For all of you non Bellingham residents, the Lake Padden Loop is almost as recognizable a time as a 5k pr. There are so many races out there, and even if you've never raced there, you've probably ran around it. So at least in the racing world, a Lake Padden time means something. And since my Padden PR was from a couple years ago on the second day of back to back races after a night of drinking, it was definitely time to run a fast one.
Originally, Jake H and I were going to race and I tried to get RB Wick to run on the team. Sam hooked me up with former Sehome runner and current UW student, Tyler Van Dooren. But RB didn't want to race hard twice in two weeks. Jake got sick. And then it was just Tyler and I. I've never met Tyler. We emailed a couple days before the race, determined to still run even if we did a two person relay. We set up a meeting time before the race and left it at that.
Saturday morning rolls around and I head over to the lake. Tyler strolls up and we introduce ourselves. Then we went to register. What do you name a 4 man relay team with only two team members? You use your first names. Team Charlie and Tyler. Bonus points for creativity. So we did a lake loop for warm up. As we were about done, we ran into Peter Oviatt who asked us who was on our team. After explaining that it was just the two of us, we had a volunteer and a third runner. Which left me to run 1st and 4th with Tyler and Peter in the middle. I was ok with that since it would make it easier to get full miles in. But our plans were changed again. As I was switching gear and shedding clothes, Tyler jogs up and tells me that we have a fourth runner. Tom Bradley, a junior from Blaine HS. Tom didn't have a full team and had only planned on running one leg so he was perfect for our team.
So were ended up with a HS junior, Tom , a college junior Tyler, myself, 30 years old, former college runner, and Peter Oviatt, 41 years old with the fastest pr's of all of us, but not in tip top shape. A pretty solid team all in all, but no world beaters considering there are a ton of WWU runners and a fair amount of good high school runners. I knew we should be in the top few teams but other than that, I had no expectations. I knew that I had to run faster than my pr of 13:58.
The gun goes off and Tom is off. One quick loop around the lake and 13:30 later Tom hands off to Tyler. We were probably in about 5th place, in a tight cluster of teams but behind the top two teams who had a significant lead of about 30 seconds. Tyler rips off a 13:20, while one of the teams in the top two is a coed team, so he ended up handing off tied for 2nd, but still a good 15-25 seconds out of the lead. I knew Peter wasn't going to be as fast as the first two runners, but I know he's tough and experienced and he'd hang on better than anybody out there. Sure enough, the top two teams come out of the woods and into the clearing together, and about 15 seconds later, Peter rolls out of the woods with a full head of steam. 14:05 for his leg.
Peter and I touch hands (no batons in this race) and I'm off. I'm within sight distance of the top two teams, running together, both from Western Washington University. I didn't recognize either of the runners since most of the ones I know graduated last year. I knew they already ran some of their faster runners early so I wanted to close the gap quickly before the hills. The first mile is generally flat. A hard left after a slight uphill just past the mile finishes the flat section for most of the rest of the lap. At about 1.5 miles in you climb a substantial hill and then the loop just rolls pretty good along the whole back side of the loop. At about 2 miles you start dropping down until you hit that last little bit of flat around the 180 degree turn and the flat 400 to the finish.
Surprisingly, I caught both runners about 3/4 of a mile into the race. I was trying to decide whether to recover behind them for a bit, or push hard and be aggressive by them. When I closed the last 10 meters rather quickly, I decided my best bet was to continue to push. It turned out to work for me. I caught, passed, and pretty much dropped them by the mile mark, which I hit in 4:58. Man, it felt faster than that. But I finally settled in a bit and ran comfortably after that, gaining a lot of rhythm on the back stretch despite the hills. I continued to gap the field. With the win in the bag, it was just a matter of my lap time. I didn't think I would really threaten the 13 minute barrier, but its hard to do math on a non traditional race while running 5 minute mile pace. I crossed the line at 53:59 for the team, my split being about 13:05. Definitely a PR for me. Probably only the third or fourth fastest split, but I didn't have anybody to really race.
It was really great to win the race with the whole team. I didn't even meet Tom until after the race when we were talking to the local reporter. (Read the article here) Everybody on the team was pretty happy with the win and their times. And it was a banner day as far as weather was concerned. Sunny, dry, and about 65 at race start. Glorious. Thanks again to my teammates planned and unplanned. It was a great day! So cool to chase down teams for the win.
Sunday, I had my first 20 miler since the marathon planned. Most of it would be on the trails in preparation for the trail ultra at Baker Lake. I have to figure out the hydration stuff. I tested out a two bottle belt, which might have been the most annoying thing ever. I set my countdown timer to repeat so that I'd actually remember to drink. All in all, things went pretty well. I actually felt good. There might actually be something to the whole hydration thing. Its not that I never thought I needed it, it just wasn't necessary for my training runs. But after the run, and the next day when I felt just as good, I'm feeling much more confident for my 50k. As long as I don't make a big mistake, and run a little conservative early, I shouldn't have problems. I'll just have to accept whatever the clock says at the finish.
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