The Numbers
Race Day: Sunday, December 15, 2019
Bib: 101. Order: Victor Yee, Jack Lamb, Matt Chan, Chris Mintzias.
Team Name: LMJS FOUR CALLING DUCKS
Overall: 31/256. Total Time. 01:49:15 (6:12 min/mile).
Open Men: 21/63. Open because Jack is under 30 (otherwise we would’ve been in the Sub-Masters 30+ category). In the Sub-Masters category, we would’ve been 2/10!
Results URL: https://results.rmraces.live/west-valley-tc/events/2019/christmas-relays/search?SelectedDivisionName=OPEN+MEN&page=1&SearchGender=&SearchAgeGroup=
Notes
Felt and executed this race much better than last year.
Rough, congested start (for some reason, I always feel a little intimidated from actually toeing the line at larger races like this), but broke free about 0.15 miles in. Hung behind Brian and Mike (some of the fastest guys on the 50’s team) for another mile while getting a better feel of what my body could do today. Then, around mile 1.2-ish, finally decided that I could probably hang on to a sub-6 average today, and passed both of them.
Running this loop while cheering on friends at the Ruth Anderson 50M/100K a couple months ago definitely helped (with familiarizing myself with this course). But the ground can feel so different when you’re running as fast as you can. Small inclines feel so much more difficult, small drops feel so much faster. So the course today felt a lot more rolling than I remembered — basically causing me to swish-swash between low 5’s to low 6’s.
Since I had a problem right after 3.1 miles last year, I expected to have similar trouble after 5K this year. But to my surprise, I didn’t really have too much of a problem, and while the final, gradual hill still felt hard, I still felt like I was turning in a good effort — I was even held on then passed a few people (and didn’t get passed) over the past mile, too!
Only realized how close I was to breaking 26 at the end, though… 😬
Great turnout by the team (I think we fielded over 8 separate 4-person teams this year!?), and great performances by Jack, Matt, and Chris!!!
I did accidentally start my watch too early, so during the race itself, I kept thinking that I was slower than I actually was, which kinda confused me a bit at the beginning. (I’ve trimmed the few seconds of standing still from this upload.)
