Weekly Total: 117 Miles in 13 runs. Another solid week. A bit less volume with a couple light days before the Ruta de Iglesias 10k, but still a good amount and good 20+ mile long run on Sunday. Two very good workouts between Wednesday’s efforts and Saturday’s race. Lots to learn from the race (19th place 34’49), but pretty pleased overall. Looking forward to the half marathon next weekend, which I feel like I’m in better shape for right now anyways.

Lunes, 26 Agosto, 2013 – 10:30am: Easy, slow run to the park. Legs quite sore from yesterday’s big effort. Total run 10M+ in 80’.

5:30pm: Another easy, slow recovery run to the park. Total run 8M in 60’.

Martes, 27 Agosto, 2013 – 9am: Easy run to the park and 2 laps (14km). Felt okay, a bit tired, so took it very easy. Total run 11M+, no time.

3pm: Ran to the race course and then ran most of it. Yikes! A very challenging first 5km. Starts near Parque el Ejido and then goes UP into the old town. A couple miles of lots of turns and a few VERY steep ascents and descents. Going to be tough to hang on in that first 5km. Also ran through a pretty large protest – lots of riot police and german sheopards and angry people. I’m guessing about the Yasuni…

Anyways, the second half is much easier and much faster. It’s on the route that I run every day from Ejido up Amazonas to la Carolina and then ends on the side of the park. So, that’ll be fast if I can just survive the first half. I’m guessing it’s going to be tough to just stick with the pack for the first 5km of the race, as people will try to separate themselves with all the short, steep climbs and turns. We’ll see. It’ll be tough for sure.

Total run 9M+ in 69’.

Miercoles, 28 Agosto, 2013 – 10:30am: Light workout planned for this morning. Warmed up to the park long (5M) and then did drills and strides. Plan was to do 1600m hard and then 3-5 sets of (1000m, short rest, 200m hard). 1600m was hard, as planned. Split 2’28/2’24 for 4’52, a big PR for this altitude (9300ft). First sub-5 this high, actually.

Jogged back, but legs were super dead after that. Did one set of 1000-200 in 3’16/32.x and decided to just call the workout after that because legs were just too tired. Probably a combination of that 1600m being harder than I expected and a lot of volume in the last 2 weeks, especially with that very strong long run on Sunday. Cooled down home.

Total run 11M.

5:30pm: Day off from work today, so took a nice long nap in the afternoon. Woke up feeling much better and decided to do some light top end speed work to compliment the morning. Jogged up to Ichimbia and did full drills and a couple strides. I ran 5x200m with a full, full recovery – which can be a long time up here – like over 5 minutes between reps!! Running 200s at altitude is interesting, because they actually feel similar to running at sea level, but the recovery is so much slower.

I ran 5x and didn’t look at my watch for the rest, just went when I felt ready (which ended up ranging from 2’30 to 5’40). They were all quite fast though (28.7 avg) and felt decent. Very good effort, but not super draining.

Jogged back home easy afterward. Total 5M+, no time.

Splits:
28.9
2’26 jog
28.9
3’10 jog
29.5
5’04 jog
27.9
5’40 jog
28.4

Jueves, 29 Agosto, 2013 – 9:30am: Easy run up Eloy Alfaro to run to the TVentas to pick up my race number for Ruta de Iglesias on Saturday. No problem getting the number. I am elite bib#10, which is pretty sweet. Hopefully, I can prove my merit. Grabbed my packet and ran back. Total run 10M+ in 79’.

PM: Off, planned. Just push-ups and rest.

Viernes, 30 Agosto, 2013 – 12:30pm: Had to work breakfast, so couldn’t run until 12:30. Ran down to El Ejido and then up Bogota to run on the race course. Ran the first 6km or so through the old town and yikes is it hard… So super hilly, going to be tough. Total run 6M, no time.

5:30pm: New shoes, haircut. Feeling really good. Ready to go. Ran pretty quick because I was amped. Total run 4M+, no time.

Sabado, 31 Agosto, 2013 – 9:30am: Slept well and woke up late. Did a very easy short race-day shakeout around la alameda. Total run 2M+, NT.

3pm: Stiff so took a little jog into town to buy a snack, 1M, NT.

7:10pm: Left the house at 7:10 (50 minutes to gun) and jogged over to the start area in my warmups and trainers. Got there with plenty of time and found the buses which were heading to the finish line. They were leaving at 7:30, so jogged a bit and then changed into my racing shoes and sent my warmups and trainers on the bus, hoping they’d make it.

The start area was already super congested as there were thousands of people just hanging around in the back corrals, so I made my way out of there and went to a side street for some peace and quiet to finish my warm up, do some drills, and strides. It was pretty fun jogging around, because people would kind of do a double take when they saw a gringo with bib #10 – “who IS that kid??”

I had a bit of stomach distress, but I’m assuming it was just nerves. Never noticed it while running. I did a few strides and then I finally headed up to the elite corral. I had a bit of water – some in my mouth and some on my head to cool off a bit. (Quick side note –South American races are the only places where I’ve seen this, but they give out water in sealed plastic pouches. Imagine a ziplock bag but sealed on all four sides. You’re then supposed to bite off a corner and squirt it into your mouth. This is way easier to control and way more effective, especially while running). Anyways, the weather was quite good, in the 50s, with a fair amount of wind, but not too hot and not too cold.

I tried to push my way to the very front, but was boxed in a bit on the line. I was a little confused because looking at the people who were in the very front, front of the race, they weren’t the #1-20 bibs that I expected to see. In fact, I only saw one other bib under 20 in that front row. A bit weird, I thought.

They did a countdown start and then we were off. I got out well and quickly ran into the back of some clown who had sprinted out in front of me. Then, I found something odd beginning to happen. I found myself at the front of the race. I looked around me and no one wanted to go around or go by. I didn’t think I was running super fast, so I was really just confused. Did the elites just not show up or something?

And so I hung out at the front of the race for about 400m until a dude in an Ecuador singlet went zooming by. He was going quite fast and the first km is one long continuous climb, and I knew I could do a lot of damage to myself if I went out too fast, so I hung back. Still, I was at the front of a chase pack and, looking around, no one seemed to want to move. I felt super relaxed, though, so I just hung there and tried to keep it cool.

That first km was incredibly tough. I should mention that this race is in Quito, Ecuador, so the starting elevation is about 9,300 ft above sea level. The hill climbs about 200 ft in that first kilometer, up to the lovely Basilica, and at that altitude, even someone well acclimatized really feels it.

As we passed the basilica and crested that first massive hill, I heard a stampede behind me, and suddenly a huge pack of guys swarmed me and went flying by and down the hill. I reacted instinctively to the move and latched on to the pack of about 25 guys and we FLEW down the other side of that hill into the heart of Colonial Quito. Once I realized what was going on, I was a bit worried that they knew how to run this race better than I did and that I may have inadvertently done some damage on that first big climb, but I tried to just hang with them, as I knew this was the start of the real race.

This downhill section is nearly as difficult as the uphill climb before it, because the road is so steep that it’s nearly impossible to really use it to your advantage. It’s not like running fast down a gradual descent, it’s more like trying to sprint down a steep hiking trail. Now, imagine that in a tight pack of 25 sweaty Ecuadorian guys on cobble-stones, and that’s kind of what it was like. I remember thinking, “If I were to trip and fall right now, it would really hurt.” Finally, we reached the bottom and turned up onto Manabi for what is probably the steepest ascent of the race (though much shorter than the first climb).

This is where the pack began to separate, and I found myself letting a lot of guys split off in front of me. I knew that this first half of the race was significantly harder than the second, and so I wanted to play it more conservative and try to work the second half and pick guys off. I was probably in about 30th as we came to the first split that I saw which was 2km in about 7’00. This was a lot slower than I had planned on going, but given the nature of the course, in retrospect, the splits make sense.

We wound our way through the old town for the next 3km, sprinting down and grinding up the old cobbled streets, past 600 year old monestaries and churches, though plazas, and by the presidential palace. Finally, we grind our way up the last hill on Montufár up to the Plaza San Blas and we’re out of Old Town.

From here, the race follows the route that I run pretty much every day. From Parque Alameda to El Ejido and then on Rio Amazonas all the way to La Carolina. We had a nice gradual downhill between the parks and I started to feel good and recovered from the brutal first half of the race. I had passed 5km in about 17’50 – way slower than I’d thought I would run, but I had already passed about 5 guys and was in about 25th place. I knew I could run a big negative split and I just hoped there would be a bunch of guys in front of me who had gone out hard and would come back.

As we got to Amazonas, I was still moving up, but the race was already spread thin and it took a ton of concentration to work up from guy to guy. I had passed a few guys but had lost track of exactly where I was. The flood of blown-up guys falling back never materialized, as I guess most f the other elites had the same idea (run the first half conservatively and then pick it up). At 8km (28’10), I found myself with two Ecuadorians and heard someone on the side shout something about 20th place. I pushed hard and tried to accelerate, but neither of these guys would drop.

Sidenote: one of the guys had a GIR jersey on, which is basically the Ecuadorian SWAT team. Pretty badass.

With about 1000m to go, I made a huge bid and put about 5-10m on them, but I couldn’t hold it. My legs didn’t have it to go that hard from that far out, and within 300m, they caught back up. I tucked back in behind them and decided to leave it to the last 200m, when I knew (or hoped) I would have enough to finish it.

Weirdly, with about 500m to go, the third guy (not the GIR guy), pulled up, clutching his hamstring and jogged off the course. And so it was me and the GIR man. At that point, he used the distraction to put a small surge on and put a few meters on me. I was honestly really tired and feeling terrible right then and I was sure I was finished. I just about gave up.

But then, I thought about how much better it would be to be in the top 20 instead of 21st, and I looked ahead and saw the finish line all lit up and I looked at the GIR guy and I thought, “you know what, you can still catch that guy.”

And so – much to the entertainment of the surprisingly large finish-line crowds – the gringo, el moto blanco – found another gear and started to close the gap. I was really sprinting at that point and could hear the crowd react as I closed the gap to two meters, one meter, and then flew by him. Somehow, he ended up finishing 8 seconds behind me.

I finished in 19th place in 34’49, so 16’59 second 5k and 6’40 last 2k. Given this course, I’m actually super pleased with that result. Daniel’s altitude conversion tables give that a 31’54 at sea-level and I would be SUPER pumped to run sub-32 minutes on what was hands down the hardest course I’ve ever run. Would I have liked to finish top-10 and get some cash? Of course! But given the course, running 33 minutes (which seemed easy from the outside and would have put me in the 8th to 10th range) would have been incredibly difficult and wasn’t a super reasonable expectation.

I have to remember as well that this was my first race in 3+ months and I’ve done really only 2 or 3 real workouts after a weird summer of training. Moreover, I didn’t really rest too much for this race, with a huge long run last Sunday, a workout on Wednesday, and 117 miles this week. Honestly, it felt good just to be out there competing again.

And, I guess that’s where I’ll leave it. It feels good to be competing again. I actually have a pretty busy racing schedule lined up for the next month. I’m going to Colombia to run the Medellin Half Marathon next Sunday, then I’m racing a 10k in Ibarra, Ecuador the next weekend, and possibly another 10k in either Latacunga or Quito the weekend after that. I’m still finalizing my exact racing schedule and will make it public when I do, but I really just want to get out there and race in big pro road races and get experience competing with the big dogs. I learned a ton just from this one race, so I can’t wait until I have a whole season of this kind of competition under my belt. I’ve definitely got the bug now!

Cooled down long after hanging around finish line are for a while. Total run 14M+

Domingo, 1 Septiembre, 2013 – 9:30am: Woke up feeling pretty stiff and sore, but had two cups of coffee and a banana sandwich and was feeling better, so headed out to do a long run. Ran easy, just wanted a lot of time on feet today. Ran the entire length of the ciclopsis (where they shut down the road on Sunday for bikers and runners), which turned out to only be about 14-15km. Tacked on one lap of the park on the way back to get the time up. Could have run another few miles, but had to be back for work.

Total run 21M in 2’28’02.

5:30pm: Easy shakeout out Amazonas and back and then around the barrio looking for food. Big volume day. Total run 5M in 40’.