Today was the Spring Thaw Race, a 10/15/20 mile race that I also ran a year ago. In 2008 it had been very snowy, and especially the last loop before the finish was very icy. This year there was no snow, because two warm days in the middle of the week had melted it away. But now it was frosty again, just below freezing. Steffi and I were both running the 20 mile race: for Steffi it was her very first 20 miler, and right away as a race!
The basics of this race are very simple: it consists of a 5 mile loop around the lake in North Park in Pittsburgh, which has to be run 2, 3 or 4 times, depending on the desired distance. The main awards are given out on the basis of the 10 mile section, but completing 15 miles is rewarded with a set of gloves, and 20 miles with a nice hat with an embroidered melting snowman.
The course around the lake consists of rolling hills, never really long or steep, but definitely harder than a flat course.
After a rather chaotic start, where people were more or less hanging around at the parking lot around the start/finish, while the race director blew the starting horn, we were all off! Everyone squeezed into the road for the first loop, but fortunately there was little traffic jamming (at least not where I was). Steffi wisely kept a little more to the back. My goal for the first lap was not to go too fast, not easy if many of the people around only run 10 mile, with a pace that corresponds to that distance. Based on my my race last year I should be aiming for miles of around 7:00-7:05 minutes (according to the McMillan calculator). Maybe a little bit faster given that training had gone very well recently. The first mile started with a flat stretch, and was followed by some rolling hills, with a nice view of the lake that was still covered with ice. I ran it in 7 minutes straight, so that was exactly as planned. Now that the first mile was out of the way I started warming up a bit, and waved at the volunteers who were handing out water and sports drink at the 1 mile marker. A little bit too early yet to start drinking. In mile 2 and 3 the rolling hills
continued, with the three mile marker almost at the end of the lake (see picture). I ran mile 2 in 6:48, and mile 3 in 6:55. Now it was back along the South and East side of the lake, with unfortunately some more traffic, so it was no longer possible to "run the tangents". The first loop was pretty competitive, with runners inching past each other, sometimes only to be overtaken later on. I changed places with a number of people multiple times, and this continued on into the second loop. For the remainder of the first loop I continued the 6:55 pace. I still felt pretty good after the first five miles, but with 3/4 of the race still to come this was a necessary but not sufficient prerequisite for success.
The weird thing about the second loop was that it only led up to the half-way point, but that the final classification would be based on the 10 mile time. Last year, I sped up towards the end of the second loop, and I couldn't resist this time either. Mile times for loop 2: 6:59/6:51/6:49/6:46/6:37. My official half-way time: 1:09:04.
At the start of loop 3 I was gasping for air, and suddenly completely alone. Apparently my direct competitors were all 10 milers, so now I had to motivate myself to keep going. So, I dug up the old iPod for some musical support. I allowed myself the first mile to recover a bit from the final loop 2 effort, it was still a decent 7:01 though. After one or two miles of being completely alone, I started picking up the first stragglers of the previous loop. Although this
required the occasional zig-zagging around them it was much better than running alone. Soon I was back on track, and ran the remaining miles of loop 3 in 6:51/6:56/6:58/6:54. Now it was time for the final loop, and things started to get tougher. The first mile was pretty rough, because the initial rolling hills mainly go up, and by this time this became more salient than on earlier laps. In the second and third mile I managed to consolidate a bit, and running became more fluent again. Now it was only two more mile to go, and although I started to feel bad, the end was in sight! In the final mile I started to feel really bad, with some side stitches, and was forced to slow down a little bit. But 1 more mile can always be overcome, and luckily the last part was downhill (the first part uphill though). Last loop times: 6:58/6:59/6:54/6:57/7:12, and then 54 more seconds because the Garmin distance was shorter than the real distance. Finishing time: 2:19:20.
After finishing it immediately occurred to me that I had never seen Steffi, even though I had lapped quite some people. This meant that she had dropped out (very bad), that I had overtaken here without noticing (also bad), or that she had been pretty fast (good!). I tried some mental calculation what it meant, but initially failed. After some water and rest, I concluded from a retry that she must at least be faster than 3:10. So I wrapped myself in all the clothing I had, an positioned myself strategically to be able cheer her on and make a photo. And before the clock reached 3 hours I suddenly saw her in the distance! One last loop around the parking lot, and she finished in:
Very cool indeed, and a great improvement on her previous race times!After the race was over, we had pizza and soup and other food, and were gradually feeling human again. Unfortunately, the timing guys had messed up things, and couldn't produce a final result. In the evening the results were on the website though:
- Steffi was 92nd after 20 miles, out of 148, and 6th in her age group, out of 10.
- I was 10th after 20 miles, also out of 148, and 1st in my age group, out of 18.
- After 10 miles, Steffi was 368th out of 688, and 28th in her age group, out of 70.
- At that point I was 33rd (out of 688), and second in my age group, out of 59.
All in all a great race, and well organized given that they had many more participants than last year (probably the influence of the upcoming Pittsburgh marathon). Thanks to the volunteers, and shame on the timing guys who are the only ones who make money out of this.
