to cheer me along and really helped that last mile.  As I came into one of the last corners one of the race vehicles was pulling across the road. Trying to avoid the majority of runners coming out, he pulled over to the right side of the road. This was exactly where I was running so I turned to hop up on the curb only to find that for some reason he wanted to drive on the curb as well.  I made a quick side jump to avoid the truck and used the brief bit of adrenaline to push me up the last incline of the day.

Coming down the final stretch before the finish.

Coming down the last little bit I kept my pace until I saw the clock.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t my day as I came across in 36:17 which was 45 seconds slower than the previous year.  The course was a more challenging course and the wind was a factor the time but overall, I just hadn’t put in the speed work that I had last year at this point. Trying to keep up with the guys who ran sub 5:00 miles for the 5K at the start of the race was just begging for trouble and the performance didn’t come out the way I wanted.  Even if I had performed as well as I knew I could I still would have ended up in 3^rd place as I did.

Going to be a different experience not having these two at my races this year.