What a fun race! This was the first year of the Fila Relays in Zilker park and they were a great hit. The idea was to do a four-person relay, everyone doing a single 2.44 mile lap of the course, in approximately 100 degree weather. What could be better than that for an after-work adventure?

I met up with Thon and Mike before the race and we carpooled down, then walked a leisurely half mile or so from the parking lot to the starting line. The Gazelles were incredibly well represented, fielding approximately 30 teams out of 169 total participating. That meant that about 1 out of every 10 total people there was wearing a Gazelle shirt of some vintage. It was great. Rogue had a decent turn-out, but thanks to Gilbert’s campaigning we were by far the strongest force out there.

The start was a little muddled, with some very vague announcements, but probably because there weren’t that many runners (and because 80% of those who were there were pretty experienced racers) we figured out where we needed to be and how the handoff was going to work. Mike was our pace-setter, than I took second place, Maxton was in third, and Thon had the anchor leg to bring it all home. We were ready to run!

Well, not really. You see, this never felt like much of a race to any of us. It was hot, it was Friday, we were all tired from the week, and we just kept waiting around wondering if it was going to get exciting. My HR was only about 80, which is low for what should have been pre-race jitters. I had heard that the second mile had some hills in it, and was a little concerned about that, but it was just hard to take it seriously.

And they’re off! Eventually. After about 15 minutes of delay while they shooed some errant traffic off the course, Mike took off running and I went to go and do about a 10 minute warm-up. Normally for a short race like this I like to have 3 or 4 miles of slow running in, but this time I just joined Jay for a few strides. We were able to see the pack come by about 3 minutes into their run which was nice; Gilbert was out in front, naturally, with Mike and Jan (Jay’s team’s first runner) a couple of minutes behind him.

We were both in the transition zone nice and early, so we got to see Gilbert speed across the line in under 12 minutes (11:55) and hand off to John. Those guys were amazing, all running solid sub-twelves (that’s well under a 5:00 minute per mile pace) in 95 degree weather, in a race that didn’t really matter, with very little competition. I was expecting Mike to cross somewhere in the mid-seventeens, but he was across the line in 16:48 and I jumped into the race to keep the speed going. None of our transitions were particularly slick, but they were all reasonable.

The first mile of the course was almost painfully familiar; its where we normally run our 1200M repeats. My stretch goal, handed to me by our illustrious team Captain, was an even 7:00 pace; I tried to run “comfortably hard” like a tempo run and surprised myself a little as my watch beeped a 7:01 first mile. That’s right on target! I had passed a bunch of people during that mile, and was only passed myself once. I’d also had fun saying hello to folk, and had seen Muna pretty close behind me on a little out-and-back section which was nice - she never actually caught me, which was even nicer.

Mile two was harder for me. The first quarter or so was easy, but then there was a relatively steep hill and I just slowed way down to about a 9:45 pace while I climbed it. In the first mile I’d only been passed by one person, but in this section there were 3 people who blew right by me. There were a few more hills, then we turned onto Barton Springs road, where there was a long slow hill that I was preparing to grind up.

Luckily (?), I was passed by a Rogue gal just as the hill started, and I started to chase her down. I hung with her on the hill about 5 meters back, and then once we crested the hill instead of holding back to recover I started reeling her in, slowly but steadily, dropping my pace from about 8:30 at the crest to a solid 7:13 by the end of the flat. That’s when we got a nice long downhill run, and I’ve always been pleased with my downhill speed. I passed her at that point, steadily speeding up until I hit a measured 5:45 pace just after we passed Stratford. The course leveled out again and actually picked up 25 feet or so, but I hung on to a 6:30 pace on the flats and stayed well below 7:00 for the last half mile, with a final 100M kick down in the 5:45 range again (there was a slight downhill to help). I knew that the Rogue runner was close behind me because there were a lot of people cheering for her to pass “that Gazelle,” which really helped me to keep the speed up.

My heart rate was pretty constant, all things considered. I started out at a too-slow 124 which sped up to 170 after 30 seconds, hit 178 after another 90 seconds, then climbed very evenly from there to a peak of 193 at the finish. It was pretty constant for the first 1.25 miles until the hills, then jumped to 185 +/- for most of the remainder, only really climbing past that point for the last quarter mile when I was bringing it home.

Even with all that, I felt like I could have gone further. If I’d have just stuck to a 7:00 at the end, I could have finished out another 3/4 mile for a 5K, which would have broken 22 minutes. This, combined with the fact that I was able to hang with my rabbit on the long hill, tells me that a lot of my hill problems are mental and that I just wasn’t giving it enough oomph. My heart rate didn’t drop, but I wonder if I could have gone faster without it jumping. Hmm.

As it was I did a 7:01 for the first mile, a disappointing 7:49 for the second mile, and a 2:34 for the final .4 miles, which my Garmin shows as a 6:27 pace. My total time was 17:24 and my overall pace about a 7:15. I’m happy with the results in general, but disappointed that I didn’t pick up that middle section enough; I think that with a little more race practice I could have brought my overall pace down to that 7:00 target.

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