Race Report: CRRC 15-mile Winter Run

I'm officially past the half-marathon point. I covered 15 miles today! Just don't ask how my legs are feeling. Or, pretty much any muscle in my body, for that matter.

I ran the Columbus Roadrunner's Club Winter Run (CRRC Winter Run), the 15 mile distance, this afternoon. We really lucked out with the weather, I was comfortable in my tech shirt and compression tights, but the course was tough. Here's the course map, and below is a screenshot of the elevation chart. I'm really glad I've been doing some hill repeats, I know I was passing a lot of people on the inclines.

And, with this run, I finally hit 30 miles for one week! Wahhoo!

The beginning of the run took a lot of restraint. There were some fast people, really fast people, there. I started off toward the back of the pack and had to force myself to keep above a 9:30 mile. Pacing was hard throughout... every time I stopped paying attention I found myself drifting toward an 8:30 - 9 mile. I recognized the 10:00 pace coach from MIT and tried to stay behind him, but lost him toward the end of the first lap.

15 miles was two laps of a 7.5 mile course. I forced myself to slow down for the first 10 miles, then for the last 5 I let myself go faster. The last two I really had to push through. But, toward the end I was passing a lot of people, and I ended up 3rd in my age group! I'm really glad I held back, otherwise I wouldn't have made it. 

I'm not exactly sure what my real time was. I'm going with 2:23. My Garmin said 2:19, but I accidentally stopped it so it only accounted for 14.75 miles.

I'll post some more details later... probably tomorrow, including my splits. Right now I'm a little tired, and I only have 3 episodes left in Season 2 of Lost (come on, Jack, figure out that something is not right with Michael!)

90 days until the Cleveland Marathon. (continued)


UPDATE: Finally plugged in the Garmin (After all that getting off the couch and walking across the room was too much effort before.)

I tried to hit the lap button every mile, but that's easier said than done. Early on I hit "stop" instead and that's where I lost about .44 miles. I adjusted my time on the Daily Mile to reflect my average pace, 9:27. From what I'm hearing the course was just over 15 miles.

Splits:
0-1.56 M - 15:03, 9:38 avg. pace
This is where I lost the .44 -- 4:09 per average pace
2-3.01 (1.01 miles) - 9:47, 9:43 avg. pace
3.01-4.03 (1.02 miles) - 10:06, 9:54 avg. pace
4.03-5.01 (.98 miles) - 9:37, 9:46 avg. pace
5.01-6.01 (1 mile) - 10:05, 10:08 avg. pace
6.01-6.77 (.76 mile) - 7:32, 9:53 avg. pace
6.77-8.08 (1.31 miles) - 12:33, 9:34 avg. pace
8.08-10.08 (2 miles) - 19.18, 9:38 avg.pace
10.08-11.09 (1.01 miles) - 9:16, 9:12 avg. pace
11.09-12.09 (1 mile) - 8:55, 8:56 avg. pace
12.09-13.09 (1 mile) - 8:53, 8:50 avg. pace
13.09-14.09 (1 mile) - 9:02, 9:02 avg. pace
14.09-15.19 (1.1 mile) - 9:14, 8:24 avg pace

ANOTHER UPDATE: The results are up. But there was no chip timing and I know the time next to my name can't possibly be right, there's no way I ran that thing that fast, so I'm keeping with the time on my watch!