2018 Tely 10 Race Recap
I'm a day late with the blog this week, because Tely 10 Sunday is for racing, relaxing, and partying, not for blog writing. :) Before I get into my race recap, I want to make a couple of quick points about this week's post:
(1) I've made an effort in most of my posts this year to have the main section focus on a topic that will appeal to all runners, and even many who aren't. This one is just going to be entirely about yesterday's race, and as such will have more discussion on race strategy/paces, etc. So if that's not for you, it might be best to save your time and skip this one.
(2) While I never put pen to paper, so to speak, in advance, I usually have these posts "written" in my head for days or weeks before I type them up. As I try to stay positive and confident heading into a race, the Tely recap I had written in my head was based around me hitting my goals, and it would have been a much different story. So this one will be much more flying by the seat of my pants! Haha
With that out of the way, here is my race recap for the 2018 Tely 10. :)
My Tely story this year actually starts 8 days out, as that is when I did my last test run on the course and settled in on my goal time for the race. In 2017, me and a number of my running buddies ran the course the Saturday of the weekend before the Tely. We did a 2 mile warm-up, and then did two 20 minute sections to get a feel for race pace, and then did a cool down to the finish. The first 20 minute section ends up being from mile 2 to around mile 5, and it's mostly downhill and therefore ends up being faster than your actual race pace. The second 20 minutes goes from mile 5 to around mile 8, which is a much tougher section and therefore gives a more accurate read on what your race pace will actually be.
In 2017, this gave me a great feel for what my fitness level was heading into the race, and I ended up running the race slightly faster than my pace on the second 20 minute section. Since this plan worked so well in 2017, a few of us decided to repeat it in 2018. I managed to complete the first 20 minutes at a pace of 4:05/km, and the second 20 minutes at a pace of 4:10/km. With my Tely PB sitting at a 4:17/km pace, this left me feeling fairly confident that a PB was achievable on the right day.
When I sat down Saturday night to devise my race plan, I settled on a goal pace of 4:12/km. As I mentioned in my Mews recap a few weeks back, I use that goal pace as a starting point, and then I determine my goal paces for each kilometer based on two factors: running a slightly faster pace (by effort) in the 2nd half of the race, and adjusting the time I expect to see on my watch based on the elevation changes in each kilometer.
The 4:12/km goal pace would bring me in right around 67:40, and I felt like that was a fair, reasonable goal. Whenever I post my goals for a race, I give a Gold (stretch goal), Silver (reasonable goal), and Bronze (fallback goal). I listed 66:30 as my Gold, which would mean I'd have to be about 5 seconds ahead of my plan for each kilometer. I listed 68:00 as my Silver, which pretty much matched up with my plan. And I listed 68:54 (a new PB by one second) as my Bronze, which would mean I was about 5 seconds behind plan for each kilometer.
With my plan in place, I headed off to bed around 10:00. As I had had a rough sleep on Friday night, I was really hoping to get a good rest on Saturday. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be. The humidity was brutal, and at around 11:30 I finally gave up on my bed and moved to the couch in the basement. I succeeded in falling asleep not long after I went down there, but I then proceeded to wake around 1:30, 3:30, and 4:30, before finally hearing my alarm go off at 5:40. Ugh!
My race morning routine is pretty set at this point, so as soon as the alarm went off my headphones went in and my pump-up playlist started booming in my ears. This helped shake off the doldrums from my poor sleep, and then I grabbed a banana and a glass of water for my standard pre-run "breakfast". I got my contacts in, put my Glide on, and got my race gear prepped and ready. I left the house at 6:40 and met up with my family for the drive to the start line, feeling much better than I had an hour earlier.
We parked at our usual location near the top of McNamara, and I walked the kilometer or so to the starting area. I was scheduled to meet Marc for our warm-up at 7:15 and got there right on time. We started off on our 3 km warm-up, and as we were running by my Uncle Keith's house he came out and joined us. The three of us headed up McNamara and on to Topsail, running up past the crest of the first hill. If it hadn't been obvious before, the warm-up certainly confirmed the fact that the humidity was going to be an absolute beast to deal with!
With our warm-up complete, I did some stretching, and then headed to Keith's for a quick bathroom break. Having family/friends near the start line that can allow you to avoid the porta-potties is a wonderful thing! From there it was a quick trek to drop off my kit bag at the buses, and then down to the start line for a few short sprints to get the blood pumping. That left only a little more than 5 minutes to start time, so I headed in to the corral with 4000 other people and anxiously awaited the gun!
In my experience, the first kilometer of the Tely is one of the toughest to properly manage in the whole race. It is quite a climb, and it is so easy to get caught up in the adrenaline rush and the mass of people and go out way too hard. In my race plan, this is always the slowest kilometer, and this year my plan was to run it at a 4:35/km pace. Normally, I would force myself to stick hard to that number, but at the Mews two weeks ago I found I was able to pace myself much better on feel than I had in the past. So I had decided going into the race that if it felt comfortable to run a little faster than my plan, I would go with it. I ran a nice, controlled first kilometer, and when my watch beeped I looked down to see a 4:19, which meant I now had 16 seconds in the bank for later. Definitely a solid start.
As I moved on to kilometer 2, I started to quickly realize it might not be my day. I am generally a very good downhill runner, so if I was going to hit my goals, I needed to be at or ahead of pace on the downhills. My plan for kilometer 2 was a 4:10/km pace. I have my watch configured to show average lap pace, and in the few checks I did during this kilometer it was sitting right at 4:15/km. If I was going to drop pace on the downhill sections, there was no way I was going to be hitting my Gold or Silver goals, and even the Bronze would likely be difficult. When I looked down at the end of the kilometer and saw a 4:12, I knocked my bank down to 14 seconds and started to settle in for a tough slog.
Around this time, my Uncle Keith had passed me and settled in about 5-10 meters in front. We had finished within about 20 seconds of each other at the Mews, so I kept focus on him to assist in keeping my pace. The 3rd kilometer is an even more severe downhill than the 2nd, so my goal for this one was a 4:00/km pace. I did my best to let my legs turn over and run a controlled, hard pace down this hill, but when it finished and my watch said 4:06 I was down to 8 seconds in the bank and the prognosis was getting even grimmer.
The 4th and 5th kilometers go back uphill, and my goal pace for these two was 4:20/km and 4:25/km. I still hadn't bailed on a PB at this point. I figured if I could maintain pace for these two, there was a chance I'd be able to open up for the 3 downhill kilometers before the halfway point and get myself back on track. I grinded out a 4:14 and a 4:25, and was feeling a little better heading to kilometer 6, 14 seconds ahead of my plan. I was pleased that I had actually managed to beat my goal on kilometer 4, and I thought just maybe I was hitting my stride and I'd be able to gain some ground going down towards Dodge City.
On my plan, kilometers 6-8 were meant to be 4:10/km, 4:05/km, and 4:00/km. In reality, they turned out to be 4:14, 4:15, and 4:14. Uh oh! Kilometer 6 and 7 just ate up my 14 seconds of banked time, and kilometer 8 just put me 14 seconds in the hole. In better conditions, or if I had just been mindlessly cruising along, I might have shrugged that off and continued to try to push the pace for the second half of the race. But I was really working to gain time on those downhills, and my body just would not respond in the humid conditions we were facing. It may seem like a really early check-out, but I knew without a doubt at that point that I was not hitting any of my 3 goals. I needed to stay within 60 seconds or so of plan for the second half to hit my Bronze goal, which meant I could give back about 7 seconds per kilometer. Seeing as how I had just given back 14 on what is usually my best part of the course, the writing was on the wall.
The good news is, at the start of the day yesterday there was a 7:30 gap between my PB and my second-best Tely time. That meant that even if I ran my typical easy long run pace for the second half of the race I would comfortably beat my second-best time. So, I took my foot off the gas, and settled in for my most relaxed Tely running since I ran on very little training in 2015.
I knocked off the next 4 kilometers (9-12) in 4:23, 4:35, 4:46, and 5:07. Around kilometer 10, a nagging abdominal injury that I've battled in the past started acting up again. That caused me to slow down even more, and made me very thankful that I wasn't still trying to push for a goal. At this point I was past the hill on Cornwall, and I covered kilometer 13 in 4:53.
Now, I thoroughly enjoy pushing hard and aiming for PBs, and I'm a long way from getting away from that. But it was definitely nice to slow down and enjoy the race in a different manner. This really got amplified in the last 3 kilometers. Our running club has a pit stop in the 14th kilometer, with sponges and water and candy. It's a wonderful idea, and our runners are always incredibly grateful for the volunteers who are their waiting for us. When I'm pushing hard for a time, I usually just quickly grab a sponge, say thank you, and move on. Since time was no longer a factor yesterday, I actually got to stop and chat for a few seconds, and I even took a bag of candy with me as I left. Let's just say me running the course while eating sour candies was not part of the race plan, but it was lots of fun! And even with the candy in hand (and mouth) I managed to finish kilometer 14 in 5:08.
Kilometer 15 was pretty uneventful, and it clocked in at 5:02. As I began the last kilometer, I caught up with Will Goodridge, who I had traded places with a few times throughout the day. Will had finished just ahead of me at the Mews, and has been having an excellent season to date. I don't know Will overly well, but as is often the case in our small local running community you can slowly get to know someone over time just from seeing them so frequently at the various races.
When I came along side of him, I could tell he was struggling. He didn't seem to be in any serious trouble, but he did say that he was feeling really hot. I asked if he wanted me to stay with him and he insisted he was fine, so I jogged ahead a little bit. I kept looking back over my shoulder to make sure he was still there, and after about 30 seconds of that I realized that was stupid and I slowed just enough for him to catch up again.
For the last 800 meters or so, we chatted and focused on getting to the finish line. I asked what his PB was (yes, I know I'm a little crazy!), and while we still hadn't passed it we also couldn't reasonably beat it. So we ran a nice, comfortable pace, and finished kilometer 16 at around 4:35, and then jogged in the last 100 meters. Will took a rest on the median after the finish line, but thankfully a little water and a chance to cool down was all he needed.
So, that was my personal experience in the 2018 Tely 10. When I left Paradise yesterday morning, I had visions of me running under the finish line with a 66:xx on the clock and a new PB in hand. Instead, my watch was stopped at 73:01, and my memories of the race will center mainly on eating candy and sharing the last kilometer with a fellow runner. I got a very kind thank you message from Will yesterday, and that made what could have possibly been a disappointing race experience feel very worthwhile. And the thing is, I know what I did wasn't anything overly unique, because I've seen countless others do the same at races in the past. I also acknowledge that's it's an easier choice to make once you've already given up on your own goals. But I know I've been fortunate enough to receive support and encouragement while struggling in the past, as most of us have, and I also know that there are so many who would have done exactly what I did yesterday. It's part of what makes running such a tremendous sport, and I'm just glad that I was able to do my small part.
On a broader note, I want to congratulate all of my family and friends who ran the race yesterday. Our club had over 80 runners on the course, and there were 9 members of my extended family who ran, including me. Special congrats to my 12 year old niece, Ella, who completed her first Tely, and to my parents, who both completed the race (their 3rd and 5th) on what was their 40th Wedding Anniversary. A very special day all around in our family!
Truly a family event. :)
Before I finish up, I just wanted to post a quick breakdown I did to demonstrate how brutal the conditions were yesterday. I've done 6 Tely's, and all of the even year ones have been difficult weather days in their own way. 2014 was hot and sunny start to finish. 2016 had rain at the start, but then got very sunny and humid for the second half. And this year was just pure humidity right from the start.
One thing I've learned in my years running is that not everyone responds the same to the varying conditions. Some suffer more in the sun than the humidity. Some handle wind better than others. Even just looking at the champions yesterdays is a great example. Both Colin Fewer and Jennifer Murrin repeated from 2017, but while Colin dropped over 2 minutes on his time, Jennifer was actually faster this year.
So, these numbers are more of a general assessment of the race. I guess you could say it shows which conditions affected the greatest amount of runners. What I've done is included the percentage of finishers who completed the race in under 60 minutes, under 70 minutes, and under 80 minutes. I stopped there, mainly because as more and more people run the race, the percentages in the 90 and 100 minute ranges are naturally dropping and the percentage in the 100+ range is increasing.
Based on that breakdown, there is definitely a strong argument to be made that yesterday's conditions had the greatest impact on times of any recent year. At least this confirms that I was far from the only one. :)
That's definitely more than enough from me for this evening. Thanks as always to anyone who takes the time to read these, and I'll be back in a couple of weeks with a new post. Cheers!
(1) I've made an effort in most of my posts this year to have the main section focus on a topic that will appeal to all runners, and even many who aren't. This one is just going to be entirely about yesterday's race, and as such will have more discussion on race strategy/paces, etc. So if that's not for you, it might be best to save your time and skip this one.
(2) While I never put pen to paper, so to speak, in advance, I usually have these posts "written" in my head for days or weeks before I type them up. As I try to stay positive and confident heading into a race, the Tely recap I had written in my head was based around me hitting my goals, and it would have been a much different story. So this one will be much more flying by the seat of my pants! Haha
With that out of the way, here is my race recap for the 2018 Tely 10. :)
My Tely story this year actually starts 8 days out, as that is when I did my last test run on the course and settled in on my goal time for the race. In 2017, me and a number of my running buddies ran the course the Saturday of the weekend before the Tely. We did a 2 mile warm-up, and then did two 20 minute sections to get a feel for race pace, and then did a cool down to the finish. The first 20 minute section ends up being from mile 2 to around mile 5, and it's mostly downhill and therefore ends up being faster than your actual race pace. The second 20 minutes goes from mile 5 to around mile 8, which is a much tougher section and therefore gives a more accurate read on what your race pace will actually be.
In 2017, this gave me a great feel for what my fitness level was heading into the race, and I ended up running the race slightly faster than my pace on the second 20 minute section. Since this plan worked so well in 2017, a few of us decided to repeat it in 2018. I managed to complete the first 20 minutes at a pace of 4:05/km, and the second 20 minutes at a pace of 4:10/km. With my Tely PB sitting at a 4:17/km pace, this left me feeling fairly confident that a PB was achievable on the right day.
When I sat down Saturday night to devise my race plan, I settled on a goal pace of 4:12/km. As I mentioned in my Mews recap a few weeks back, I use that goal pace as a starting point, and then I determine my goal paces for each kilometer based on two factors: running a slightly faster pace (by effort) in the 2nd half of the race, and adjusting the time I expect to see on my watch based on the elevation changes in each kilometer.
The 4:12/km goal pace would bring me in right around 67:40, and I felt like that was a fair, reasonable goal. Whenever I post my goals for a race, I give a Gold (stretch goal), Silver (reasonable goal), and Bronze (fallback goal). I listed 66:30 as my Gold, which would mean I'd have to be about 5 seconds ahead of my plan for each kilometer. I listed 68:00 as my Silver, which pretty much matched up with my plan. And I listed 68:54 (a new PB by one second) as my Bronze, which would mean I was about 5 seconds behind plan for each kilometer.
With my plan in place, I headed off to bed around 10:00. As I had had a rough sleep on Friday night, I was really hoping to get a good rest on Saturday. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be. The humidity was brutal, and at around 11:30 I finally gave up on my bed and moved to the couch in the basement. I succeeded in falling asleep not long after I went down there, but I then proceeded to wake around 1:30, 3:30, and 4:30, before finally hearing my alarm go off at 5:40. Ugh!
My race morning routine is pretty set at this point, so as soon as the alarm went off my headphones went in and my pump-up playlist started booming in my ears. This helped shake off the doldrums from my poor sleep, and then I grabbed a banana and a glass of water for my standard pre-run "breakfast". I got my contacts in, put my Glide on, and got my race gear prepped and ready. I left the house at 6:40 and met up with my family for the drive to the start line, feeling much better than I had an hour earlier.
We parked at our usual location near the top of McNamara, and I walked the kilometer or so to the starting area. I was scheduled to meet Marc for our warm-up at 7:15 and got there right on time. We started off on our 3 km warm-up, and as we were running by my Uncle Keith's house he came out and joined us. The three of us headed up McNamara and on to Topsail, running up past the crest of the first hill. If it hadn't been obvious before, the warm-up certainly confirmed the fact that the humidity was going to be an absolute beast to deal with!
With our warm-up complete, I did some stretching, and then headed to Keith's for a quick bathroom break. Having family/friends near the start line that can allow you to avoid the porta-potties is a wonderful thing! From there it was a quick trek to drop off my kit bag at the buses, and then down to the start line for a few short sprints to get the blood pumping. That left only a little more than 5 minutes to start time, so I headed in to the corral with 4000 other people and anxiously awaited the gun!
In my experience, the first kilometer of the Tely is one of the toughest to properly manage in the whole race. It is quite a climb, and it is so easy to get caught up in the adrenaline rush and the mass of people and go out way too hard. In my race plan, this is always the slowest kilometer, and this year my plan was to run it at a 4:35/km pace. Normally, I would force myself to stick hard to that number, but at the Mews two weeks ago I found I was able to pace myself much better on feel than I had in the past. So I had decided going into the race that if it felt comfortable to run a little faster than my plan, I would go with it. I ran a nice, controlled first kilometer, and when my watch beeped I looked down to see a 4:19, which meant I now had 16 seconds in the bank for later. Definitely a solid start.
As I moved on to kilometer 2, I started to quickly realize it might not be my day. I am generally a very good downhill runner, so if I was going to hit my goals, I needed to be at or ahead of pace on the downhills. My plan for kilometer 2 was a 4:10/km pace. I have my watch configured to show average lap pace, and in the few checks I did during this kilometer it was sitting right at 4:15/km. If I was going to drop pace on the downhill sections, there was no way I was going to be hitting my Gold or Silver goals, and even the Bronze would likely be difficult. When I looked down at the end of the kilometer and saw a 4:12, I knocked my bank down to 14 seconds and started to settle in for a tough slog.
Around this time, my Uncle Keith had passed me and settled in about 5-10 meters in front. We had finished within about 20 seconds of each other at the Mews, so I kept focus on him to assist in keeping my pace. The 3rd kilometer is an even more severe downhill than the 2nd, so my goal for this one was a 4:00/km pace. I did my best to let my legs turn over and run a controlled, hard pace down this hill, but when it finished and my watch said 4:06 I was down to 8 seconds in the bank and the prognosis was getting even grimmer.
The 4th and 5th kilometers go back uphill, and my goal pace for these two was 4:20/km and 4:25/km. I still hadn't bailed on a PB at this point. I figured if I could maintain pace for these two, there was a chance I'd be able to open up for the 3 downhill kilometers before the halfway point and get myself back on track. I grinded out a 4:14 and a 4:25, and was feeling a little better heading to kilometer 6, 14 seconds ahead of my plan. I was pleased that I had actually managed to beat my goal on kilometer 4, and I thought just maybe I was hitting my stride and I'd be able to gain some ground going down towards Dodge City.
On my plan, kilometers 6-8 were meant to be 4:10/km, 4:05/km, and 4:00/km. In reality, they turned out to be 4:14, 4:15, and 4:14. Uh oh! Kilometer 6 and 7 just ate up my 14 seconds of banked time, and kilometer 8 just put me 14 seconds in the hole. In better conditions, or if I had just been mindlessly cruising along, I might have shrugged that off and continued to try to push the pace for the second half of the race. But I was really working to gain time on those downhills, and my body just would not respond in the humid conditions we were facing. It may seem like a really early check-out, but I knew without a doubt at that point that I was not hitting any of my 3 goals. I needed to stay within 60 seconds or so of plan for the second half to hit my Bronze goal, which meant I could give back about 7 seconds per kilometer. Seeing as how I had just given back 14 on what is usually my best part of the course, the writing was on the wall.
The good news is, at the start of the day yesterday there was a 7:30 gap between my PB and my second-best Tely time. That meant that even if I ran my typical easy long run pace for the second half of the race I would comfortably beat my second-best time. So, I took my foot off the gas, and settled in for my most relaxed Tely running since I ran on very little training in 2015.
I knocked off the next 4 kilometers (9-12) in 4:23, 4:35, 4:46, and 5:07. Around kilometer 10, a nagging abdominal injury that I've battled in the past started acting up again. That caused me to slow down even more, and made me very thankful that I wasn't still trying to push for a goal. At this point I was past the hill on Cornwall, and I covered kilometer 13 in 4:53.
Now, I thoroughly enjoy pushing hard and aiming for PBs, and I'm a long way from getting away from that. But it was definitely nice to slow down and enjoy the race in a different manner. This really got amplified in the last 3 kilometers. Our running club has a pit stop in the 14th kilometer, with sponges and water and candy. It's a wonderful idea, and our runners are always incredibly grateful for the volunteers who are their waiting for us. When I'm pushing hard for a time, I usually just quickly grab a sponge, say thank you, and move on. Since time was no longer a factor yesterday, I actually got to stop and chat for a few seconds, and I even took a bag of candy with me as I left. Let's just say me running the course while eating sour candies was not part of the race plan, but it was lots of fun! And even with the candy in hand (and mouth) I managed to finish kilometer 14 in 5:08.
The candy made me happy!
(Photo credit: Greg Greening)
Kilometer 15 was pretty uneventful, and it clocked in at 5:02. As I began the last kilometer, I caught up with Will Goodridge, who I had traded places with a few times throughout the day. Will had finished just ahead of me at the Mews, and has been having an excellent season to date. I don't know Will overly well, but as is often the case in our small local running community you can slowly get to know someone over time just from seeing them so frequently at the various races.
When I came along side of him, I could tell he was struggling. He didn't seem to be in any serious trouble, but he did say that he was feeling really hot. I asked if he wanted me to stay with him and he insisted he was fine, so I jogged ahead a little bit. I kept looking back over my shoulder to make sure he was still there, and after about 30 seconds of that I realized that was stupid and I slowed just enough for him to catch up again.
For the last 800 meters or so, we chatted and focused on getting to the finish line. I asked what his PB was (yes, I know I'm a little crazy!), and while we still hadn't passed it we also couldn't reasonably beat it. So we ran a nice, comfortable pace, and finished kilometer 16 at around 4:35, and then jogged in the last 100 meters. Will took a rest on the median after the finish line, but thankfully a little water and a chance to cool down was all he needed.
Will probably wanted me to shut up at this point!
(Photo credit: Perry J. Howlett)
So, that was my personal experience in the 2018 Tely 10. When I left Paradise yesterday morning, I had visions of me running under the finish line with a 66:xx on the clock and a new PB in hand. Instead, my watch was stopped at 73:01, and my memories of the race will center mainly on eating candy and sharing the last kilometer with a fellow runner. I got a very kind thank you message from Will yesterday, and that made what could have possibly been a disappointing race experience feel very worthwhile. And the thing is, I know what I did wasn't anything overly unique, because I've seen countless others do the same at races in the past. I also acknowledge that's it's an easier choice to make once you've already given up on your own goals. But I know I've been fortunate enough to receive support and encouragement while struggling in the past, as most of us have, and I also know that there are so many who would have done exactly what I did yesterday. It's part of what makes running such a tremendous sport, and I'm just glad that I was able to do my small part.
On a broader note, I want to congratulate all of my family and friends who ran the race yesterday. Our club had over 80 runners on the course, and there were 9 members of my extended family who ran, including me. Special congrats to my 12 year old niece, Ella, who completed her first Tely, and to my parents, who both completed the race (their 3rd and 5th) on what was their 40th Wedding Anniversary. A very special day all around in our family!
One thing I've learned in my years running is that not everyone responds the same to the varying conditions. Some suffer more in the sun than the humidity. Some handle wind better than others. Even just looking at the champions yesterdays is a great example. Both Colin Fewer and Jennifer Murrin repeated from 2017, but while Colin dropped over 2 minutes on his time, Jennifer was actually faster this year.
So, these numbers are more of a general assessment of the race. I guess you could say it shows which conditions affected the greatest amount of runners. What I've done is included the percentage of finishers who completed the race in under 60 minutes, under 70 minutes, and under 80 minutes. I stopped there, mainly because as more and more people run the race, the percentages in the 90 and 100 minute ranges are naturally dropping and the percentage in the 100+ range is increasing.
Year
|
% Finishers Under 60
|
% Finishers Under 70
|
% Finishers Under 80
|
2014
|
0.50 %
|
3.18 %
|
12.77 %
|
2016
|
0.60 %
|
3.79 %
|
12.02 %
|
2018
|
0.41 %
|
2.91 %
|
9.58 %
|
Based on that breakdown, there is definitely a strong argument to be made that yesterday's conditions had the greatest impact on times of any recent year. At least this confirms that I was far from the only one. :)
That's definitely more than enough from me for this evening. Thanks as always to anyone who takes the time to read these, and I'll be back in a couple of weeks with a new post. Cheers!
Comments
Post a Comment