Egg Nog Jog, December 13, 2009

Today was one of those good running days when it just sort of all comes together without giving it a whole lot of thought. The past week has been kinda crazy with the winter weather. The last run I did was Wednesday in very similar conditions to the weather I ran in today. Not running for 3 days was something that I haven't done in awhile and I wondered how the break would affect me. Thurs/Fri we had nearly a meter of snow , got stuck Thursday leaving work at midnight. Hiked several Ks in a Blizzard back to work and spent the night there. Friday Eve my wife had to ditch the same 4X4 to avoid running into to another vehicle. Thur/Fri/Sat I go my share of Snow removal.... good work out but not running!

The Egg Nog Jog was scheduled to start at 10:30 am. Left home at 07:30 am , Rain and -1C. The road were slushy but surprisingly not too slippery. Arrived at Terra Cotta at 9:15 to rain and 0C. The race kit included an great " EGG NOG JOG" Towel! Good thing because I forgot to bring one. The race was slightly delayed starting at 10:36 , the rain had stopped and it was just above freezing! I decided to wear shorts today and was 110% comfortable through the entire race.

The Egg Nog Jog is a 10.8km country road race. This is one race that its OK to go out way too fast! The course takes you down a steep hill for the first 2K , you climb for the next 5K then it flattens out for 3K before very fast downhill to finish line. Didn't have much in the way of a strategy today. I wanted to beat last years 53:33 , the stretch goal getting in under 50 minutes. Just like last year I did the first 2Ks in 4:03 ( due to traffic at the start) and 3:54. The 3rd K was the first incline , did it in a conservative 5:08. I knew that I would be more or less climbing for the next 4K and was feeling pretty good so I pushed trying to keep the climb as close to a 5:00 or less pace as I could. The 4th and 5th K were done in 4:51 and 4:41. At the 5K point I knew I was going to have a good run. I was feeling strong and was about to face the biggest climb of race. The 6th K was done in 5:41 and I had a really good burn in the legs at the top of the "Big One". The first half of the 7th K was a gradual decline and I was able to recover before the last big climb. 7.5-8K was a steady climb but I was feeling good and started my push to the finish. 7th K was done in 5:05. The next 3.8K was flat to declined and a small roller with a real step drop the last 500 or so meters. The 8th , 9th and 10th Ks were done in 4:45, 4:28, 4:26. Throughout the race I watched my Avg Pace and Current Pace but never looked at the elapsed time or distance. I knew I would be very close to getting in under 50 minutes so I flew down the last 700 meters at a 3:50 pace. The clock came into view with around 200m to go it was 49:15 ... I knew I had my Sub 50:00!

Chip time said I finished the 10.8K in 49:44. I finished 59th out of 490 participants, 52nd out of252 males and 17th out of 77 males 40-49. I also shaved 3:49 off last years Nog Jog.