Every so often I do what I refer to as a stealth race. I don't tell anyone I am going, except for Sue and sometimes the kids, and set no goals for myself other than to have a good time and not worry about anything except for that. I am not really sure why I do it but I have for a while now and for some reason it just works for me.
This past Saturday I decided to go stealth and run the Tour de Ashland which is a small half marathon in Ashland, Ohio. The field was about 140 people running the full half and a bunch a relay teams which I think were made up of primarily high school runners as the race is put on by the Ashland Runners which supports the local schools running programs.
I realized when I put the dogs out at 6am that this would not be the most ideal day for running a half and nearly talked myself out of going (benefit and downside of going stealth all at the same time). I didn't know the temperature....yet... but I knew it was friggin freezing with some high winds as the icing on the cake. The little guy on my shoulder who was telling me I would regret it later if I didn't go apparently kicked the much smarter guy on the other shoulders ass as the next thing I knew I was dressed and headed for the car. It was a one hour drive down to the race with the most eventful happening being when the outside thermometer jumped from 18 to 19....how could I have even considered not doing this when it was warming up so nicely.
I got to the race around 8:15 and checked in..check in was a breeze and I was finished in a matter of minutes and headed back to the car to drop the really cool shirt they gave out and get ready for a nice little warm up. I waited in the car for a little bit as I didn't want to warm up to early so at 8:35 I headed out and ran an easy two miles on some of the course. I had seen the course profile on the net....and it looked nasty... and was pleasantly surprised during warm up that it didn't seem so bad. Alas, I learned not to judge a whole course by a one mile out and back warm up. This was a tough course with lots of steady long grades!!!
The race started pretty much on time with a short delay, much to the chagrin of a couple hundred freezing runners, to introduce the Mayor of Ashland...who does that, just start the race for Gods sake. Anyways, the start was smooth and I settled in to a nice 7:55 pace. The wind was definitely a factor at the beginning but it more added to the cold than made the race tougher. At around mile four I realized I had been running by myself for some time and had stayed exactly the same distance behind this little group of 4-5 people who were about 100yds ahead. I gave it a little push and closed the gap and settled in with them. They were running the perfect pace for me and I was really glad to not be hanging out there by myself. Along the way we dropped a couple of people but four of us stayed together, with a guy and girl staying out in front the entire time, until mile eight. At mile eight the girl who had been out front decided to dial it back and the guy she was with stayed with her, so then there was two. After they let up the guy I was with and I talked about working together but either he picked it up or I dialed it back but he lost me before we got to mile nine. I don't know if I was just getting tired or what but the last five miles seemed much tougher than the first eight, lots more climbs and the wind now playing a major factor, and my pace did drop to the 8:15 range when we got separated....so I guess it was me!!!!
In any event I finished pretty strong and placed 4th in my age group with a 1:46:22. Not the fastest time ever but the goal was to have fun, and I did.
Week recap:
ride - 4 - bailed on a weds night ride due to icy conditions -
run - 23
Time to go back to a schedule and ramp the miles up.
That's all for now.
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