Oh yeah, Wednesday was
3xmile 4:45/4:45/4:45 (2mins rest between)
2 mins jog
3/3/3 dynamic run (3 mins at 4:40 pace/ 3 mins at 5:10 pace/ 3 mins at 6:00 pace) x 3
2 mins jog
3xmile 4:45/4:45/4:45
the short recovery made it a tough one, but not a real killer.
We rode down to Worthington with Jenny Scherer, Jason Lehmkuhle, and Mike. I talked Trish into running too, even though she was only six days removed from her 2:59 marathon in Sioux Falls.
After a wonderful evening sleeping on the floor in the smokiest smoking room EVER, I dragged myself to the line amidst an enthusiastic crowd of Southwest Minnesotans. Facing south, we looked up a quarter-mile long hill, and into the face of a 20-30 mph wind.
At the gun, my legs felt like sludge, but our lead pack of Mike, Jason, Me and two Duma Kenyans (Edward Tabut and Robert Watribua) formed and I lingered near the back. The Kenyans were content to hide behind us up the hill and into the wind, but we soon parted and slid behind them. In response, they slowed to a jog. I looked at my watch and realized we were running 5:30 pace. I made a quick decision to end the bullshit right there and took off. I had a good lead for a few seconds and looked back to see what the response would be. Watribua went past hard and I had trouble latching on. After a minute of this I looked at my watch again, and we were running 4:09 pace - into the wind. I finally did something reasonable and hung back. Each time I got too close, both Kenyans would speed up some. My strength is not in shifting pace, so I hung back about five yards until the third mile, and I inched up some. At about the 4 mile mark, Watribua was done and faded off quickly. At that, Tabut started to put the hammer down as we moved out of the wind and ran the fifth mile fast, with the wind at our backs (I was no longer checking the Garmin). I hung on as the pace quickened. We turned a corner and were back on the street we had started on, heading straight uphill to the finish.
I started to gather for a kick, but nearly threw up instantly. I dawdled for a few seconds, trying to figure out what would happen if I started sprinting and puking at the same time. I built into a sprint and everything stayed down. Now almost up to speed, I looked at Tabut and realized he wasn't speeding up at all, and, even better, he didn't notice that I was now almost even with him. I aimed for the timing mats and let it rip,
"Keep going....Top of the hill...." were words I heard in frantic tones. I quickly realized that this timing mat was not the finish line. I exclaimed "Why is this here!!??". Sure that I was about to be blown away on the remaining 100 meters to the finish, I glanced back and realized Tabut had stopped too. We swam up the top of the hill and approached the actual finish line.
I managed to get there first.
I ran 30:07 with 4 miles of it into a hard headwind. It was a hard fought battle, and hopefully that will be a good mettle-tester for the big race in a couple of weeks. I looked up later and discovered that Tabut is a 2:14 marathoner and has a lot of other solid races, so to get that victory boosts my confidence even more. I'm looking forward to a good race.
Worthington Daily Globe story
