I raced Bridge to Bridge Run 12km distance once before, in 2005. I think the sponsor changed since then and the results from that year seem to have disappeared. [I did stumble across Athlinks.com while I searched for the records. It seems to be a (community driven) Big Brother meets MySpace for athletes.] My goal for 2008 was to finish under 50 minutes - an average of about 6:40 minutes/mile. This was probably a little ambitious given my complete lack of training since Sentinel and my inexperience with pure run-races...
After some light rain on Friday and Saturday, race day dawned with beautiful blue skies. Some of our group found a comfortable spot near the start line among the 6-7 mins/mile runners and within sight of the Elites. A glance at my Garmin Forerunner 405 about a half mile in indicated our pace was below 6 mins/mile - rather ambitious with about 7 race miles remaining...I mentioned this to one of my buddies but headphones, focus, Roctane and the sight of the leaders not far ahead kept him charging so I tried to follow. :-)
The course separated 7km runners from the 12km field just before mile 4. My speedy friend decided (due a grueling prior race schedule and nagging injuries) that discretion was the better part of valor - he chose the 7km route and finished third in his age group! I gritted my teeth and stuck with the 12km. As the course meandered closer to the shoreline and the (admittedly light) headwind become more apparent, my pace declined steadily - from an average below 6:20 mins/mile to 6:46 mins/mile by the finish...i.e. way above 7 mins/mile for much of the latter half of the race...As we progressed along the bay and the sun continued its ascent so did temperatures - I was glad for my hat.
My official finish time was 50:28. Maybe I'll break 50 minutes in 2009 and I can dream of an 70%+ Age Graded finish. :P
Results. Photos. My bib number was 107.
Future thoughts: While the Garmin was useful for monitoring my pace, the heart rate monitor was not...this time...
