On sunday I did the Super Bowl 10k, put on by the Santa Cruz Track Club, which I won last year and find to be a good event to test where my fitness is at and blow out the first race effort of the year. I found a couple of super speedsters before the event, my Buddy Julian as well as Aaron Jakobson the running coach for UCSC XC and I knew these guys had been putting down some monster speed at the track so I looked for them from the start. Stefano Profumo was also in the field and I know he is capable of running well under my best times at any distance.
From the gun the pace was quick, Julian and Aaron went straight to the front with Stefano hot on their heals. They were running fast and I was just trying to keep smooth to stay with them without blowing my legs out...it is always hard to tell early on if you are going to be able to hold a pace and we blew through the first mile at 5:20. After that we settled in a little and they held a really strong tempo for the next two miles 5:27 & 5:33.
At the turn around we spread out a little and Aaron really started to push the pace...we went torough mile four in 5:20 again and that cracked Stefano and Julian a little. I told Aaron there was a gap and we rolled together for the next mile to consolidate the lead. Mile 5 was a solid 5:30 and we started playing a little cat and mouse, trading surges on all the small risers. With about 1k to go Aaron started turning the screws and ramping up the pace little by little. We finally topped out at about 400 meters to go and I surged hard to see if that was all he could take but he didn't fade. I popped and with him coming back up I told him to go for it and that he had done a great job. With the fade in the last 200m I finished about 5 seconds behind in second place but in a spectacular 10k time for me 34:02...which I think is my PR.
It was so awesome running with such a strong and steady group of guys and I had a great time. There were far fewer people at the event this year and so there was a lot of food left over so I loaded up the car and stopped by the Homeless Services Center, dropping off 10 doezen bananas and 15 dozen bagels! Now all we need is for the 49ers to win the Super bowl and this is going to have been a fucking fantastic day!
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I may have had a lot of coffee...
Swim 14,800 yds
Bike 8 hrs
Run 30 mi
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