Mercedes Race Report

Mercedes has come and gone, and I'm pleased with my results.  My ideal goal was 1:40, and my I'll-be-satisfied-with-it goal was 1:45.  I came across, unofficially, at 1:40:20, which is a personal record.  If it weren't for navigating through the crowd the first mile I think I could have beaten my goal, but I guess it wasn't meant to be.  No matter, there will be other races.

What I'm most happy about is my pacing.  Throwing out the first mile, I did what I wanted to do for the most part.  I went out a little fast miles 2-5, but am thrilled I was able to keep my splits under 8:00/mi. from miles 6-10.  If I have anything to complain about - which I don't - it would be that I wasn't able to pick it up those last couple of miles.  Around mile 11 I hit a wall and struggled to push it harder to the finish.  Anyway, here are my splits.

Time         Dist      Split    Split Dist    Split Pace
0:08:20     1.00     8:20    1.00           8:20
0:15:46     2.00     7:24    1.00           7:24
0:23:06     3.00     7:21    1.00           7:24
0:30:31     4.00     7:24    1.00           7:24
0:38:14     5.00     7:43    1.00           7:44
0:45:54     6.00     7:39    1.00           7:38
0:53:38     7.00     7:44    1.00           7:45
1:01:30     8.00     7:51    1.00           7:51
1:08:54     9.00     7:24    1.00           7:25
1:16:41     9.99     7:47    1.00           7:48
1:24:23    10.99    7:42    1.00           7:43
1:32:08    11.99    7:45    1.00           7:46
1:40:00    12.99    7:51    1.00           7:51
1:40:20    13.04    0:20    0.05           7:28

As I sit here writing this I just checked and the official results are up.  My chip time was 1:40:17, and I finished 36th in my age division, 255th overall.  As James would say, welcome to the Masters!  Yes, this was my first race as a 40-year-old. :)  On a positive note, I was the first person from Prattville aged 40-44 to cross the finish line!

Finally, here are some of my thoughts on the race.  I thought it was fairly well organized.  It started on time, which is important to me, and I had no problems navigating the course.  I enjoyed a couple of the live music acts on the course, but would like to have seen more for an event like this one.  The schwag bag was ok, but I didn't care for how they doled out the t-shirts.  For $55 they should just give it to you up front, instead of handing them out only to "finishers."  And then there's the million-dollar question: would I run it again?  As long as there are other races I haven't yet attended I probably won't.  While nothing about it was bad, there wasn't anything about it that really stood out.

Lastly, a personal note.  I tweeted after the race that it was bittersweet.  This was because my training partner, Kym, wasn't able to finish when an infection she'd been battling all week caught up with her.   It was truly heartbreaking to learn of what happened, because for the past 12 weeks I witnessed how much time and effort she put in.  I've not met many people as dedicated as she is, and to see her "bad day" take place on "race day" was, for lack of a better word, unfair.  If I know Kym though, she will be back with a vengeance, chasing down her goal.  Setbacks be damned.