Race Report: Cherry Creek Sneak

Sneaking in a quick race report before bed (gotta rise early for a 6am swim)!

Picture of the Race T-Shirt (because a bunny chasing after a cherry with legs is never not funny)

The "Sneak" 5-miler was definitely not an "A" race.  I'd never done it before, so I just decided to sign up (a) for fun and (b) to do a self-assessment for the BolderBoulder.  That said, I felt really nervous beforehand.  I'm just not a big fan of running in "Zone 3" (5k/10k pace) and I hate knowing that I'll have to spend almost an hour running at an uncomfortable pace.

My coaches have been talking a lot about goals lately: process goals, performance goals, and outcome goals.  Process goals relate to the process of training (e.g., I'll go for a short jog every time I get off the bike so my legs get used to that transition), performance goals relate to your individual performance (I'll maintain x pace during this run), and outcome goals relate to factors that you usually can't control (I'll win my age group).  A performance goal I've set is to negative-split all my running races.  This worked well for me in Moab and I think it is a good strategy for me given how long it takes me to warm-up.

My goal for the BolderBoulder is to finish under an hour.  (The last time I ran, my time was 1:00:17 - so frustrating!)  I will need to average 9:39/mi for a time of 59:59.  In order to practice for this goal, the strategy I decided on for the Sneak was to hover around 9:45/mi for the first 3 miles, and then punch it up to a 9:25-9:30/mi for the last two. 

The Cherry Creek Sneak was a pretty fun course.  Flat, lots of spectators, people in costumes, and bands playing at every mile.  It is a very crowded start, however, and during the first mile, I understood why it is called the "Sneak."  I did a lot of sneakin' - around other runners, up on to the median, over to the other side of the road.  It was difficult to run fast enough to keep a 9:45 pace in this atmosphere, so I ended up doing a bit of an interval work-out to play catch up every time I had extra space to run. 

My motto for the first half (well, 3/5ths) was "hold back" and for the second part, "let go."  I spent a lot of time checking my Garmin during the first three miles to make sure I was keeping the right pace.  But once I got finished mile 3, I just sped up without caring as much about my precise pace.  I caught my watch in the 8s a lot (always exciting!) and a few times in the 7s.

The finish line is a bit of a tease.  You turn up First Avenue heading towards the mall with the big FINISH LINE sign in plain view, but then they make you turn and run about 0.75 miles more.  Once you do get to the finish for real, you turn a corner, and it's right there.  My coach warned me about this sudden finish and advised me to start my finish line surge when I hit Milwaukee Street.  I didn't realize that I would pass Milwaukee twice in the final zig-zag, so I sped up a little too early.  I'll know better for next year. :)

My final time was 47:35, 9:31/mi pace, which I was pretty pleased with!  The BolderBoulder is a lot hillier, but I think this puts me in good shape to break the hour barrier on Memorial Day.

I'm registered for a lot of races this month - I'm calling it May Madness.  It probably wasn't the best idea since I'm very susceptible to race burn-out, but I'm going to do my best to just think of them as training exercises.

Here is what's in store for this Month:

May 1 - Cherry Creek Sneak
May 7 - Barking Dog Duathlon Walk for MS
May 14 - Sean May Memorial Run (9 mile option)
May 22 - Summer Open Triathlon in Longmont (sprint distance)
May 30 - BolderBoulder 10k

Happy May!