Saturday, December 13, 2008

2008 Cheese and Sauerkraut 10 Miler

2008 Cranberry Cheese and Sauerkraut Results

This is a prediction race where the closest predictor wins cheese and the worst wins sauerkraut. Also, the race is run without wearing watches. The temperature was about 45F but it was terribly windy today.

This year I decided to predict closer to what I actually thought I could run in ideal conditions even though it was a bit windy. Dan and I ran 3.6 miles as a warm up and the wind wasn't too bad for where we had to run on the course. Last year I ran this race in 1:06:46 so decided to predict 1:04:30 since based on my last race which was a 10k, the running calculator was saying about 1:04. I didn't taper for this so gave myself an extra 30 seconds.

I took off at what seemed like a very fast pace and had a pretty big lead. With no watch to pace myself who knows what ridiculous pace I ran. At the road where we run out and turn around to run back before we get on the trail, I calculated the first guy behind me was about 42 sec. By the time I finished the first loop, he looked closer. They did not get our 5 mile splits this year so I had no idea how I was doing.

I tried to keep the pace steady. On the second loop after the turn around he passed me. I let him go ahead since we had about 2 miles to go and he was obviously running faster than me to catch me. He had removed his shirt and it was feeling warm. I had considered removing my windbreaker after the first loop, but the wind on the last part convinced me to leave it on. I could see a few others after the second turn around. Tony Rigdon had also removed his shirt. With the wind behind us at some points, I guess it was pretty hot.

I could the guy that passed me him all the way to the end. I finished in 1:04:50, 48 seconds behind Sam, age 16, the winner. I knew he was young, but wouldn't have guessed that young. He had predicted he would run it in 1:13:21 and ended up being the second worst predictor. My prediction was 20 seconds off which was the 3rd closest. One guy predicted exactly. My time was a 1:56 faster than last year's ten miler on the same course. Pace was 6:29 per mile and I think I could run it just a little faster if I could have paced better at the beginning. I am really surprised that I broke another PR by so much. I normally expect if I am going to have a PR it is only going to be a few seconds, not 2 minutes. I'll take it though. We had 33 runners that completed the course which is a pretty good turnout for this race.

Hugh finished the race about a minute faster than last year, but didn't break his Minneapolis 10 mile PR, but I'd think we both ran a good race without having a taper.

Last year we brought sauerkraut brownies. This year someone else brought a sauerkraut cake and we brought Velveeta Fudge which was actually quite good. Dan and I ran another 3.6 mi loop after we finished. It had warmed up a little, but didn't feel like it since it was windier.