Old Agoura 10K: MASSIVE “invisible” PR!

Every once in a while, I have one of these days.  Most of the time “hills” are involved.  I would love to have the day match up with a fast course, but so be it, I won’t complain.  Today was a MASSIVE “completely invisible” Personal 10K Record. 

There is a Clue here!

I suppose when seeking out courses to cream my 37:00 10K PR, I should have been more keen to the mention of “HILLS” in the race title.  I imagined a few rollers and Ricky had me believing in my myth.  I could have researched previous race results to snoop around at what times other ladies were turning out.  I would have found that the amazing Mary Akor ran this course in 37:10 followed closely by the as gorgeous as she is fast Grace Padilla: 37:13.  If I had known that, I might have worried more about these “hills.” 

 

Luckily for me, I was as clueless as I was pink.  I stood cautiously staring down the start line.  A hill made for downhill skiing left no where to stride.  A man behind me politely asked me what time I would be running.  I notified him “36 something” and he backed away.  Sniff-sniff, do I smell? 

BAM!  We are off.  Tim rockets into the hill like any good downhill skier might.  Immediately, I let him go.  Six men follow him and I joyously eat them all up save one in the first mile.  My breathing is smooth and relaxed.  Mile 1: 5:36.  Mile 2 turns into an uphill.  The man tailing Tim begins to drift back and I pick the fight: “That’s right white shirt and black shorts, you are my target.”  I threw some mental pigtails on him just for kicks to make me track him aggressively.  Um, don’t tell him that! 

Mile 2: 5:45.  I am stoked!  I feel great and loving the times.  We turn into more uphill and oh-come-on-Running-Gods, blasting wind?  I find myself huffing up hill into wind all the while tucking my chin down in order to run my line.  I am getting closer to my labelled rabbit. 

Mile 3: 6:00.  OK, OK, I can get it back.  I remind myself that mile 5 on in is supposedly all downhill.  How bad can it be?  Endless up hill awaits mixed with more wind and a sharp turn around.  Mile 4: 6:26.  Argh!  Now it gets interesting.  Steep, sharp, pop up hills roll one after the other.  For every snap dragon of an up there is a bommer of a down.  I am on my target’s heels as we power pump up sniper hills and try to rocket down the slopes.  My knees are immediately rejecting said activity as they wobble with the downshift. 

Mile 5: 6:21.  At this point, I forget the over all time and focus on kicking my rabbit’s derriere.  He knows I am there.  He knows I want him and suddenly, it is a race.  A race that continues to have hills!  What happened to a last mile of blessed downhill?  We roll to the 6 mile mark: 5:45.  Then I give it my best attack.  The rabbit wins by two seconds: 37:02 to 37:04!  I did not realize how good this was for this course at the moment and I might have shook the rabbit’s hand for a little too long.  Ah well, I was low on OXYGEN! 

If I can come this close to my previous PR on a twisted sister of a course like this one, if I can run times like those lovely ladies listed above, well…..this was a performance that I needed to get my head straight in the game.  Today was a success. 

Tim’s perspective: 

The gun went off and nobody was in front of him.  He verifies the absolute nastiness of hill action.  Nobody ever gets in front of him.  He wins the race: 35:53, a full 70 seconds ahead of the rabbit and I.  Nicely done Tim!!!!  He actually said more than that when he was interviewed for TV. 

Brizzle & Tim (1)

Closer than they look!

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~ by Drea on March 27, 2010.