Lungstrong 15k is one of my favorite
local races. It’s within five minutes of
my house, the residential backdrop is nice, and the 15k distance is such a
great mix of strategy and speed.
Originally, my goal was to run well and shoot for a PR. My last 15k PR was at the same race the year before. However, when my running friend
and training buddy Dave Munger messaged me asking if we wanted to team up and
pace each other to a sub-60 minute finish, I couldn’t refuse.
Sub-60 for 15k was a very ambitious
goal. I’d only twice gone sub-40 for
10k, and the latter of those was 18 months ago.
A sub-60 effort would be a 96+ second PR for me, but I was hoping for a
lucky break in the weather and to reproduce previous success Dave and I have
had as co-pacers.
The race as a whole was
bittersweet. For 6 miles, Dave and I
stuck to a carefully organized plan of steady pacing on or around 6:20 min/mile
pace. We cut the tangents, communicated
splits, and tried to ignore other runners, although it was nice to be greeted
by many friends offering support as course volunteers. We were maintaining my established 10k pace,
and the last couple miles of Lungstrong make you pay a hefty vig for whatever
pace you try to coax out of them. Dave
ran very methodically, monitoring and targeting the pace on each respective
climb and descent. I’m used to letting
the pace come to me on the given terrain, but I found myself locking onto Dave
and trying to stay literally within arm’s reach of him. After 6 miles, I was a liability. Dave was 10 meters ahead of me. I remember him shouting something numerical
and unintelligible back to me, but I just responded with “break off.” He was looking so strong, and I had no chance
of running his race.
 |
| Here I am chasing Dave before I lost him altogether. |
Shortly after I dropped from Dave’s
contact, the course took a turn on what was a new section for the 2013
race. This half-loop added another
significant drop and climb that really caused me to hemorrhage time. The last two miles of Jetton Road were
rolling, and I found it hard to get back into the mid-6s. The biggest hill didn’t seem to bother me as
much because I knew it was coming.
Turning onto Charles Towne with ¾ mile left, I caught my breath (if not
my pace) on the last real downhill.
Another running acquaintance, Clayton Venhuizen, passed me here. We turned left for one more partial loop that
trended mainly uphill. At this point, I
passed a masters gentleman in a hoodie and leggings who had been 10 meters
ahead of me for the past 9 miles. Sub-60
had been out of the question ever since I lost contact with Dave, but I still
had half a shot at a PR. As I turned the
last corner leading to the finish, I saw 1:01:20-something on the gun
clock. I got my PR, but I had to sprint
to get it. Official time: 61:31.1; a
whopping 5 seconds faster than last year.
The Bitter: It’s tough to set a goal
and miss it by what seemed to be a large margin, even when the goal is a lofty
one. The last 3+ miles were utter
crap. Also, I really felt I could keep
up with Dave for at least 8 miles, when we originally planned to break apart
and start racing. He’s just been so damn
strong lately! It seems he’s always
peaking when I’m plateauing, and vice versa.
The Sweet: Even though it wasn’t pretty, I did get a PR,
and that’s the first PR I’ve gotten in over 7 months, unless you count newly
raced distances. Also, my time was
virtually the same as last year, so I’m starting to believe I’m getting my
pre-Umstead speed back. In addition, I
ran the first 10k in under 39:40 (even taking into account Garmin/course
marking discrepancies), so I think I’ve still got my sub-40 fitness. To boot, I won 2nd place in my age
group, so there’s that. And sweetest of all, thanks to my loving wife, I had a gluten-free chocolate waffle waiting for me at home after the race!
In comparing last year’s Lungstrong
to this year, I’ve learned a couple of things.
First, I do better when I intentionally plan a negative split. When I did this last year, I ended up with
virtually the same time, but I felt so much stronger at the end of the
race. Similarly, most of my more
memorable PRs beyond the 10k distance were slow starts with negative splits
built in. Also, Dave and I concluded in
retrospect that distances 15k and up (excluding ultras) really diminish the
value of co-pacing. At longer distances,
one has to run one’s own race. If I had
taken the hills in my own stride early on and played to my strengths a little
bit more, I might have been able to keep contact with Dave for a little longer.
So far, that’s 3 consecutive
Lungstrongs for me, which is the longest streak I have of any race. This might just have to be my annual local
must-do. I’m not setting goals for next
year yet, but when I do, this race will be very fresh in my mind!
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