Memorial Mile {May 29, 2017}

Memorial Mile

May 29, 2017

“Elite” Heat Start: 8:00 am

Chip Time: 6:33.4

Watch Time: 6:20.1 (where my watch beeped at a mile…my watch had the course at 1.04)

Overall Ranking: 11/14

Female Ranking: 2/3

AG: 2/3

“Recreational” Heat Start: 8:10 am

Watch Time: 7:22

(*It doesn’t matter at ALL - but just for the sake of conversation, the reported #1 Recreational Heat runner got 8:22...so technically I would've gotten first had I been actually "entered" in the run)

{My 7th race of the 2017 season...and Gabe's 4th race of the 2017 season!}

First of all, please feast your eyes on THIS:

Yeah, that’s the elevation profile for this silly one-mile-long race.  

Why did I choose to run this?  Why not - it was on a Monday holiday…no work…my good friend Amber was doing it…sounds like a fun challenge, right?!  The night before the race, I told Amber that I would see her there IF I woke up in time and IF I felt “ok.”

The days leading up to the race I had some doozies for workouts (for me).  Saturday, I ran a 12 mile “long run” with 6 1k repeats in the middle of the workout. My first two 1ks were run with the stroller at a 6:39 and 6:46 pace.  The final four 1ks were run without the stroller (thanks, Coach Clint, for supervising at the track! :)) at 6:14, 6:14, 6:21, and 6:35 paces.  Sunday, I accompanied Clint to the ISU track where he was completing a 1k repeat workout. I planned to just do some “easy miles” and somehow that turned into me running a “stroller mile time trial” after a 3 1/2 mile warmup.  I was shooting for 6:10 (my mile PR was 6:17, set at the Main Street Mile in 2014)…but somehow I managed to get this "time trial" completed in 5:54 - whoa!!

So, yeah, I say all of this to say that my “lead up” to the Memorial Mile wasn’t exactly probably what one would do if they wanted to run their very best…but seeing as running a fast mile really isn’t my “A” goal, who cares right?!

Monday morning I was able to wake up fairly easily and got Gabe ready to go.  I had formulated a very loose mental game plan of running the recreational heat at 8:10 so that I could push Gabe - the website explicitly stated that there was a “recreational heat” available for those pushing strollers, walking, etc. and that no strollers were allowed in the other heats. Totally fine and understandable - I didn’t want to press my luck since I do try to edge my stroller into many area races as long as race directors don’t explicitly forbid it/kick us out ;).

Clint planned to run down to Miller Park where the race finished and would meet us there by 8:10.  He did ask me before leaving to clarify that I would NOT, indeed, be running the women’s heat or the elite heat. I assured him that I would only be doing the recreational heat since I was bringing Gabe with me.

Gabe and I made our way down to the race start and got there around 6:35. Late registration/packet pickup went until 6:45 and I did my best to make sure that we got there prior to that cutoff.  After some chatting with friends at the start I decided that I would register for the elite heat and leave Gabe/the stroller with someone at the finish if I didn’t see Clint prior to the start. Whatev, right?! YOLO! HA!

Gabe and I went over to the swings at Miller Park where I pushed him for a bit…the boy LOVES swings!  Then…I decided to ask Julie Sibley (race director!) if it was OK if I ran the elite sans stroller and then grabbed the stroller and ran with Gabe the half mile back to the race start and then run the recreational heat (slated to start at 8:10).  I knew it would be cutting things close, time-wise, but I wanted to give it a whirl. I love crazy plans!!  She said that since the recreational heat didn’t have awards that I was more than welcome to give my weird plan a whirl. Sweet!  This made me feel better about my plan to do the elite heat - frankly, racing with Gabe is my favorite. I genuinely hope that doing these crazy races together is something that he will start remembering once he gets a little older - making these memories together is pretty special (and totally worth the added challenge).

About 7:30, Amber and I went out for a warmup.  I left Gabe in his stroller with Mike Eckhoff at the starting line (BIG thanks, Mike!!) along with an applesauce pouch to give him as a distraction if needed.  Amber and I scoped out the route from the finish line back to the starting line so that I had my strategy ready to go for after the elite heat (PS can I just say, referring to something I ran as “elite” anything is just kinda laughable ;)).  After a mile and half, we stopped at the starting area - where Clint was standing waiting and chatting with some other runners.  I sheepishly told him that I was going to be running the elite heat and he probably rolled his eyes, unsurprised ;).

We chatted with the other runners a bit and Amber and I scoped out our “competition” - a young speedy thang named Taylor was the only other girl…and we had seen her around enough to know that we should make peace with the fact that we wouldn’t be getting top chick in this race. HA!

We lined up at the start (all fourteen of us!) and waited for the signal…and soon we were off! So the elevation profile doesn’t really show it, but it FELT like the first quarter mile or so was uphill. I hit it as hard as I could and was able to bust out from the start first among the girls and stick with the bulk of the group of guys for at least a little bit (watch average pace was reading around 5:45 at this point). When I crested the first little uphill and started to go downhill a bit, my legs felt like literal jello…perhaps the most jello-y they’ve ever felt in the history of my running. SO weird. I felt like I was pushing really hard at that point but still standing still.  

Around a half mile, Taylor passed me and I made peace with the fact that I would not be catching her. Nope - my old lady legs couldn’t hang.

I watched my average pace fall to the 7’s at one point as I climbed the final hill. OUCH…legs were on FIRE.  As I turned to the right and made my way to the finish line on the final quarter, I did my best to dig in and push through as strong as I could to the finish. A bit back from the finish, my watch beeped off a mile in 6:20. I crossed the finish in 6:33 (1.04 by my watch), hit “lap” on my watch, grabbed the stroller from Clint, and headed down to the start…to do this thing AGAIN!  Thankfully, G appeared super content.

Clint ran with us back to the start and we chatted a bit. It was definitely heating up. I tried to will my legs to work quickly to get down to the starting line but, boy, was I tired! We saw the recreational group toeing the line and heard the starting signal blast when we were still about a block and a half back…I picked up the pace, hit my “lap” button again when I got to the start…and started chasing down the field.

It didn’t take us too long before we started passing some walkers and kiddos. My body was definitely feeling spent and I was cursing myself for making the silly decision to run a second heat…but I powered on.  After about a half mile we had passed all but a final group of 5 or so (two guys, presumably dads, and three kiddos).  We passed all but one kid and rounded the right-hand turn toward the finish line. I slowly reeled him in and passed him (even though I did feel a little guilty about it, truth be told).

I crossed the finish line around 8:15 race time, but my watch for my last mile split read 7:22 (or 7:34 for the final 1.03) - since I had started the mile a bit after the heat had set off.

Two hard miles and a total of 4.1 miles for the day…rounding out a three-day hard-effort-fest of 21.1 total miles with 3 hard miles (2 with the stroller) and 6 hard 1ks. I probably should’ve taken a rest day the next day, but I ended up running until the next weekend when I took Friday-Saturday-Sunday OFF. Can we say burnt out?! Or wimpy…you be the judge.

THANKS to Mitch-teammates-Saucony-Coach Clint-baby G for making things FUN and FAST!  Looking forward to a great rest of the summer with everyone. Next up - Toluca 5k (report pending!). On deck - Park 2 Park. Still trying to decide - next “big” goal.

Have a great day! :)

Rachel

Mile 1...

Mile 2...

2nd Place Female in Mile 1!