2020 Shiver By The River 10K
Rare Road Race
Having gotten a good 5K under my belt in December, the next step was a 10K to get a better evaluation on my stamina. The Shiver By the River series in Reading was about my only option, but January weather is always a potential issue. It was less than a week until race day before the weather forecast allowed me to be comfortable with the forecast. Unfortunately there were other factors. On Thursday I tripped and fell trying to avoid a loose dog charging me. Aside from a little soreness where I contacted the ground, my concern was soreness by my big toe joint where it felt like I had strained a tendon. I kept my runs on Friday and Saturday short, testing how much it might bother me running. There was no obvious issues even running some light strides. The reduced mileage as I cut short Thursday's run and kept Friday's shorter than my schedule called for, created an unintended taper. I had originally planned to train through this race. For whatever reason I still felt tight and unable to run relaxed on Saturday's runs despite including 4-5 gradually increasing strides. As a result I wasn't expecting a great race, though my M70 10K PB (personal best) was soft enough that I had no doubts I would beat it handily.
Sunday would have been perfect racing weather for me except for the wind. There were lots of wind advisories on the turnpike signs as I drove to the race. My hopes were that there would be enough obstacles on the course to block the wind. I had no idea what the course would be like. I was under the impression that it was on a groomed trail, but that proved to be wrong as we raced through a local neighborhood adjacent to the park. The 5K would run one loop, the 10K two. The second challenge was the start of each lap including a long hill. That wasn't a problem the first time, but after 5K of rolling hills including another long one in mile 3, to be faced again in mile 6, it was more than I willing to run. I thought it would be better to walk a portion knowing what I had to face on the second loop. I picked up the pace when I resumed running at the top, enough that I made up most of the time I lost in walking. I was still averaging sub-11:00 miles when I reached 5 miles with a new M70 PB of 54:39. Shortly after that was the long hill from mile 3 again. Once again I thought it more prudent to walk portions, especially knowing that the finish, even though downhill, would be into a strong wind. There were a couple runners slightly ahead of me at this point, but with the effort I could exert I couldn't make any headway to catching them. I had no kick whatsoever barely able to maintain my pace to the finish in 1:08:27 by my watch. Gun time was 1:08:48 but it wasn't chipped timed so I delayed starting my watch until actually crossing the starting line.
I slowly walked around for several minutes before even thinking about a cool down jog. I shuffled roughly a tenth of a mile over to the building for post race refreshments. That was the extent of my cool down. I checked on my time and place, 94 of about 105 and I think first in my age group. There were no awards for individual races, only for the series with a minimum of three races required.
While I'm quite pleased with the race results, I was completely wiped out all afternoon and napped for most of it. I've revised my training schedule to allow the entire week for recovery and skip the normal Wednesday interval workout. With no races in February particularly enticing that aren't sold out, the next challenge will be a return to 12-hours at Delano Park on March 7.
