Got it!

I was in New England on the 4th of July and ran the L.L. Bean 10k in Freeport, Maine.

Result: 39:54

I did it!

It was a beautiful sunny day, and temperatures were around 55-60 at the start. The course looped through scenic Freeport, home of L.L. Bean and a ton of other outlet stores. The first mile dropped steeply downhill, but we gained it all back (and then some) for a total of around 300 feet of climbing.

The funny thing about this is that, unlike the Bolder Boulder, I didn't think I was ready for a sub-40 race yesterday. In the last month, I haven't done any long runs (my longest run was 7.1 miles), and I've averaged only 20 miles per week of running. I did exactly one tempo run, and no track workouts. I was on vacation during the past week, and ate like a pig, gaining a couple of pounds before the race. On the plus side, I did do a couple of multi-sport races (the Teva Mountain Games and the Buffalo Creek Xterra Triathlon). The L.L. Bean 10k was also at sea level, and I was better rested going into it.

Anyway, it's starting to seem like training doesn't pay, but I know that can't be true!

The race itself felt easy for the first three miles. Not coincidentally, those first three miles were mostly downhill. I couldn't believe it when my watch said 5:49 for the first mile split! That's the fastest mile I've ever run. I knew that a fast start could spell trouble later in the race, but forced myself to focus on other things instead. I decided to continue taking splits at every mile, but told myself I wouldn't look at my watch until late in the race.

The big hills started at mile 3, and that's when I really started working. It was encouraging to slowly pass a steady stream of runners, so I knew I was doing well. On mile 5, the biggest hill of the course, a large diesel truck was just ahead of me, spewing noxious fumes. The truck was traveling the same speed as the runners, so I got to breathe a few minutes' worth of diesel fumes before it turned off on a side road. Nice.

With less than two miles to go, I tried to pick up the pace even more. Runners were fading right and left. I was still focused enough to run the tangents on each curve of the course. After a short and steep downhill, the climbing continued.

We hit Main Street and the mile 5 marker, the home stretch! I'm glad I didn't check my watch, because my mile 5 split was 6:51. Despite working so hard, the hills kept my pace slow. Thankfully, the last mile had only 20 feet of climbing. I heard footsteps behind me. It was one of the top-10 women, and I held her off.

I checked my watch somewhere in the middle of mile 6, and it said 35 minutes. There was no way I could do the math to figure out my chances of a sub-40 race, since I didn't know how far I had left to the finish. All I knew was that I needed to push with everything I had. My watch said 38:39 at the mile 6 marker, and I dug deep. I believe this is the hardest I've ever run. My lungs were making a strange wheezing sound with every breath. My whole body was made of pain.

When the clock came into view, it said 39:30. I thought I could make it, but knew it would be close. A few steps from the finish line, I knew I would do it. The joy of finally reaching my goal started to kick in before I even finished. I had done it. 39:54. It wasn't to be at the Bolder Boulder this year, but at least I'd proven to myself that I could run a 10k under 40 minutes. It felt wonderful!

My splits...

1. 5:49
2. 6:29
3. 6:39
4. 6:30
5. 6:51
6. 6:21
7. 1:15 (Last 0.21, 5:50 mile pace)

Race Photos

Here are my Brightroom.com photos from the race. I definitely had a look of pain on my face at the end!

I competed in the "Ultimate Mountain Challenge" at the Teva Mountain Games in Vail over the weekend. It's a multi-sport event that combines four races over two days: a downriver kayak race, a mountain bike race, a 10k trail running race, and a road bike hill climb up Vail Pass. It was an awesome experience and I completely thrashed my body, but I loved it.

As a bonus, I got to race against Tour de France winner Floyd Landis! He was doing the Mountain Challenge as part of a team, and Floyd competed in the two biking events. [results]

Selected photos...

What went wrong?

I've been putting off writing this race report long enough. At first I had the excuse that official results weren't out until Wednesday evening, but now that it's Friday that's obviously not the real reason I've been procrastinating. Honestly, I'm disappointed with my race and it's been easier just not to deal with it.

Official time: 40:39

That happens to be the exact time that I ran in 2005. Since my watch read 40:40, I was actually a little relieved to have at least officially matched my PR. Funny how one or two seconds in either direction could affect how I feel!

The race started fine. I felt relaxed in the first kilometer and even wondered if I was running too slowly. My 1k split of 3:51 told me I was exactly where I wanted to be. I crossed the 1-mile banner in 6:24. Again, I thought I was in fine shape, slightly under my 6:26 per mile goal pace. But my 2k split was 4:08. I had slowed down without even realizing it!

I determined to get back into it and buckled down, running the next (uphill) kilometer in 3:59. Perhaps it was a mistake to push that hard, as the course continued climbing. Kilometer 4 went in 4:12. Now I was a little concerned. I had told myself it was ok to run as slow as 4:05 on the uphills, and now I'd gone over that twice. I was on the verge of oxygen debt, and tried to keep myself just below that threshold.

As I approached the halfway point, I saw the banner up ahead and quickly glanced at my watch. It looked like I was back on schedule. Then I realized I was looking at the 3-mile banner, not the 5k mark. I passed 3 miles in 19:42 and 5k in 20:17.

I knew I'd really have to work for it now. To run a sub-40 I would need to run the second half in 19:43. There was a net loss of elevation on this half, but there were still two tough hills.

Before the race I told myself over and over: kilometers 4 and 6 are the tough ones. If you can minimize your losses there, you'll be in good shape. Even with that mental preparation, I couldn't get my legs to turn over fast enough.

Number 6 went by in 4:17, way slower than goal pace.

I knew my goal was probably out of reach, and it was a horrible feeling. Running for a PR was the only thing to keep me motivated now. At least I had a nice downhill after Casey Hill at mile 4. I was happy to see my legs speeding up with the gravity assistance, and I ran K-7 in 4:02. K-8 followed in 3:56, which felt encouraging. I was hurting for real now, and trying not to give away any spare seconds.

I turned onto Folsom for the homestretch, and turned it on as best I could. The final hill to the stadium felt slow, but I consciously took shorter, faster steps and pumped my arms hard. In the stadium now, I gave it everything. Just 200 meters to go. I crossed the finish line and stopped my watch. The announcer was saying, "Keep moving through the chutes, there are thousands of runners behind you." But I barely had enough left to put one foot in front of the other.

Now that it's over, I feel ambivalent about the race. On one hand, I'm proud of myself for putting in the base miles, researching and creating a full-fledged training program, and for sticking to it. I'm also happy that I took 30 seconds off my all-time 5k PR. But of course I'm disappointed that I didn't make my sub-40 goal at the Bolder Boulder. And I feel that I've somehow let down those who may have been rooting for me. I wanted it, I went for it, but I didn't get it.

Not yet, anyway.

I will keep trying for the sub-40, but unlike previous years, I won't wait until the next Bolder Boulder. I'm going to look for another race in a month or so and try again.

Meanwhile, the question remains: after nearly doubling my running volume and following a carefully-researched training plan for the first time ever, why could I only manage to match my PR? The truth is, I averaged 14.7 miles per week in the ten weeks leading up to my 40:39 Bolder Boulder result in 2005. This year, I averaged 27.9 miles per week over the last ten weeks. The differences are even larger when you look at weeks 20 to 11 leading up to each race. In 2005, I averaged only 8.9 miles per week. This year, 24.9. As for quality workouts, this year exceeded 2005's efforts in every way. In 2005, my "long run" was 6.6 miles. This year, I ran at least an hour and a half long run every week. In 2005, I did one hard workout (5k race or intervals on the track) each week for the last 7 weeks. This year, I completed at least 2-3 tough track workouts or races each week.

Maybe there is something to that last point. Perhaps I was doing too much speed work? I don't know. It certainly made me faster at the 5k distance than I've ever been. Or maybe it had nothing to do with my training. Perhaps the fact that 2005 was a cold, rainy day made me that much faster relative to my fitness on that day. This year's race was not exactly hot, but it was sunny and warmer. I might never know the answer, but I think as long as I keep running, I'll keep learning.

Now, on to the stats for this race...

Kilometer splits (from my watch):

1. 3:50.8
2. 4:08.2
3. 3:59.4
4. 4:11.8
5. 4:06.5
6. 4:16.8
7. 4:02.2
8. 3:56.1
9. 4:02.3
10. 4:06.2

And mile splits (from the chip timing):

1. 6:24
2. 6:29
3. 6:49
4. 6:44
5. 6:18
6. 6:39

Even though I didn't negative split, I was at least happy to see mile 5 (not mile 1) was my fastest. And I ran the final two-tenths of a mile to the finish in 1:16, which is 5:56 pace. My overall place was 629th out of 50,816. Incidentally, over 500 runners broke 40 minutes at this year's Bolder Boulder!

40:40

Just a quick post of my unofficial time. My watch said 40:40. I will post a full report later.

Wonderland Lake run

It's a beautiful day, and this morning I went out for an easy run on the trails behind my house in North Boulder. The Wonderland Lake Loop is one of my old standbies. Head south on the Foothills Trail, take the loop around the lake, and come back. It's all on well-maintained dirt trails, and it's relatively flat by Boulder standards.

I brought a camera today and stopped often for photographs. Here's a nice view of Green Mountain, Bear Peak, and the Flatirons.

P-daddy-dawg hanging out while his two baby p-dawgs play an engaging game of patty cakes behind him.

Wonderland Lake.

Mt. Sanitas from the lake.

There were tons of paragliders out today. I think they were part of a beginner's class.

Run summary: 4.0 miles in 36:19 (9:05 per mile).

Tomorrow is the big day!

Bolder Boulder pacing strategies

I looked at my Bolder Boulder splits from the last three years to see if I could come up with a good strategy for pacing this year. The problem is the elevation profile -- it's a somewhat hilly course, at least for a course where you're trying to get a new PR.

Here's the profile again...

Now here's a chart showing my kilometer splits. Note that they're converted to pace per mile. A 40-minute 10k pace would average 6:26 per mile (4 minutes per km).

Finishing times:

• 2004: 41:25
• 2005: 40:39
• 2006: 43:46

There is a definite pattern in years 2004-2005. My pace is faster on the downhill sections, and slower on the climbs, just as you would expect. 2006 follows this pattern for the first three kilometers, and then I completely blow up, falling off the pace drastically.

So, how should I pace this year's Bolder Boulder? I think I will keep it simple: go faster than goal pace on the downhills, and allow myself to slow down a bit on the uphills. Although everyone warns about going out too fast at the start of a 10k, the fact remains that this is one of the fastest kilometers in the race because it's downhill. To me, it would be a mistake to waste this opportunity for a few "free" seconds. I think 10-12 seconds under goal pace for the first kilometer should be fine. That's what I ran in 2005 and I ran almost even 5k splits (20:19 and 20:20) for the race. From there, if I can keep it to 4:05 per kilometer or faster on the climbs, I should be ok. I'll try to pick it up to goal pace or slightly faster on all the flats and downhills.

Just for kicks, I'll make a prediction for my splits:

1. 3:48
2. 4:04
3. 4:03
4. 4:05
5. 3:56
6. 4:05
7. 3:57
8. 3:55
9. 3:58
10. 4:04
11. Finish: 39:55

After the race, I'll compare my actual splits to those above.

Taper Week Update

It's been a pretty easy week for me. I ran a shorter long run on Sunday, and I've done some easier track workouts in the days since. Here's a quick summary of my most recent runs:

Sunday: Easy long run on the creek path. Total: 9.1 miles in 1:17:02 (8:27 pace).

Tuesday: 4x400 at 10k goal pace (around 96 seconds). This was an easy workout meant to keep the legs moving and solidify my goal pace. I ended up running these in 93.5, 94.2, 94.7, and 95.6 seconds. Although I got slower between the first and last intervals, this was a deliberate effort to hone in on the proper pace. Total for the day: 4.3 miles in 33:08 (average pace 7:42).

Wednesday: 4.1 miles easy, with 5x100m strides. Total time 32:55 (8:01 pace).

Friday (today): 8x100 at a quick pace. I thought I would run these in about 20 seconds, but my slowest turned out to be 18.8 seconds, and the fastest was 16.9. They felt pretty good, but that's the fastest running I've done all year. Hopefully it won't hurt my taper! Total for the day: 4.2 miles in 39:28 (average pace 9:23, although that counts some non-running time between reps).

Weekly total: 21.7 miles

Interesting thing spotted on the run

On Tuesday I saw a couple guys on the tennis court playing a new sport, a "mash-up" of soccer and tennis. It was played with a soccer ball and no hands (just like soccer). One guy would serve by dropping the ball and then kicking it over the net. The other guy had to kick it back before it bounced twice, which usually meant catching it with his feet and dribbling the ball (is that the right term?) a few times before kicking it back. They were keeping score and everything. Pretty cool!

Weekend plans

Saturday I'll be helping my friend Mark celebrate his 40th birthday. Like most Boulderites who've reached that distinctive age, you'd never know it. Earlier in the day, I'm hoping to borrow a friend's kayak and take a few runs on Boulder Creek. I'm planning to sign up for the Ultimate Mountain Challenge at the Teva Mountain Games in Vail. It's coming up next weekend and I really should do some paddling (and mountain biking, and road biking) before this 4-stage race. Sunday I'll go for an easy 3-4 mile run and probably check out the Boulder Creek Festival a little bit. And Monday...well, that's the Bolder Boulder, of course (the whole focus of this blog)!

A Virtual Tour of the Bolder Boulder Course

Let's take a look at the course for this Memorial Day's Bolder Boulder 10k...

First, the course map. The race starts on 30th St., winds through neighborhoods and downtown, and finishes on the University of Colorado campus in the football stadium. There are 23 turns on the course! Since USATF certified courses are measured on the tangents (meaning the shortest path possible), it will be important to run on these tangents as well. Valuable seconds could be lost otherwise.

Next, the elevation profile. This is a point-to-point race, with the lowest point at 5,284 feet and the highest point at 5,391, a gain of 107 feet. However, with the ups and downs, total elevation gain is probably over 200 feet. The finish is roughly 50 feet higher than the start. The steepest and hardest climb is Casey Hill at the 4-mile marker. Though short, this one seems to pack a punch. Luckily, it's followed by a mile-long descent before the final uphill push to the stadium.

On to the start!

Looking south on 30th Street at the start. The course is permanently marked with signs at every turn and mile marker. The streets are painted with every kilometer and mile marker as well. Note that workers have already put up the corral fencing for the wave start.

Turning right on Pearl Street, we catch our first glimpse of the Flatirons. These 1000-ft cliffs are a Boulder landmark and popular with rock climbers. We've just passed the 1k marker, and we'll be climbing for most of the next 7 kilometers. This first part isn't too bad, though.

Things get steeper as we start Folsom Hill, nearing the 3k mark. Aid station #1 is just over the crest of the hill at the 2-mile point.

Taking a left onto Hawthorn.

West on Glenwood. Mount Sanitas is directly ahead. We're just about at the 4-kilometer mark.

We do the first little north-south jog at this point. Here we take a left on Vista.

Now we're on the long straightaway of 19th Street, heading south. We've topped out the biggest, longest hill, we're cruising downhill for now, and we're a few yards away from the 3-mile mark and halfway. Things are looking up! Note the stereotypical Boulder car -- a Toyota Prius hybrid.

On the next north-south jog, we're taking a left on Cedar.

Running south on 13th Street past Vic's Coffee and Ideal Market.

The dreaded Casey Hill!

But it's all downhill from here (oops, except for the last mile)!

Now we're getting into downtown Boulder. Approaching the left turn on Spruce, we see the Boulderado Hotel and Corner Bar on the right.

We just passed the 7-kilometer mark. On our right we catch a glimpse of Boulder's most popular tourist attraction, the Pearl Street Mall. It's closed to cars, and usually packed with folks who come for the shopping, people-watching, and street performers.

But we're taking a left on Pearl instead. Headed for the finish now!

No time for Fish & Chips and a cold pale ale at my favorite brewpub, the Mountain Sun.

This guy is in no hurry as he takes a leisurely ride down Walnut Street with his sack of bagels. He probably couldn't care less that he's about to pass the 5-mile mark on the Bolder Boulder course. :-)

How much would this 3-bedroom, 2-bath house cost in your neighborhood? In Boulder it's $619,000.

Finally, we're back on Folsom, but this time we're headed home. There is one last hill to climb, and the flagstone towers of the CU Stadium can be seen in the distance. Only one km to go!

At the top of the last hill, we take a right towards the stadium. Due to the unavoidable pain at this point in the race, nobody who is trying for a personal best will notice this statue honoring legendary runner Frank Shorter. Not only did he win a gold medal in the Olympic marathon, he was a co-founder of the Bolder Boulder and won the race in 1981.

Just after the Frank Shorter statue, we pass the 6-mile mark. A quick left turn into the stadium and we'll hit (what will be) the track and the final 200 meters. Workers are constructing a ramp that will allow spectators to access the east side stands without obstructing the course.

That's it! We've arrived at the finish line of the Bolder Boulder 10k. This also happens to be the finish of this blog entry!

How to taper for a 10k

With just over a week to go before racing the Bolder Boulder, it's time to taper. But how, specifically, should I do it? It seems like every running guru and coach has a different idea. I poked around the net to see what I could find.

I found an article by Pete Pfitzinger on copacabanarunners.net about tapering. It answered some key questions.

The first question about tapering should be, does it work? The answer, according to Pfitzinger and numerous studies, is a definite yes. Tapering can result in a 2-8% performance improvement, with 3% being about typical. For someone who runs a 10k in 40 minutes, that would mean over a minute improvement. Sounds pretty good to me!

Regarding the length of the ideal taper, Pfitzinger goes on to recommend a 7-10 day taper for 5k and 10k races. That's right at the point I'm at now.

The big question about tapering (and the only one I've seen significant disagreement about...see below) is whether you should taper volume or intensity, or both. Pfitzinger says, "The scientific evidence clearly indicates that the key to effective tapering is to substantially cut back your mileage, but to maintain the intensity of your training." He recommends cutting back to 50% of normal mileage for the week leading up to a goal 10k race.

Bob Cooper from Runner's World agrees, and goes a step further by offering specific workouts for a taper in the following:

Tapering isn't just for marathoners. In fact, one recent study showed a huge performance benefit when subjects tapered for a 5K. Here's how to taper for four road-racing distances:

5K:

Cut your normal mileage in half the week before your race, but maintain some intensity. Early in the week, run 4 x 400 meters at your 5K goal pace with a 200-meter jog between repeats. Later in the week, jog 2 miles, then run 6 or 8 x 100-meter strides at 90 percent of maximum speed. Run easy the other days. 10K:

Same as 5K taper, except run your 400-meter repeats at your 10K goal pace.

On the other hand, Coach Tinman from therunzone.com recommends just the opposite.

"distance runners should avoid tapering weekly mileage and, instead, reduce the amount of fast running they do so that their legs feel fresher."

In this thread, Tinman claims that the vast majority of runners do not need to taper much at all. To prove his point, Tinman discusses a hypothetical runner who cuts his mileage to a third of his normal volume for two weeks before a goal 5k race. Tinman says that this taper would not be effective because the runner would lose aerobic endurance.

I'm not convinced that Tinman is correct. First of all, Tinman's example runner is not tapering as anyone (as far as I know) would recommend. Pfitzinger and Cooper would say to cut mileage by only 20% two weeks before the race, and 50% in the final week. Tinman's runner cut mileage by a whopping 67% for both weeks, dropping from 65 miles per week to 25. Second, Tinman says the runner would lose aerobic endurance, but doesn't offer any scientific explanation or cite any relevant studies that show this to be correct.

After my brief and decidedly non-comprehensive review of tapering strategies on the net, I'm going with Pfitzinger's and Cooper's approach. I will run 4x400 in 96 seconds per lap on Tuesday, then run 8x100 quick on Thursday, with a few easy days of running thrown in. Instead of cutting my mileage in half, however, I'll probably just drop to around 20 miles (1/3 less than usual). That's because I'm a relatively low mileage runner, so it seems to make sense that I shouldn't cut volume quite so drastically.

Today's run

I had a nice, easy 9-miler today on the creek path. Instead of sky-high temperatures as I expected, there was a nice cloud cover that kept things reasonable. I ran around 8.5 minute miles and felt decent, but not super. Tomorrow I'll go for a swim instead of running.

For Judy

This post dedicated to Judy Karpeichik, 1966-2007.

Last quality workout

Today I finished my last real quality workout before next week's taper. But first I'll give a breakdown of yesterday's run...

Thursday's Workout

This was meant to be a threshold interval workout. As a recap, I've been doing two different types of threshold, or tempo, runs. The first is a standard 20-minute run at T-pace. I did one of these last Thursday, when I ran a 5k at the track. These tempo runs can be a bit demanding, so Daniels recommends alternating with something he calls "Cruise Intervals," also known as threshold intervals.

The idea is that you run repeats of 1000 meters, 1200 meters, or miles at T-pace, with 1-2 minutes rest between each workbout. That way you get the same amount of running (or even more) at the proper pace, but without as much stress as a steady 20-minute run would cause. This makes threshold intervals a good choice when approaching the final taper week before a goal race, as I'm doing at the moment.

Now to decide on the proper T-pace. This week's 5k result actually bumps me up to the next level on the VDOT scale, which puts me at 51. However, I want to be just a little bit conservative, so instead of using the training paces associated with a 51 VDOT, I'm picking paces somewhere between 50 and 51.

What exactly does this mean? Well, after looking it up in the VDOT Training Paces table, T-pace for those VDOT values would be 4:11 to 4:15 for a 1000 meter Cruise Interval. I find myself consulting the VDOT tables constantly these days! But they do seem to work...

To get to the actual run, I settled on 4 x 1000 on 4:11-4:15 with 2-minutes recovery.

Here were my results:

Distance	Time	Mile pace
1000	4:12.2	6:46
1000	4:13.4	6:48
1000	4:12.2	6:46
1000	4:10.5	6:43

I felt ok, but not great. My legs may have been recovering from Tuesday's race, and felt a little stiff. Also, it was a bit hot at the track. All in all, a successful workout nonetheless.

Today's workout

Today I essentially repeated last Friday's workout that I did with Clint and John. Unfortunately, we didn't get organized ahead of time, so I found myself alone at the track during my lunch hour.

This was another mix workout. I wanted to decrease the volume slightly from last week, since I'm about to start my taper. Last week I had done the following:

• 3x1200 in 5:04 (T-pace)
• 2x1200 in 4:41 (I-pace)
• 4x200 in 0:42 (R-pace)

Today I was shooting for this:

• 2x1000 in 4:11 - 4:15 (T-pace)
• 2x1000 in 3:51 - 3:55 (I-pace)
• 4x200 in 0:42 (R-pace)

I would take 2 minutes rest between the easier 1000s, 3 minutes between the harder 1000s, and around 2 minutes between each 200-meter rep. You may notice that my I-pace has gotten slightly faster as well. Last week I was running 1200s in 4:41, which is equivalent to 3:55 per 1000. This week I dropped it to somewhere between 3:51 and 3:55, to go along with my new VDOT. Rep pace stayed the same.

Here were my results:

Distance	Type	Time	Mile pace
1000	Tempo	4:10.9	6:44
1000	Tempo	4:09.8	6:42
1000	VO2 Max	3:52.1	6:14
1000	VO2 Max	3:48.5	6:08
200	Rep	39.7	5:20
200	Rep	41.5	5:34
200	Rep	41.1	5:31
200	Rep	41.2	5:32

I ran each rep a little on the fast side, but for the most part I felt pretty good. Even though it was even hotter than yesterday, I felt better. My last 1000 in 3:48.5 felt pretty fast (i.e., hard), though!

Two PRs in one Race

Last night I ran the last Dash & Dine 5k race of the series, and my last tuneup race before the Bolder Boulder. This was my fourth 5k since the beginning of April, and I have been steadily improving in each one.

It's certainly helped that the race conditions have improved each week. This time they were even better than last week -- cool (around 60 degrees), overcast, and calm.

I wasn't too stressed before the race, since I was still happy about last week's performance, the first time I'd broken 20 minutes. Tonight my goal was to break 19:40, which would be a 7-second PR. I planned to run a 6:20 first mile and a 6:20 second mile, then do my best to power into the finish from there. I wanted to negative split -- something I haven't done this year at all.

Tony was there again, fresh off of a 19:36 he'd run on Saturday at the Flat Out 5k in Broomfield. This guy cracks me up...tonight would be the 7th time he'd gone running this year, and 5 of them were races! I don't know how he runs so fast off of virtually no mileage. My friend Dave was there as well, and I knew he'd be gunning for the leaders.

I did my typical warmup, 2.5 miles of easy running with five 20-second strides, and joined the larger than usual crowd gathering at the start. Dave introduced me to a friend of his, Susan, who looked pretty fast. It turned out she would be a great target to chase.

"I'm going to give two commands, ready and go. READY GO!" said the race director.

Everybody was chatting, and the abrupt start caught us by surprise. I beeped my watch and we were off.

I'm not sure when I will ever learn how to pace that first mile. I don't want to go out too fast, but I don't want to leave time on the table, either. I chugged along, not working too hard, and trying to monitor my position in the pack. As usual, a bunch of guys passed me in the first quarter mile. When we reached the first dam (the course traverses the two dams of Boulder Reservoir), I started gradually reeling a few of them back in. I noticed Tony a good 30 meters ahead.

I caught a high-school kid wearing a T-shirt that said, "There are no shortcuts." He stayed with me. I noticed Tony was getting closer. We passed the first mile marker and I expected to see 6:20, or maybe 6:15. I really didn't feel like I was working too hard.

6:04.5!

Oh geez, how did that happen? (Incidentally, that's a PR in the mile for me. I've never raced that distance since I became a runner. My previous best was 6:06 back in 2003, also the first mile in a 5k.) I was a little concerned that I would blow up.

There Are No Shortcuts Guy and I were running stride for stride. We caught Tony and I yelled some encouragement. I was still feeling good and felt like I had reserves. The pair of us ran the length of the second dam shoulder to shoulder, separating only to swallow up the occasional slower runner and spit him off the back. We hit the turn-around, and then increased the pace slightly. That's when he started to pull away, ever so gradually.

Mile two went by in 6:15. My heart rate was at 180, and it was starting to hurt. Susan was still within sight, about ten seconds ahead. There Are No Shortcuts Guy had already passed her. I decided to chase her down as well.

That was easier said than done! I felt the beginnings of a side stitch coming on, and I let that be an excuse not to work harder. I was still working hard, don't get me wrong. I just wasn't at the level of pain I've been at for the last couple races. I wanted to have some sort of kick at the finish.

Susan seemed to increase her lead slightly, but at least we were getting closer to the finish line. I turned off the dam for a short downhill and focused on opening up my stride. Let gravity do the work, I thought. I heard footsteps behind me, and then someone yelled my name. It was Tony!

I hit mile 3 in 6:28 and headed up the last small hill. I knew Tony was trying to run me down. Then I found a new gear I didn't know I had! I turned the last corner and saw 19:18 on the clock. One last burst to the finish and I had just run another 5k PR, 19:30. Three seconds later Tony grabbed my shoulder in the finishing chute and said, "Nice job."

It seems like everyone had a good race. Dave finished 2nd with (I believe) a new PR of 16:55. He was only five seconds behind the winner, too. Susan ran a very impressive 19:16 for first overall female. Tony ran a PR for the year in 19:36, although I believe his real time was three seconds faster. And at the BBQ after the race, we met an eleven-year-old kid named Nathan who ran an incredible 21:49.

This race felt great. I took 17 seconds off of last week's PR, and I feel like I can run even faster. This is a huge confidence builder going into the Bolder Boulder 10k in two weeks. Four minutes per kilometer doesn't seem quite so fast anymore, and that's a great feeling.

Final results: 23rd place out of 195.

Here's my updated 5k progress report for 2007:

Date	Race	Time	Pace
4/10/2007	Dash & Dine #1 (results)	21:08	6:48
5/1/2007	Dash & Dine #4 (results)	20:11	6:30
5/8/2007	Dash & Dine #5 (results)	19:47	6:22
5/15/2007	Dash & Dine #6 (results)	19:30	6:17

Running the South Switzerland Trail

Sunday's long run was something a little different -- the South Switzerland Trail, off Sugarloaf Road. It's a dirt road that climbs gradually from 8400 feet to 9000 feet over 5.5 miles. That was perfect for a nice 11-mile out-and-back run.

Since the trail winds along a high ridge, you have alternating views in all four directions. You can see Long's Peak (a 14'er) to the north, the snow-covered Continental Divide to the west and south, and occasional views of Boulder and Denver to the east. In short, the scenery is fantastic.

Luckily, I had a bike-riding photographer to keep me company.

In spite of the altitude, I felt great. I'd been running for thirty minutes before I even noticed. There were storm cells moving all over the place, but it wasn't windy and I never felt any rain. In fact, the sun broke through a few times on my return trip.

This is an excellent run, and I highly recommend it!

Today's summary: 11 miles in 1:37 (average pace 8:47).