SUNDAY, AUGUST 28, 2016

Today's Annapolis 10 Mile Race was supposed to be a "catered training run" to help prepare me to run faster miles in the hilly Baltimore Marathon in October.

I almost nailed my 9:20 target pace, running 9:21 per mile, which for a full marathon would give me a Boston Marathon qualifying result. (I need to beat 4 hours and 10 minutes; 9:21 pace yields 4 hours and 5 minutes.) But beyond that, as you can see by the photo of the big jug I was given at the awards ceremony, the race far exceeded my expectations!

Like some of the other 3,600 runners, I warmed up, running 1.5 miles from my nearby house and around the Navy-Marine Corps Stadium parking area, ending with 4 faster 100-meter strides.

After photos with my Naptown Running Buddies, I entered the starting pen and worked up to just behind the 1 hour 30 minutes pacers (9 minutes a mile), figuring in the flatter early going I would try to keep them in view to help me establish a pace that would bank some time that I would surely lose in the upcoming hills. That's exactly how it happened!

The start was downhill from the stadium, past the commemorative Blue Angels jet (an F/A-18 Hornet), and then a loop on the roads around the stadium. I kept the 1:30 sign in sight while I ran with Annapolis Running Shop co-owner Ryan Seth. The first mile was 8:50 and we soon passed the pace group.

The course turned off of Farragut Avenue: We ran straight toward the colonial state capitol building, veered right and flew down the bricks of Main Street to City Dock. My time for the second mile was 8:50 and I was feeling loose and not heavy legged as I have felt most of the time over that past three months of marathon training.

We took a left and at Naval Academy took another left, our first mildly uphill segment, along St. John's College. My mile 3 time was 8:59. Soon we turned right and were faced with the Naval Academy Bridge across the Severn River. Game on!

I powered up the bridge I had run so many times in training this summer - but bigger and stronger Ryan opened a gap on me. My 4 mile time - at about the top of the bridge - was 9:12, faster than I had run that segment in training. On the downhill side I closed the gap with Ryan, striding out as I had learned to going down Boston's hills.

After the bridge we turned into shaded but hilly residential streets. After a promising start in this section (mile 5 was 9:18) my flatland heritage began to show and I slowed, going over my target pace. Ryan began to pull ahead of me. I pushed along at my reduced pace: mile 6 and mile 7 were both 9:48. We eventually executed an out-and-back segment before the 7 mile mark, near the end of the residential section, and ran down to the highway leading back to the bridge.

I felt a bit rejuvenated after the slower miles and picked it up a little as the bridge and the gorgeous vista of the river and the Academy came into view. Mile 8 was 9:33. Then I pushed up and over the bridge - seemingly less of a challenge than running it the other direction - for a 9:44 mile 9. I continued pushing for the final mile back to the finish alongside the stadium, for a 9:32 mile 10 and a 1:34:34 overall finish time.

What I saw on my watch pleased me because I had executed my race plan almost flawlessly. But what I saw posted in the finishing results really surprised me. No place in my race strategy was there any thought of a podium finish! This was training, not all-out racing.

As you might imagine, I had a broad smile on my face when presented with the jug for finishing second in my old guy 65-69 age group. I smiled even more when a new friend noted, "You've just collected your first racing prize in Annapolis!"

P.S. Later it was determined that the initial scoring had been messed up. I was actually 4th out of 52, which was still terrific. (Eric Melby, this jug belongs to you!)