Race Report: Presidio 10 miler

Posted by Chen

Before I get to my race report, I just want to say that I was one of the "newbies" mentioned in Rachel's post yesterday (the only real newbie to cycling in the group), and I would hardly classify my performance as "great," though I appreciate the optimistic review. A few thoughts:

1. I'll take biking uphill over downhill any day (Breathing hard with burning quads vs. death? Uh, breathing and quads, please).
2. Evidently, turning/steering on a road bike (especially downhill) isn't quite as easy as it used to be on my Kmart Huffy mountain bike
3. My bum isn't any more used to biking yet. I hear this will take quite a while.
4. I really need to learn how to stop at stoplights / stop signs properly. Currently, I stop approximately 50 feet too early (for fear of biking into traffic) and still need to clip out of both sides for balance. Starting up again once the lights go green is equally as comical.
5. While biking is overall still quite stressful for me, bagels make everything OK.

Onto my much preferred sport, I ran the Presidio 10 miler this morning for the second year in a row. Having run it before, I knew the course was going to be quite challenging, so my one and only goal was to NOT race it, as Boston is but a mere 8 days away (yikes). I can't find an accurate elevation profile to show you because the course takes you over the Golden Gate Bridge, which doesn't register on most apps/websites, so they all assume that you plunge thousands of feet into the ocean as you cross. But you can trust me when I say that the course isn't exactly designed for speed. The first few miles take you up into the Presidio (hence the race name), followed by an out-and-back over the Golden Gate Bridge, which is essentially one long hill. While the last 4 miles are actually flat, they run along a gravel path that more or less feels like sand when you're trying to run at a faster pace. I remember feeling completely dead by mile 8 last year, so my goal was to avoid such misery this time around.

Throughout the race, I tried to control my pace by making sure I wasn't breathing too heavily at any point. This worked until we came down from the bridge around mile 6 or 7 and unexpectedly merged with the 5K race. I say "unexpectedly" because I don't remember this happening last year, or if it did, we certainly weren't merging with walkers and strollers like we did this year. Things got real crowded real quick-like, and I found myself trying to stay on the tail of other 10-milers I recognized in an attempt to find a quick way through the pack. In doing so, I picked up my pace quite a bit and ended up running the last 4 miles at tempo pace (sorry, Rachel). Splits:

1: 8:53

2: 8:26

3: 7:50

4: 8:15

5: 8:28

6: 8:07

7: 7:25

8: 7:34

9: 7:38

10: 7:24

10.1 (guess my Garmin isn't measuring everything short just yet): 6:52

Overall time: 1:20:42 (~7:59 Garmin pace, ~8:04 official pace)

While my average pace was a bit faster than planned, I was happy that I at least felt controlled throughout the entire race. I ran 3 easy miles to cool down and then headed to a delicious brunch with the race crew (dungeness crab benedict and an ice cold beer for the win).

Going into this last week before Boston, I certainly have my doubts that I'll be able to run a sub-3:30 or even PR, but I've had a decent training cycle and figure I may as well try. I'm hoping to post again before the marathon to share my thoughts on the event. Beyond my own race plan, this year's Boston clearly has more meaning and significance than any marathon I've ever run before, and I'm sure I'll have lots of random musings to ramble about.

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend!