Crim 10 Mile - 2012

I ran my second 10 mile race in three weeks this morning at the Crim Festival of Races in Flint. We got the kiddies up well before sunrise and made the trip up to Flint early to make sure we got a good parking spot and think we did pretty well. After checking things out, the family set up a couple hundred yards before the finish line and I headed over to the starting line.

Crim Race results are available HERE.

I saw a couple people I knew, including my neighbor Greg, before heading to my assigned area. I was in Wave B (there were Waves A - E, with the faster runners near the front according to their predicted finish times, in this race of nearly 9000 people). Apparently, this was the first year they started in waves and I'm glad that they did, as I hate having people run then stop right in front of me or when people who are going to walk line up in the front. Wave A, which included many "elite" runners, started about 2 minutes before my wave.

Once we got started, I was pleased that, although it was crowded, I was pretty much able to move at the pace I wanted. Other than the normal tight legs due to waiting for about 25 minutes for the race to start, I felt pretty good. Through the first 5 miles, I was able to keep a pace of about 8:10 min / mile, which is right where I wanted to be. Then came the hills...

The Bradley Hills are infamous in this race. I drove them on Thursday and tried to discount them as not being as bad as the Run Thru Hell (they weren't), but my legs sure didn't appreciate them after the 4th or 5th one in a row. I expected to slow during the hills, but I didn't expect that they would make the back of my legs ache so much. Not agonizing pain at all, but very tired and sore. My pace never did bounce back to pre-hill levels. Where I was on a pace to finish in 1:22 at the halfway point (I thought early that perhaps I could even pick it up and make a run at 1:20), I was struggling to maintain a fast enough pace to beat 1:25, my goal for the day.

My Garmin beeps every half mile and displays the half mile time and I kept seeing times like 4:16 (8:32 pace), 4:23 (8:46 pace) and started to do math in my head each time to see what I needed to do to break 1:25. In the last mile, I knew it was going to be close. I figured that if I could get myself to "the bricks", the last 1/3rd mile of the course on a brick road, I could pick it up enough to make it. Running hard to the finish, I waved to the family and then put my head down and pushed harder.

Once I crossed, my immediate concern was to get one of those cold, wet towels they were handing out, as well as getting Gatorade, water and some snacks. Once I got something in my belly, I looked at my watch and saw 1:25:05. While I would have been fine with that, I would have been a little ticked to miss a goal by seconds (again). Did I start my watch early? Did I stop it right away after the finish. I couldn't recall, but I hoped those 5 seconds were in there somewhere.

After making my way through the crowds to find my family, we watched Greg finish the race and decided to leave rather than try to collect my "free" pizza and drink, which would have required another trip through the bottleneck on the sidewalk. The results were on-line quickly and I was glad to see that I did, in fact, break 1:25 by a few seconds.

My first Crim experience was a very good one. I beat my time from a couple weeks ago by a couple minutes, the family had a good time and it was just a really fun race all around (though I didn't partake in the beer or Krispy Kremes during the race). I would highly recommend running the race (10 mile, 8k or 5k) if you are able and I plan to run it again next year if my schedule allows.