35th Annual New Haven Road Race (20K) - Walk Like An Egyptian

The last few weeks, I was wondering whether I should sign up for this race - it's four weeks out from the marathon, and I love the event, and it seems like a good test of my fitness, but for some reason I wasn't pumped up about running it. Well, as the race approached, and I dithered and dawdled about it, my problem was solved. I got an email with my bib number and race morning instructions - I'd signed up back in June!

Nice day for a race here. This race is often too hot, but today it was in the low 70s, and though it was sunny and the dew point was probably in the very low 60s, it was pretty nice for this 20K, given its history.

All my race day logistics went well, and it helps that I've run this one before, so knew exactly what to expect. Well, except they changed the course for the first time this year. But the start was almost exactly in the same spot and this is an exceptionally well-organized event. Although it is the national championship in the 20K, I failed to win the race yet again.

Once again, I screwed up with the watch in this race. I haven't worn my new 405 in a race before, and I waited until it was less than 5 minutes before the scheduled start, synched it up, locked the bezel, and was ready to rock and roll. Then we heard some speeches, sang the anthem (and wow, the lady who sang it could really sing - she has some chops!), and got ready for the gun. I had lined up in the chute where the 8:00 minute mile people were directed to assemble. The cannon went off, I looked down at my watch so as to be ready to hit the start button as we crossed the timing mat, and dang if the thing hadn't defaulted back to just showing the time of day. It had done that auto-shutoff thing where it shuts down after a certain period of inactivity (I think five minutes). I hadn't heard the warning beeps when it started to do that, what with the anthem and speeches going on, and since it had taken longer than five minutes, it shut off. As I walked/trotted with the crowd toward the mat, I tried to solve this, but couldn't. So, I just figured screw it, I'll run by feel and off of the split clocks. Fortunately, there are split clocks at every mile in this race.

I hung with the crowd I started with for the first couple of miles, and felt pretty good. I picked up the pace a bit after about mile 3, but not too much. I drank water or gatorade at every opportunity. I felt ok, and just tried to maintain the pace, once I figured I was going a bit slower than 8:00 - probably generally right around 8:15 to 8:20. The new course is pretty flat, so I doubt there were any big variations in mile splits. I wasn't sure how to pace it, because I haven't run any races since the end of June, and I didn't run that one as a race, really. I was probably just a bit more conservative than I should have been.

The new course doubles back to the New Haven Green (where it starts) just past the halfway split, which is nice. Generally, the course goes through some pretty gritty parts of New Haven, so it's nice to get back to the Green and have some more concentrated crowd support. Grabbed a gu at the water stop at about mile 7. Did that so quick, I have no idea what flavor it was. Once I was past this point, I figured I would have no real trouble finishing at about this pace.

I goofed around a little. I was at about 8.0, I think, and someone was playing "Walk Like An Egyptian" really loud on their front lawn, so I did that thing with my arms for about 50 feet. Got a big laugh/cheer from the crowd there.

Just kept going. I knew the most significant hill was coming in the tenth mile, and it didn't seem too bad. Then I used the downhill at the start of mile eleven to pick up some speed. Then, I picked it up a little for the final stretch (about 1.3 miles) down Whitney Avenue. Passed a fair number of people who were flagging near the end, and didn't get passed myself. Strong into the final stretch and through the chute. Felt real good.

Came in with a net of 1:42:49, so about 8:18 on average, and I was certain I could have run it faster, based on how I felt through the chute and after (and now). So, that was another perfect test, and points to another marathon I should try to run in less than four hours, four weeks from now.

Seems like I run races better without the watch functioning...

Michael, I always wait until the last moments to lock the bezzel. Once the satellites are locked in I just keep cycling through every 30 seconds or so so it doesn't turn off.

Great job on the race. Matt Tegenkamp won the race. He was at the Olympics in the 10K.

Nice race, Michael. My watch went haywire yesterday about 2 miles into the race due to lap memory overload, so I had to run by feel also. I know the feeling of that auto default stuff. Good report.

Well done! Seems like running by feel, and Walking like an Egyptian are a good recipe for race success for you!

Alex Kubacki wrote:Michael, I always wait until the last moments to lock the bezzel. Once the satellites are locked in I just keep cycling through every 30 seconds or so so it doesn't turn off.

Great job on the race. Matt Tegenkamp won the race. He was at the Olympics in the 10K.

Thanks Alex! I have changed the setting so that it will not shut off automatically from training mode.

fostever wrote:Nice race, Michael. My watch went haywire yesterday about 2 miles into the race due to lap memory overload, so I had to run by feel also. I know the feeling of that auto default stuff. Good report.

Thanks! Hard for me to believe I've screwed up the watch in two races this year...

KathyK wrote:Well done! Seems like running by feel, and Walking like an Egyptian are a good recipe for race success for you!

Thanks Kathy! I do run better by feel sometimes - my 10k pr was run with no watch.

Nice race - sometimes it is important to enjoy oneself and look what happens!

Michele "1L" Keane wrote:Nice race - sometimes it is important to enjoy oneself and look what happens!

Thanks Michele - it was fun!

Michael, nice job! Id' like to run a race without a watch but have yet to do so sicne the Garmin was invented. Nice run by feel.

JohnP wrote:Michael, nice job! Id' like to run a race without a watch but have yet to do so sicne the Garmin was invented. Nice run by feel.

Thanks John! Try it, you might like it!

I think you sound very ready for your marathon and maybe a little dance party after nice job!

amyjoann wrote:I think you sound very ready for your marathon and maybe a little dance party after nice job!

Thanks! As for the dance party, I think I'll stick to watching the talented people.

I'm a little late to the party. Well done Michael. I think sub 4 is well within reach as long as you run without a watch.

T Miller wrote:I'm a little late to the party. Well done Michael. I think sub 4 is well within reach as long as you run without a watch.

Sounds like a challenge to me! I wonder if I have it in me to do that in a marathon??? Besides depriving me of the ability to carefully watch my pace in the early miles, that would also deprive me of my post-race data, which I am always absolutely obsessed with. Not knowing my splits later on would make me kind of crazy, I think.

BUT, that actually might be really interesting. There are no split clocks on the course, I think. I would just have to fly blind. Well, run blind. Sounds daunting, but I have done well in races at half that distance running blind.

I am going to think about that some more...

Michael Enright wrote:

T Miller wrote:I'm a little late to the party. Well done Michael. I think sub 4 is well within reach as long as you run without a watch.

Sounds like a challenge to me! I wonder if I have it in me to do that in a marathon??? Besides depriving me of the ability to carefully watch my pace in the early miles, that would also deprive me of my post-race data, which I am always absolutely obsessed with. Not knowing my splits later on would make me kind of crazy, I think.

BUT, that actually might be really interesting. There are no split clocks on the course, I think. I would just have to fly blind. Well, run blind. Sounds daunting, but I have done well in races at half that distance running blind.

I am going to think about that some more...

What if you put a piece of tape over the watch face? Do you have the self discipline to keep from ripping it off to see where you are? It would be really cool to run blind and still have the data to pour over afterwords. Just a thought.

Great minds think alike...

I was thinking of just not displaying it.

Still thinking about that....