Smelt Run 10K Race Report

For not having done anything since Sunday at the AT&T Austin Marathon, today's effort at the 10th annual Smelt Run 10K in La Conner, Washington was a good one. I finished in 1:01:34.

Like I said, not bad. I'll take it.

For me, it was great weather - even with the winds and a very slight rain. In fact, as I drove south on Interstate 5 from Vancouver towards Seattle, I encountered a bit of a snow storm north of Bellingham.

As far as my finishing time goes, I'm not where I'm capable of being right now (as I have two legitimate 10Ks in the 58s, but that is completely in my control.)

Fact: I need to be running more than what I am, but I'm not going to get down about it.
Fact, part 2: Then again, yikes, I just saw the Austin Marathon pictures ... I really need to be running more.

My goals for today's race were:

1.) to not get myself hurt for running so hard so quickly after not having done anything except brisk walks to and from work since Sunday,
2.) try to work on even pacing (running steady and strong) and
3.) once I got started, try to maintain a good, steady and quick cadence (not a 180-step-per minute, but a steady, solid 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 or 1-to-10.)

Here's the certified course map, but I have a little bit of a rant.

La Conner, Washington is a nice, little town. (By the way, I wondered what "smelt" was and the Chamber's web site says that it is a type of "tiny silver fish.") The downtown area reminded me a little bit of Old Town Spring, but with a lot of water nearby to be able to go fishing. The people that I talked to were extremely nice.

However, Wikipedia reports that the 2006 census states that La Conner had 839 people living there. When we were in the middle of mile 2, one of the volunteers, who was manning an intersection said something about "going to the sidewalk." I'm thinking, "Yeah right," and "spend a little extra money to get the permit and approval and shut the street completely down for 20-30 minutes." So I stayed on the left, ran against the traffic (instead of with and risking getting hit by a car) before turning right and kept plugging to mile 2.

Mile 1 -- 9:31.19
I specifically tried not to go full speed (considering goal #2) and get sucked into the crowd and watch a ton of people pass me later in the race.

Mile 2 -- 9:23.27 (18:54.46)
During this mile, I faced the situation on the street as I mentioned above; however, I didn't feel as if I got any faster. I immediately suspected the mile to be short, since I typically slow down by 15-25 seconds, but the course map showed it to be about where it should be.

Mile 3 -- 10:31.45 (29:25.91)
In turn, this mile could have been long although the first four-tenths of a mile had a good stiff cross wind that turned into a head wind for the next three to four tenths. I was surprised by a differential of over a minute, but I averaged the two it was still under 10 minutes a mile.

Mile 4/5 -- 19:42.94 (49:08.85)
The course did about a three-mile out-and-back outside of town on country roads. I drove the course before hand and one of the things that I worried about -- not knowing if the course was certified or not - is whether or not they set the turnaround cone in the right place. They did, bu the mile 4 marker on the return trip had either blown away or had been picked up. Therefore, both miles were together.

Last 1.2 -- 12:25.86 (61:34.71)
Again, I didn't feel as if I was slowing down even though I had the wind at my back for much of the sixth mile. Plus, I didn't see the mile 6 marker on the right hand side of the street in the start of the final homestretch. Oh well.

Good run. Had fun, even by myself. Stopped in at Barnes & Noble in Bellingham before getting a late breakfast / early lunch at an IHOP that I normally stop in.

I'm thinking about forgoing my trip to Summerland tomorrow and trying to simply run long here in Vancouver. Just never know!

Congratulations to all who ran the ConocoPhillips Rodeo Run today in downtown Houston!