Damn you, Peter Blank!

So it's the evening of July 29 and I'm just minding my own business. I came out on a storm threatened evening to run in the DCRRC 1 mile championship. I had several nice conversations with different runners and was having a very good time. I even ran my best 1 mile race of the year. Then Peter Blank tackles me and forced me to run in the 3K race. But I'm getting ahead of myself....

I arrived at the track about 15 minutes before the start of the race. I was a little worried that I may be late as I dropped Dori off at the airport a mere 30 minutes before the scheduled start to my race but I made great time and arrived with more time than usual to stretch. Ed Grant was the race director and he warned us that we may have to cancel if we saw lightning. We heard 1 thunderclap before the race but that was it so the race was on.

I ran in the first 1 mile heat, which was for novices and youth. Peter had just finished an impressive 1 mile race walk and jumped right back on the track for this heat. Looking around I figured my main competition would come from Blair Jones, who I beat a couple of weeks earlier at the Rockville evening mile. When just about everyone bolted at the start I decided to use the same technique I used in Rockville and just drafted off of Blair.

Blair is a good slow runner, as opposed to me who is a bad slow runner. She maintains her same pace throughout a race and doesn't need walk breaks. Running behind someone like her is very good for me as it teaches me to pace myself. Each lap was being completed in about 2:25. Just before the end of the third lap I moved to the second lane and passed Blair fairly easily. Now I just needed to keep it together!

I picked up the pace over the last lap as a light rain fell. I heard Kirk Gordon shout encouragement as I ran down the home stretch. My heart was pumping fast as I crossed the line in 9:37.2. Blair finished in 10:06 so it was good that I decided to pass her. I was pleased with my time but I would have been bummed if I ran over 10 minutes.

Shortly after we finished the skies opened up. The next heat went on in the rain. Meanwhile, I caught my breathe and debated running in the 3K.

I usually don't like to run in 3K's on a track because I get passed so much and because the organizers usually have to wait a while for me to finish. This race would be even more challenging as another heat was scheduled to be run after ours. That would mean the fast runners would be waiting for that slow Ramsey guy to finish...hoping he would get in before it got dark.

I spoke to Blair and she told me she was planning on running the 3K. OK, that meant someone else would be running that was relatively close to my pace. I knew Blair was stronger than me in longer distances so I thought she may beat me but I figured she wouldn't beat me by more than a minute or so at most. So I was thinking about it.

Then Peter came over to talk to me after he finished his 3rd race of the day. He cajoled, he persuaded, he arm twisted and finally I caved in and told him I would run the 3K. That said, I was still considering pulling out as we lined up at the start. But my decision was finalized when Ed told us that there would be only 1 heat for the 3K. That meant I didnt have to worry about runners waiting for me to finish. It also meant more runners passing me during the race but I could handle that.

So I lined up in the second row and then off we went. I hung behind Blair for about 1/3 of a mile but then I let her go. But I stayed pretty close to her until I had to take the first of 2 walk breaks about 1 1/3 miles into the race. My heart rate had been hovering at around 150 throughout the race and after 14 minutes of that I had to take a little break. Blair pulled away first by 100 yards, then 200 and ultimately by about 350 yards. She finished in 18:58...a very good race for her! I followed a bit later in 20:10. Not great but not totally embarassing either.

The stats for the 2 races were

1 mile
avg heart rate 138
max heart rate 161
calories burned 114

3k
avg heart rate 144
max heart rate 157
calories burned 208