GW Parkway Classic: 10 Mile Success!

Hi guys. I know the blog has been quiet lately but that is all about to take a turn for the better as I am starting to re-shift my focus toward poker. I have taken some slow but significant steps in my move from Zero to Hero. The first one was to start to get back to a more normal existence (+1 baby obviously). I got fat and happy (“fat and weak what a disgrace, guess the champ got to lazy”) enjoying my new daughter. I have now gotten my fitness back on the right track and completed one of my major unfinished life goals to run 10 miles.

On Sunday I set an unofficial goal to run 11:00 minute miles and try to finish in 1h 50min.

The race started at Mt. Vernon and headed up the GW Parkway to end in Old Town, Alexandria. I usually don’t have any trouble sleeping but I was jacked up the night before the race. The website said parking in Old Town would fill fast and to be parked by 5:30 if we expected to get a space anywhere near where the bus pickup. I decided to be in Old Town by 5am to get a space, hit Starbucks for come coffee and get on the bus by 6:15am. This meant getting up by 4am. At 8:30pm I was in bed. By 11pm I was awake and desperate to go to sleep. I knew I was screwed when my wife came upstairs and so I went downstairs, pounded a beer, and went back up to sleep. By midnight I was asleep and by 4am I was in hell. Not a great start.

I got to Old Town and from 5am to 7am I felt great as I was pretty jacked up on adrenalin. My friend Brandon met me at the Starbucks and we grabbed some coffee and talked a bit about the race. We headed to the bus and loaded up just as it started to rain. The weather was shaky as it was supposed to rain on and off throughout the whole day. It poured as the bus drove us to the start line at Mt Vernon and the driver went interminably slow which began to freak me out as we were driving and I was about to run the opposite direction. Just as the bus pulled in the rain was beginning to let up and in about 5 minutes it had stopped completely. Everything was cool and humid but amazingly, it never rained again during the run.

We got warmed up, I dropped my bag off to be taken to the end of the race, and pounded a power gel. People were milling around and lining up so we got in line and waited for about 30 minutes. The race started but it took a few minutes for the crowd in front of us to get moving. It’s a little frustrating to go to the back of the pack planning on running slow and then to have to dodge slow runners left and right when you are trying to get your pace.
By the time I got to the mile one split the time was 14min into the race. I was shocked because an 11min mile for me is pretty easy. It looked like the lack of sleep was already catching up with me. I picked up the pace and by mile 2 I was really hurting but I had caught up to about 24min and I kept pushing to mile 3. Mile three I crossed directly at 33min and I was finally on my 11 minute pace. By mile 4 I crossed at 44 minutes and it was the easiest mile yet. I was perplexed but started thinking about it and realized that there was a simple explanation. We took several minutes to cross the start line as the crowd in front of us was huge. My real start time was several minutes after the time being broadcast. I had run way too fast the first and second mile and at mile 4 was still well ahead of an 11min mile pace!

I throttled back since I was really concerned with my fast start that I would finish the race at all. My longest run to that point had been 9 miles and it was challenging. However as the miles ticked by my confidence grew. Mile 9 was pretty easy as I could see old town in front of me and Mile 10 I jacked up my pace to the end.

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I crossed at 1h 46min which was about a 10min36sec average mile. My wife and friends were there to cheer me on at the finish. Afterward I went to brunch, drank a bloody mary, ate two breakfasts, and celebrated in old town. It was a big item to cross of my bucket list and I was thrilled to finally get it done.

Here I am very close to crossing the finish line.

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