Spirit Run 10k Race Report - Fun with the guys!

SPIRIT RUN 10k - NEWPORT BEACH, CA

Yes, it's another uber-long race report from your very own Agarose2000/A-2000/Willis! I seem to be spectacularly good at finding excuses to write lengthy race reports - it's either a PR day, or a bad race day, and in today's case, it's a "forum encounter" day!

DECIDING TO RUN THIS THING
I was convinced by Sam "the marathon man" (aka 261 to 26.2) to jump into the Newport Beach Spirit Run 10k this Sunday morning. I wasn't planning on running it until literally Saturday afternoon the day before, while I was stuck at home for 12 hours on radiology "pager call" where I am literally trapped at home, on-call to read studies off the internet if a clinician requires help. After 8 hours of that, I decided that I just HAD to get out of my locale, and what better way than doing a 10k race?

Normally I'm pretty fired up about any race I run, but as you know, since my complete meltdown in Houston on Jan 13,2008, I've been in a strange semi-injured state for quite awhile, and lost a lot of fitness in January and February between sprained ankles, postmarathon recovery, and the flu. Granted, I'm also training at only 65mpw versus 80mpw nowadays, but I've been unable to match any of my training times from as early as last October, due to deconditioning and slight weight gain. Regardless, training has been going a lot better as of late, and I went into this race confident that I'd put up a good showing at the least.

Here's the course data, stolen straight from John's BiM journal entry.






GETTING TO THE RACE AND MEETING SAM AND JOHN FOR THE 1ST TIME

Sam, John, and me

I got in about 3 hours of sleep before the race (my biological clock is a bit screwy from being on call), but felt good to go at 4:45AM, and drove the hour down to Newport Beach to register for the race. Lo and behold, Sam himself, in the flesh was standing right in front of me at the start line. He was out late last night as well, but he was having fun at a George Straits concert, unlike my studious self! Within minutes, John (irunforbeer) popped up, with his trademark race smile. I haven't had many forum encounters at all (actually, one!), and I'm still surprised when people not only look pretty much exactly like the pictures I've seen of them, but also have personalities that seem to closely reflect their posting habits. Sam has a dry, witty humor and a stable, intelligent affect, while John's lively, happy and smart, just like his posts. Great guys, both of them - felt like we knew each other for years right from the get-go. I'll also confirm that as I was signing up for the 10k event, Sam urged me to sign up for both the 10k and 5k, which I respectfully declined. He's an animal! (John did the double as well.)


THE RACE BEGINS

Start line (postrace)

It was pretty cold for me out on the start line. Ok, it was 50F and lightly drizzling, with completely overcast skies, so it's TROPICAL compared to most of the US right now, but I was out there in gloves AND arm-warmers, and still was chilly! No chip timing for this race, so we all congregated near the front, leaving the frontmost line to the 10 guys who stepped up there. I got a brief "hello" with a RW forumite "Diana", but unfortunately lost her for the remainder of the day. Field of 485 runners, of which I expected to finish in the top 30.

With a "go!", the 10k was off and running. The course was a fairly flat loopy course on the closed roads of a very large suburban mall called "Fashion Island", with only a slight incline, followed by a decline that was done twice. Overall a fast course for sure, and fast conditions to boot.

I've been having some problems with my tempo runs as of late, so I decided I'd start this race conservatively and work my way up from there. John was off to the races so fast that I lost sight of him right after the 1st turn and never saw him again. (I think he clocked at 36:xx at age 50!!) Sam also was off to the races, and was clocking a sub-6 minute mile for most of the first mile. Actually, EVERYONE was off to the races at the start, and I was immediately passed by nearly 50 people who surged from behind me at a similar pace. I kept my cool though, and knew most of them would falter, judging from last year's results. I probably took the first mile a bit slow though, and clocked a 6:32, which felt very comfortable for me.

After the first mile, I opened my stride up a bit. Sam was about 50 meters ahead of me, but looked really good - he'd let the horde of people pass him as well, but was gradually making headway and re-catching them. He maintained his lead on me as the pace increased on a downhill. At about the 1.3 mile mark, people started to drop like flies all over the place. About 25 of those people who had surged by me earlier started to suffer drastic dropoffs in pace, and were easily passed by Sam and myself. This mile felt more like the groove - 6:16, and still comfortable.

Mile three started becoming a bit challenging. I was hoping my HRM would give me an indication of how hard I was working, as I was hoping to stay above 170 bpm to hold intensity, but alas, my v-shaped torso (I have really big latissimus muscles by genetics and a lot of prior weightlifting) caused my HRM to become a useless waistband, even though it was cinched to the maximal setting. I guess I can't wear it for anything shorter than a HM! I got a bit of motivation during this mile as Sam's figure started to get bigger and bigger as I gradually caught up, and I managed to slowly pass him at around mile 2.5. With this pass, I managed a brisk 6:13 for this mile.

Around mile 4, I was supposed to start my trademark "Willis negative split kick" which has worked well for me in all my 5ks/10ks in the past 2 years. Unfortunately, today, I had zero kick! The lungs were holding up well, but I felt like my legs were missing the top gear. Not burning, not fatigued, but no speed! Rather than flame out, I opted to just maintain pace. Mile 4 came in at 6:21, and I was definitely working now.

Mile 5 was a bit discouraging for me. I was hoping to get a 2nd wind by catching up to the guy in front of me, but he dropped his pace significantly as I passed him, so I had to catch the next guy in front. We hit an uphill, and I started making a move, but I just didn't have the killer instinct today. Without that top gear in my legs, I just couldn't get my effort above my normal hard traininig tempo pace. (I've definitely run recent tempo runs harder than this race effort.) This mile was the slowest yet, 6:35 with a slight uphill, and I was afraid the ensuing mile would be even slower.

Mile 6 was fortunately, downhill and then flat. I did my best to accelerate here, and got the legs going a bit. Unfortunately, the guys ahead got the same idea, and maintained the gap. I hate when that happens! This was probably closest to the pace I should have been maintaining at mile 4, but it took me until now to kick it in. Oh well. Turned the corner for the finishing 0.2, and saw John already done, and spectating from a nice spot. I saw the clock, and was actually pretty bummed about it. I'd probably get 39:45 if I ran it in, or only a five second improvement from last June. John gave me a shout out to finish strong, which definitely helped - I pushed it a bit, and knocked off a few seconds. Not a stellar result, but due to a surprising absence of runners in my age group, managed to steal the AG win for 30-34. (My first AG win ever.)

Willis Huang M32 Los Angeles 39:43
6:23/mi #3606 20th overall, 1st in 30-34 age group (Sam was 2nd!)

I was the SLOWEST male AG winner today, getting beaten by everyone except for the AG60 winner, who clearly would have smoked me by minutes on the age-graded scale. Pretty humbling stuff.

Link to race results

13 second PR...with a catch.


MY RANT!

I'm going to sound like a total spoiled brat by beginning my rant here, so I apologize in advance.

I was somewhat disappointed with this race result!

How can I be disappointed with a new 10k PR (by 13 seconds) and my very first age-group win? Well, the pace I ran today is substantially slower than the estimated paces for my previous 18:40 5k and my 1:25:22 half marathon. The Mcmillan estimates based on today's race result would yield a 19:00 5k, a 1:28 half marathon, and a 3:06 full marathon, which is a pretty huge decrease in ability compared to my prior race results. In more concrete terms, it is as if the entire uber-hard training season that I logged from July 07-Dec07 at 80+ miles per week never existed; I could have just skipped that entire 6 month block of training, and put up the exact same, if not better result 6 months ago right after the San Francisco marathon. That's a major bummer to me, but I'm going to try not to dwell on it too much. (Cries into beer.) I'll try and console myself somewhat with the fact that I did run some fast MP-type mileage during this cutback week for nearly all the miles, and cranked out my first (tough) VO2 uphill workout 3 days ago, so that may have sapped some of the extra speed that I'm used to having - but excuses are excuses, and I'm definitely not much better than today's race performance. Also, since I seem to run marathons substantially slower than the Mcmillan estimate, that 3:10BQ is going to be a really tough one. I'd say that I'm probably closer to 3:11ish shape right now based on this race, and hopefully I'll get it down to 3:09 or so by race day in 8 weeks. (Gulp!)

Of course, I fully realize that I'll probably look back on this race in someday in the future when I'm not training as hard for whatever reasons, and think, "what the heck was I complaning about back then - I'd KILL for a 39:40 and an AG win!" I'll try and postpone that day as long as possible!


FE'S ROCK!

The best part of the day, however, was by far, meeting up after the race with Sam, John, and his lovely wife. John beat me by 3 minutes and crushed the uber-competitive age 50 masters division with an easy 1st in the 10k, and a solid 2nd in the 5k. Sam also put up a great showing, taking 2nd in M30-34 in the 10k, and 2nd in the 5k. Alas, I ended up being his undoing in the 10k, and managed to just edge him out for the AG win. Expect to see some incredibly back-stabbing, bloodthirsty, and malevolent-minded neck and neck competition between Sam and I for the highly vaunted AG awards in upcoming races. As an example of the highly valued prizes that we're fighting over, check out the tiny plastic key-chains that commemorate our hard efforts!

Me - 1st AG! 30-34M
Sam - 2nd AG! 30-34M
John - 1st AG! 50-54M
Sam's going to get me in the next one for sure!
Wouldn't you KILL for those monster-huge AG keychains? =)

It's pretty cool when you can barely reach your name on the results list!
Of course, it's also a lot easier to say that when you're as short as I am...

All in all, I had a great time out there. It was good to be back to racing after my Houston debacle, and I'll take the PR and what may be my only AG win for the rest of my life, even if it's a big step back from what I was running not too long ago. Loved meeting up with Sam and John whom I hope to have many more SoCal exploits with over the following years. I'd highly encourage FE's for everybody in the future - it made the race 1000x more fun and social. I'd show up just for the FEs alone!

It's a wet one!

Finish line (closing)

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