Great River Road Run 10 Miler

Saturday marked my final race prior to the Hawaii marathon and it was an out and back course beginning in downtown Alton Illinois as pictured above and heading north along what locals call the Great River Road for five miles before turning around and heading back 5 miles to the finish. The Mississippi River is directly along side the course for the entire five mile stretch and it is usually fairly windy either going out or coming back. Today the wind was at our back on the outbound section but we had to fight a slight headwind on the return trip.

I last ran this race back in 2001 with a then girlfriend. Most road races from that long ago have long since subsided into a blur in my mind but this race stands out. First of all, the course was unusual in that it was (and is) totally flat which is hard to find in this part of the country. Second, I was running the race with my girlfriend at the time who, truth be told, was a much better distance runner than I was. She was a rather competitive sort of person and was continually dismayed when my times started dropping in shorter 5k's and 10k's we were running. Despite my improvements however, she would normally leave me sometime before the finish because, well, she was competitive and didn't want to lose. I understood completely and it did not really bother me that in the 10 plus races we did before the Alton 10 miler, she beat me in all of them. However, at Alton my fitness had improved to the point that I was able to stay with her for several miles until she took off ahead of me. Again, not unusual, but this time I was able to slowly but surely gain ground on her until I caught back up--it really helped that the terrain was all flat as I am good at holding my pace on the flats where she excelled at running on hills. I tried to run with her but she demanded that I continue on without her as we were probably only about a mile from the finish and she was having a hard time maintaining her pace---basically she tried to pick up the pace midway through the race to leave me behind and was paying a high price as her body was experiencing the adverse consequences of running too hard for too long. I reluctantly went ahead of her and finished maybe 30 seconds before she did. It was weird after that race because it seemed like she couldn't get over my having run a race faster than her, and I think she derived some psychic sense of personal fulfillment from being the faster runner in our duo that I unwittingly shattered for her. I really didn't care which one of us ran any particular race faster, but for her, the results really mattered which was eye opening for me. Since I was no longer part of an official team, I just viewed the races as fun runs to complete to challenge myself but never really considered them "races" where I was trying to beat anyone including her. She avoided running any other flat courses with me since she feared a repeat performance which I found hilarious. Good memories. I kind of miss her--or at least the idea of her despite her singular focus on beyond the "top dog" runner.

Back to the 2008 race: So, I ran a near perfect race almost a month ago which was a half marathon and I knew I would be hard pressed to beat my average pace per mile achieved then. I resolved to try and come as close as possible to my ten mile split in the half marathon which was approximately 121 minutes. I was on pace for the first 5 miles--actually about 20 seconds ahead of where I needed to be. Unfortunately at the turnaround the wind was now directly in our face and though it was mild, you could certainly feel it and it gave me a chill and slowed me down a bit. I didn't stop for water until mile 6 and then I walked while drinking the water and knew my hopes to equal my previous pace per mile were blown. Still, I was able to recover and improve my average pace per mile slightly over the last two miles. My finish time was approximately 121:45 which was just slightly over the predicted pace I expected of 121:00. If I had not stopped for water I would have been almost exactly on pace. It was a good effort and the weather was decent but not great--probably about 50-55 degrees with slight winds. I was able to get away with running in shorts too which was awesome considering I will be doing so again in Hawaii. There aren't too many late November days allowing for shorts here. I went back after the race and took a few pictures of the scenic grain silos near the start/finish area which you can see above. The picture with the barricades is the part of river road way we ran out on the left side. The barricades are there to keep cars off the roadway near the finish though they detoured them around the downtown part of Alton. Overall I was pleased with my effort in the race and the time I ran. However, I think my time in the half marathon may have been the pinnacle of my fitness, and I am thinking about how to tweak my marathon strategy to take into account having something less than another perfect race day. Stay tuned.