Lake Wylie Splash Dash 10K Race Report

This is a small race close to Charlotte, NC, but some competitive folks do show up. It is a hard, hilly course, and the temperature was in 80s, with high humidity, so it was quite clear that I won't run a huge time here. My main goal was to get an age group award, winning it if possible, and the secondary goal was to run 43:30, which would be 7-minute miles. After I ran 42:06 in training in April, I thought this would be easy. Well, on that training day, the track was flat and the night was cool...

I arrived at around 7:00, well before the 8 o'clock start. I started the warm-up at 7:30, and after just 20 minutes, I was covered with sweat. I had some GI issues in the morning and during warm-up: fortunately bathrooms were plenty in the camp where the start was.

I made sure to line up in the front, because the history of the race suggested many slower runners. At 8:02 the race started. The first mile was very hilly, but I think it was net downhill - at least there was one steep downhill on which I charged down, getting myself to close to the leaders. I let people pass me on the uphill portion after this - I'm not particularly good going up, and I didn't want to get winded early. I hit the first mile marker at 6:30. That was faster than my desired pace, even for a net downhill mile, so I eased up on the pace a bit.

I looked around. One skinny black guy (Robert, as I learned later) had just passed me and I tried to follow him. I decided to try to keep my position and pace off of Robert. We played yo-yo on the rolling hills: I caught up on the downhills, but he increased his lead again on the uphills. I started to get really really hot, and there were long stretches of the road with no shade. The temperature started to get me, but probably everyone else, too, because nobody passed me. I somehow missed the 2nd and 3rd mile marker, so I wasn't sure about my pace, but it was definitely slower than the first mile. Finally, when I hit mile 4, my time was 28:30: quite a bit slower than my goal pace.

About this time, Robert didn't increase his lead on a hill, and I caught him on the top, and passed him. He slowed down a lot: he lost more than 2 minutes in the last two miles, though he claimed he had a sub-40 PR.

I was running alone for almost a mile. I *almost* missed a turn. Volunteers were sitting in the crossing, but they didn't bother to show me the direction until I started to turn the wrong way, losing a few seconds. At mile 5, my time was a disappointing 36 minutes, but at least I had something in reserve. I caught a guy (Glenn), who just started to walk when I caught him. He looked really bad, and I was truly worried that he would throw up on me. He got himself together when I passed him, and he started to follow me.

At this point I felt OK, and I saw a few more people ahead of me. I picked them one at a time. Meanwhile we passed each other back and forth with Glenn, but he clearly wasn't in my age group, so I didn't worry too much about him. We passed 3 people, and one of them looked like an age-grouppper (he was!).

Just before the finish stretch, the organizers made another mistake and let an SVU on the road in front of me. That was extremely annoying, because the road was narrow (one way) with speed bumps, so I eventually had to dodge and pass the car, but not before it smoked me well, and I ran left-to-right like twice, until I felt safe enough to pass it on the right. Glenn was running in front of the car, and I probably wouldn't have beaten him anyway. We ran through the gate: my finish time was 44:26. Almost a minute slower than my goal, but considering the circumstances, this is not bad at all. I didn't know how hilly the course was, and I didn't know how hot and humid it would be today.

Post race food was great: lots of variety, too. I loved the southern style, very sweet ice tea. I didn't feel like cooling down (like it would have been possible!), so I was chatting with other runners while waiting for the awards. I won my age group! The award was a standard medal, nothing special. The overall winners received a beautiful glass trophy; I would have to train a lot more to have a chance to get one of those. (I was 8th overall; the winner's time was 38:59.)

Now I'm thinking about taking a break from running, for about 6-7 weeks. I'd like do to at least one (or two) more long trail runs in the Congaree National Park before we move to Kentucky, maybe I'll do those next week. I could race next Saturday, and there seems to be two options: a night 5K in Greenville, or a morning 5K in Charlotte. Neither of those are flat, and it WILL be hot again, so not much chance of running sub-20. I haven't decided yet, but I don't see too much point in doing either of those. After next week I will be traveling a lot, so I won't have much chance for training for at least two weeks anyway. And I don't see much point in coming back in July and running some races without proper training.

My longer plans now look like this: in the first weeks of August I start a periodized, 12-week 5K plan, and I'll find myself a 5K in early November in Kentucky. Then I'll run a sub-20, or bust!