It was a typical Friday afternoon when I received an alert on my phone saying I had a new Tweet directed at me. I opened up twitter and found I had been called out to the Tenacious Ten Elite Challenge by my friend Keith Laverty. After an absurdly cold winter, it has been a slow climb trying to get back to my pre-winter running fitness. My first thought was to turn down the challenge. 10k! I might as well be running a marathon... I have only done one marathon in my life: the Game of Thrones Binge Watching Marathon... You may laugh, but I did actually learn two invaluable life lessons from my marathon experience. First, ALWAYS hold the door for friends! Second, the shame that follows when
And so I accepted the call.
The Tenacious Ten had two distance options (10k and 10 mile), but the elite challenge was only for the 10k. The course consisted of a clockwise loop around Lake Union, starting and ending at Gasworks Park. With $500/$250/$125 prize money on the line for 1st/2nd/3rd respectively, for both male and female divisions, a fair amount of local and even non-local running talent showed up. There was an especially deep field on the women’s side, including Tara Welling (Sketchers sponsored who trains with High Performance West), Christine Babcock (Oiselle), Collier Lawrence (Oiselle), Lyndy Davis (Oiselle), and Caroline Austin (SRC). Some of the faster dudes on the Men’s side included Jordan Welling, Yon Yilma (Run 26.2), Keith Laverty (SRC), Lance Thompson (SRC), and Joe Creighton (SRC).
The elites had their own start coral in front of the rest of the runners. With the elite field in attendance, I wasn’t expecting to place, much less come close to placing. However, my goal time lined up with the elite coral pace cutoff so over I went to this isolated corner of the universe. It definitely felt kind of awkward - like when you can sit at the grown-up table for the first time at Thanksgiving. You feel small and aren’t sure who to talk to or what to talk about so you just sit there silently minding your own business…
I haven’t raced the 10k distance in a while, and my goal for this race was just to get in under 40 minutes. I knew the front pack would likely be aiming to finish close to 30 minutes so I would make sure to run my own race. Keith and I hit a few last strides and lined up with our coral. With a final countdown followed by the signal of a cowbell, the Tenacious Ten Elite Challenge was underway.
The first mile was surprisingly controlled throughout the elite group. How do I know this? Because I could still see the front pack by the end of the first mile. I was personally feeling pretty good as well. Knowing that I had twice the distance to cover than what I usually race did a fantastic job of keeping my pace in check. Partway through the second mile, I lost sight of the front pack as they made their move and picked up the pace considerably. By the end of the second mile, I had fallen in with two or three other runners and we formed a small pack. The second mile provided a long downhill stretch, so by the 5k mark I was feeling better than expected. I passed by Lake Union Park at the South of the lake, and picked up the pace. Everything was great until I hit the uphill section leading to the Fremont Bridge with about a mile left. I finally reached the bridge and knew I was in the final stretch. At the beginning of a race, I try to focus on my running form. I usually lose focus at some point but there is a specific threshold of pain that triggers my mind to refocus back on my running form. I was definitely hitting that level of pain at this point. I suddenly realized I was over striding. I realized my shoulders were hunched. I noticed my breathing was off. I focused on correcting these specific issues in the last half mile. By the time I corrected my running form, I was rounding the corner in Gasworks Park and flying through the finish.
I have been racing without a watch lately (instead just going by feel) so I didn’t know my exact time as I crossed the finish. Luckily, they had a results tent at the recovery area and I headed over to check my results. My official time clocked in at 39:13 (6:19 pace) for 22nd overall. Made it under 40 minutes but man was that a painful rust-buster. I saw Sarah Robinson (runningstarfish.com) at the recovery area and introduced myself to some of the SRC screw. Caroline Austin (SRC) managed to podium with a 3rd place finish, running 34:02! I also learned that the power couple, Jordan and Tara Welling, swept the podium with 1st place finishes.
Fast forward a week post-race, and results have been updated and my new official time is recorded at 38:13 (6:10 pace) and have been bumped up to 21st overall… I really wish I had a watch, but through talking to other friends who ran the race, it looks like the timing officials incorrectly adjusted everyone’s time by about a minute. However, there have been no changes since then, so I guess we shall never know.
If you have managed to get to this point, you must really care about me. Or have a real lack of other interesting things to do right now. Either way, thanks for sticking to the (almost) end.
Post-Race Thoughts/Future Schedule/Unrelated Shout Outs:
1. Currently, my Summer race schedule will be Brooks Fremont 5k (June 2), Seattle Rock N’ Roll 5k (June 17), Firecracker 5000 (July 3) and/or Point Ruston Independence Day 5k (July 4), Seafair 5k (July 29), and possibly some track 5k’s at the Club NW All-Comers Track Meets.
2. Big congrats to Keith Laverty who ran a major PR and won 1st in his (our) age division! You can follow his ultra/racing adventures on Twitter: @KeithLaverty and Instagram: trail_lightning
3. If you follow my twitter account (or even if you don’t), you know I am a Brooks Beasts fan fanatic. Big congrats to Katie Mackey for winning the USATF Road Mile Championship at the Grand Blue Mile last week! Also big congrats to Cas Loxsom and Brannon Kidder who ran the first and third legs of the 4x800 meter relay at the IAAF/BTW World Relays, helping to secure gold for Team USA.
You can follow the Brooks Beasts on Twitter: @beaststc and Instagram: brooksbeaststc.
1. Currently, my Summer race schedule will be Brooks Fremont 5k (June 2), Seattle Rock N’ Roll 5k (June 17), Firecracker 5000 (July 3) and/or Point Ruston Independence Day 5k (July 4), Seafair 5k (July 29), and possibly some track 5k’s at the Club NW All-Comers Track Meets.
2. Big congrats to Keith Laverty who ran a major PR and won 1st in his (our) age division! You can follow his ultra/racing adventures on Twitter: @KeithLaverty and Instagram: trail_lightning
3. If you follow my twitter account (or even if you don’t), you know I am a Brooks Beasts fan fanatic. Big congrats to Katie Mackey for winning the USATF Road Mile Championship at the Grand Blue Mile last week! Also big congrats to Cas Loxsom and Brannon Kidder who ran the first and third legs of the 4x800 meter relay at the IAAF/BTW World Relays, helping to secure gold for Team USA.
You can follow the Brooks Beasts on Twitter: @beaststc and Instagram: brooksbeaststc.
