Snowman Shuffle Race Report

Goal: start at threshold pace, and try to pick it up on the hills. Would be happy with 26:00.

This race was after the first week of marathon training. I've done high miles, and little rest in the last few weeks, so all I was hoping for is treating this as a fast tempo, and hopefully win my age group. I didn't have high hopes for the Master's win, because there was a guy in the first two races, who was much faster than me. And I knew that if he didn't show up, I would almost certainly win the Master's group of the Polar Bear Grand Prix anyway. So the goal was to make this a good threshold run, maybe a bit harder at the end, and hope for a 6:30 overall pace, which would bring me close to 6:20-ish lactate threshold, which is a 55 VDOT, and a strong indicator of being on track for a 3:05 marathon.

It's always hard to get the family started in the morning, so we left pretty late, and we arrived at 8:20-ish for the 9am start. I did 2 miles of warmup right away, bathroom, change, drink, and line-up. Worked just fine.

The weather was lousy: 33 degrees and very humid, so it felt colder. The course was wet asphalt with puddles, and anything off the road was covered with a thin layer of snow, so my shoes were wet even before the race started.

The course had two hills, and we started on the top of one. We went down in the first half mile, then it was flat until mile 2.7. The last 1.3 miles was up-down-up. Lots of turns.

We were off at 9am. I ran by my threshold feeling, which made a fast descent from the hill. A passed several people, but I was aware that they would catch me. It's just my running form: I'm faster downhill than most people of similar speed. So this is indeed what happened: by mile 1, I was passed by a few people. I was just running my perceived LT pace.

Mile 1: 5:58 (my GPS systematically underestimated distance on this course, so I'm correcting for error linearly)

We were on the out and back portion of the course. I was in decent position, and I had some suspicion that the Masters winner from the first two races was not here. It didn't change my strategy, so I was just running by feel. I cheered on both Flora and Melinda when they came by. This was an entirely flat mile.

Mile 2: 6:21

If this is really my LT, then it;s a great sign. I do have some doubt though. I think I'm closer to 6:30, and the race gave me some extra adrenaline to run a bit faster. Also, my watch measured a 6:27 pace here, so I didn't get overly excited.

Soon enough we started to climb. My fitness sucks. I know this for two reasons: (1) it is actually hard to maintain my LT for more than 2 miles - cf. beginning Boston marathon training a year ago (2) climbing needs more oxygen, and I couldn't get it fast enough to my cells. I slowed quite a bit, and a woman passed me (her name is April - she is the one I had a conversation with during the 4K). Maybe if I risked more, or considered this an important race, I could have followed, but not today. She beat me by 15 seconds in the finish.

Mile 3: 6:55

Soon we reached the crest of the hill. I was still somewhat conservative downhill, trying to catch breath enough to have something in the tank for the last hill. It was quite a bit harder than expected. I got passed by a 16-year old uphill (yes, the same one I wrote about in the 5K). He was super nice and cheered me on, but I couldn't follow him. He beat me by 9 seconds in the finish. Once we reached the flat part (the last 100 meters), I realized that my GPS was lying to me. Before the last hill, I've seen that I've been doing a 6:33 pace, so I determined that 26 minutes is hopeless. But I was closing on to the finish line, and the clock still showed 25:52. I tried to sprint, but I missed 26 minutes by 1 second! Chip time was actually 26:00.5, so I'll generously call it 26 minutes, and determine that I reached my time goal. I learned at these local road races that now matter how lame you are, you must be proud of yourself. :)

Mile 4: 6:46

Total time: 26:00. 12th overall, 1st in age group, after the Masters winner is taken out.

Also, to my surprise, that Ben guy, who was the Masters winner in the first two races didn't show up today. So even though I had three 2nd places in the Masters division, I ended up taking the Masters trophy in the Polar Bear Grand Prix. They changed the (nonexisting) rules at random again this year, and they actually counted overall points for age group places. I think this is a better system, but it's messed up that the rules are not published and decided after the race.

The organization otherwise was not terrible, but they did have issues with the results. It is all so temping to start an organizer and timing company...

Flora got second in her age group, and Melinda improved a whole lot on her 5K pace. All in all a good day for the family.

So this race shows that my lactate threshold is probably no worse than 6:30, which indicates a 53 VDOT. If this is true, it is an excellent starting point for marathon training for 3:05. Now I just have to survive it.