Fairhaven Runners Waterfront 15K Race Report

To quote Jessica Alexander, "Cool weather rocks!"

And to answer Steve Bezner's question about "Where's the cool front?" Steve, it is in the Pacific Northwest!

I toyed with the idea of blowing the Fairhaven Runners Waterfront 15K off to possibly drive to Billings, Montana to do their half at the Montana Marathon marathon on Sunday (or maybe even their marathon - yes, foolish, but I admit that I did think about it).

However, the 15K was a good distance for me to get back in the push to get my miles up and my times down again. The weather was going to be cool (it was around 10 to 11 degrees Celsius at the start) and I knew that I would see a very good friend of mine from Houston (she calls Seabrook home actually) -- Vera Balic, the assistant store manager at On The Run in Clear Lake.

She and her husband, Chris, were up for the weekend to visit her father, Boris Valic, and a brother. It is also good to be at an out-of-town race and to see someone you know. (This is the third race in Washington state this year that I've bumped into somebody from Houston. Small world.)

Vera introduced me to Boris, who has completed 26 marathons and is already signed up for #27 this coming January, before the race. We hit it off immediately. We were tossing around names and he wanted me to make sure that I said hello to Ino Cantu. I told Boris that I spoke with Ino at the Fired Up 5K in Sugar Land on Labor Day.

I also met the publisher of Northwest Runner magazine, Martin Rudow. Nice guy and he knows Lance, Lee and Loren with ITR/RTN.

The race? Well, I was very pleased with how I ran. I basically ran just very slightly off of my half marathon PR pace for 9.3 miles - and on a course that wasn't exactly "flat" as it was advertised. In fact, two inclines -- one right before mile 7 and a boat dock ramp which ran right up to the mile 9 marker -- shot my chances of being under 10 minutes per mile for the distance.

Mile 1 -- 9:50.08
Mile 2 -- 9:47.97 (19:38.05)

You'd think that I just didn't go out too fast (for the first time); however, the first few hundred yards were uphill and much of the first two miles climbed slowly.

Mile 3 -- 9:41.08 (29:19.13)

5K -- 1:12.32 (30:31.45)

What goes up must come down, right? Well, the only thing that slowed me down in mile 3 was that they put a water stop in the middle of a downhill that went right back into a short incline. Obviously, I think that the 5K marker was a little long.

Mile 4 -- 10:05.41 (39:24.54)
Mile 5 -- 10:05.77 (49:30.31)

I started to worry at the mile 4 that the "slip" was coming, but I felt good. My left hamstring was tight, but I felt good and during mile 5, I tried to remain as strong as I possibly could.

Mile 6 -- 9:52.57 (59:22.88)

All of these miles were indeed flat as advertised, but there was one 300-yard stretch of some bad gravel that was tough to plant my feet and drive.

10K -- 1:58.37 (1:01:21.25) (water stop just before the 10K marker)

I could have run through the water stop just to get a better split time, but taking on water is very important for me.

Mile 7/8 -- 20:47.24 (1:20:10.12)

I never saw the mile 7 marker at all. I assume that it was somewhere after we went through the hill where the same return water stop was and off on the trail. The trail was paved for a little bit and then turned into one with some gravel but nothing like what we faced in mile 6.

Mile 9 -- 10:10.16 (1:30:20.28)

Doing the math from the last two miles, I realized that I needed to start to push a little bit. I remembered the course ending near the finish line in gravel. So when I got to the mile 8 marker and the gravel being a slight downhill, I decided to do what I would call a "kick" for me - as I still felt good. But to my surprise, there was a sharp u-turn in the course at about 8.7 miles and then we went out around part of like a small park that ran by Bellingham Bay -- and then, I realized that a sub-10 minute mile would go right out the window. There was about a 100-yard boat dock ramp that ran right up to the 9-mile marker. I took it as hard as I could, but it hurt me a little bit in the last .3 of a mile.

Last .3 -- 3:33.79 (1:33:54.07)

The last .3 of a mile split is really slow. 10-minute per mile is 3 minutes. Walking for just a short bit after the mile marker hurt, but I didn't realize it was going to be that bad.

Gun Time (per watch) -- 1:34:59.92
Chip Time (per watch) -- 1:33:54.07 (less 1:05.85) - a 10:04/pace.

Vera was 8th of 453 women and covered the course in 1:07:34, a 7:17 pace.

Neither Boris or I had our chip times picked up. And they say that they are using, "Winning Time Chip Technology." (It wasn't Champion Chip.) Hmmm, yeah right!

Good on this event (in Duncan Larkin-style):

+ Great scenery (although I didn't stop to enjoy it)
+ Pretty good course except the gravel mentioned above
+ Perfect weather (even with the sun coming out)
+ Pre-race registration was easy (but I have to wonder if they didn't get my form down to record my chip time)
+ Nice t-shirt
+ Excellent post-race party (although the wind made it a little chilly)
+ Ample parking

Needs improvement:

+ Allow those who race-day register to be available for door prizes. (Sometimes you can't always plan ahead.) Not that I really care about this, but still.
+ No liquid electrolye replacement at any water stop (and since it advertised "with both sports drink and water".)
+ Water stops after mile markers - and not in the middle of a downhill. Maybe at the bottom, but not in the middle.

All in all. A pretty good day. There was a 10K in Olympia, Washington tonight at 6 p.m., but I'm not going to make it as I'm here at the Marriott Courtyard in Federal Way, Washington at 4:45 p.m. finishing this race report up. I may go down to Portland, Oregon in the morning and do the Komen Race For The Cure 5K there. (And there's a 5K somewhere in Seattle tomorrow at 1 p.m. Something will happen for sure!)

Big football weekend here as Washington was at home against Fresno State and Washington State was playing at Quest Field against Baylor. Tomorrow, it is the Arizona Cardinals at the Seattle Seahawks. Traffic was ridiculous heading down I-5 from Everett all the way to downtown Seattle.

Ya'll have a great weekend!