Charles Harris 2015
We had a great time at this race again this year. This is always one of my favorites.
My mileage was insanely low going into this race (like 14 miles a week 4 week average), thus my expectations were also low.
I lined up at the front and hoped for the best. There were lots of ATCers to keep pace with so I focused on a feeling instead of on keeping a certain pace. Looking at my splits later, it was strange that many of my miles were the same to the second or almost to the second. The main difference was last year I used every bit of downhill to my advantage while this year I let myself coast somewhat. Since I hadn’t run under a 9 minute mile in several weeks, I wasn’t feeling too smooth turning the legs over fast.
Regardless I was super pumped to be out there racing again, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had a shot at still breaking 40′ going into the last bit. The last stretch is in a neighborhood with a few painful hills and a couple of turns which always makes me either puke or feel like I’m on the edge at the end. Okay, that’s a lie.. I actually get sick every single year at the finish line.. ALWAYS at this race.
Mile 5 includes a very long downhill gradual stretch where I am turning my legs over fast but my heart rate gets very low for a 10k. Then in the last stretch it shoots up to max in about two seconds.. and it’s the last .2 miles so I don’t want to slow! I have also mistimed getting sick at this race which costs a lot of time in such a short race.. even if you keep running you lose a few breaths in the process which means slowing due to lack of oxygen.
What I’m getting at is I felt like I was on the edge again so I took a forced slow and was passed in the last five seconds by another female. I didn’t think much of it but found out later she ended up 3rd OA. Whoops! Anyways, she was very cool and actually found and thanked me at the Chattahoochee Road Runners 5k for helping her get sub 40. Congratulations!
