Spectacle Spectacular 10K Race Report
This morning my buddy Assynt and I headed down to Angleton to do a race I've done for 6 years now, the Spectacle Spectacular 5K/10K. I like this race. They do a good job with it, have people at every mile marker calling out splits, the course is accurate, not too many turns, and they have plenty of real food at the end (breakfast tacos, sausage biscuits, donuts, hot coffee, etc.). I never managed to run a phenomenal time down there but have lowered my time from the previous year ever since 2005 and intended to do it again (I was 39 and low change last year).
The conditions this morning were ideal for a race - temps in the low 40s at the start but warming rapidly, little wind, and beautiful sunshine. Luis Armenteros was there and another apparently fast guy I've never notice before and those two took off and quickly pulled away from the rest of the pack. Kevin Regis and I settled into a nice 6:10ish pace for the first couple of miles. As we turned into the neighborhood that weaves runners over to another long straightaway, Kevin dropped off the pace just a tad. Eventually I came out on the other side of the neighborhood, having passed the halfway point just prior to doing so.
As I headed down the long straightaway I recalled that it seemed like in years past that we turned just after the 5 mile mark. I hit the five mile mark, looked to my right, and there was a street that looked like the one we turned on but I went on another 20 feet before finally deciding, if I'm going to misjudge which street to turn on, I'd rather turn too early than too late. Shortly after I turned, Kevin came by and yelled something down to me. I couldn't make it out but the fact that he didn't turn told me all I needed to know. I knew I was running parallel to the street I was supposed to be on so I just needed to make a cut. I finally got over to the other street and turned right but I still saw no orange cones. Assynt and I had done our warmup on the finishing street so I knew I should be seeing the orange cones. Time to start looking left again to see if I needed to go over one more street. Finally a 5K runner doing a cool-down came by me and said something about turning early (if he only knew!) so I had to start looking for another road to take over to the next street. I did so finally and got back on course. It certainly was no shortcut I'd taken. If anything, I had to make four turns that other runners did not. My biggest fear now though, as I approached the correct street at last, was that competition might have been able to capitalize on my confusion and dead reckoning and maybe made up some ground. But the road was clear and I had maybe a third of a mile to go to finish.
I hit the finish in 38:36, just ten seconds from my all-time PR. My splits were reasonably flat and I finished third overall and first master. Here are my mile splits:
6:04
6:15
6:08
6:10
6:17
6:18
5:40 pace for the final .2
Miles 3-6 were only 10 seconds slower than miles 1-3 so I'm pleased with that.
The conditions this morning were ideal for a race - temps in the low 40s at the start but warming rapidly, little wind, and beautiful sunshine. Luis Armenteros was there and another apparently fast guy I've never notice before and those two took off and quickly pulled away from the rest of the pack. Kevin Regis and I settled into a nice 6:10ish pace for the first couple of miles. As we turned into the neighborhood that weaves runners over to another long straightaway, Kevin dropped off the pace just a tad. Eventually I came out on the other side of the neighborhood, having passed the halfway point just prior to doing so.
As I headed down the long straightaway I recalled that it seemed like in years past that we turned just after the 5 mile mark. I hit the five mile mark, looked to my right, and there was a street that looked like the one we turned on but I went on another 20 feet before finally deciding, if I'm going to misjudge which street to turn on, I'd rather turn too early than too late. Shortly after I turned, Kevin came by and yelled something down to me. I couldn't make it out but the fact that he didn't turn told me all I needed to know. I knew I was running parallel to the street I was supposed to be on so I just needed to make a cut. I finally got over to the other street and turned right but I still saw no orange cones. Assynt and I had done our warmup on the finishing street so I knew I should be seeing the orange cones. Time to start looking left again to see if I needed to go over one more street. Finally a 5K runner doing a cool-down came by me and said something about turning early (if he only knew!) so I had to start looking for another road to take over to the next street. I did so finally and got back on course. It certainly was no shortcut I'd taken. If anything, I had to make four turns that other runners did not. My biggest fear now though, as I approached the correct street at last, was that competition might have been able to capitalize on my confusion and dead reckoning and maybe made up some ground. But the road was clear and I had maybe a third of a mile to go to finish.
I hit the finish in 38:36, just ten seconds from my all-time PR. My splits were reasonably flat and I finished third overall and first master. Here are my mile splits:
6:04
6:15
6:08
6:10
6:17
6:18
5:40 pace for the final .2
Miles 3-6 were only 10 seconds slower than miles 1-3 so I'm pleased with that.
posted by Lance Collins at 7:31 PM
1 Comments:
Congratulations on the masters win, w(l)ong-way-Lance.:-)
Your race reminds me of the Buffalo Wallow XC race that I did 2 years ago. I was leading the masters race in the second loop and took a wrong turn at the turn around and had to back track for about 100 yards. My race went downhill after that.:-(
In any case, you're in great shape, getting w/in 10 seconds of your all-time 10K PR just 2 weeks after racing the half-marathon. You should do well this Saturday at the Buffalo Wallow. As I said, the course can be a little bit confusing as I found out 2 years ago, so always turn right when in doubt.:-))
Tuan
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