Beach to Beacon; August 6th, 2022. Classic day. Seems like it might be cooler than recent and manageable. But it’s even more humid and the temp may be lower than the day before, but it’s still tough. Some wind on the course provided mild reprieve.
The set up. Really stressful work week, coming off a 5K PR last weekend and some hard efforts, lots of excitement for the weekend (friends’ wedding + hosting 4 guests + hosting the day after wedding brunch for 50 people), and I finally put a PR target on a race so the pressure was seriously on...After 4th of July 10K (36:49) I said the goal was a PR at B2B. I honestly wasn’t even sure if sub36 would be doable as nearly 1 minute in a month is a lot more than a lot to ask for!
Race day. Food and coffee, check. A little light NormaTec while watching some recent worlds 10K races. Stretch. Hydrate. Prep is good. Legs are okay, not bad but not feeling fully primed. I’ve come to realize this part is not a complete tell, and as long as you’re prepared you can perform through a lot of what FEELS sluggish.
Bailey kindly chauffeured a full car to the start - and home - while only managing a couple miles herself due to painful traffic routing. We got to the start line before 7:30 - start time 8:12. Bathroom was really calling. Too much to ignore. Not so bad it was do or die. Picked the wrong line (actually, because Danielle was in and out 5mins faster!).
Warm up: Untapped Maple Coffee @ 7:40!! 1.25mi, little sweat, couple surges to 6 pace. Not the 2mi I wanted but plenty. Then came the battle through the crowd, holy crap thousands of people really crammed up hard to run sub7 😒 . I got to about the 7:00/mi spot, got a photo with Neff wooooot for my troubles.
Race start: shit show (my fault because of timing), but people were going sub 5 blowing by me and legit people WALKING off the starting line. Others yelled at them to get off the road. After 45 seconds I felt like I was more or less running versus doing slalom or plyos jumping through people. Quickly hit a stride of 5:35/mi. Fast, yes, but downhill and very controlled. Hit the mile in 5:42, after that it was still a lot of passing but the road was usable - just not perfect tangents (there’s my 3 seconds?! My fault, again!).
Mile 2 my HR was already into the 180s. Humidity and some heat. This would make 4th of July 10K look light, I knew that already. Not as easy of a mile as it looks, false flat all the way. 5:49. After this I knew it was a matter of steady as we go, hovering this pace. The challenges would come from 2.8-3.75 and all of mile 6.
Mile 3. Clicked it off quick, not easy. 5:46 even with some downhill that’s my style. Coming up the hill closing out I knew maintaining pace into mile 4 was key.
Mile 4. Woof. Self doubt hits hard in the sun on the uphill drag past Cape High. The race - at least against myself - at B2B is won on the two harder sections. If you can hold strong, you can “recover” into mile 5, then after mile 6…we’ll, you finish harder and are done. Luckily amidst the doubt, I came alongside Jacob Brady. We exchanged a few quips, whatever we could manage and he told me I’d been running super well lately and clearly once again having a good day. I told him honestly it was really a struggle here and the smart racer told me there was the downhill ahead to prep for the next beating. 5:43.
Mile 2 my HR was already into the 180s. Humidity and some heat. This would make 4th of July 10K look light, I knew that already. Not as easy of a mile as it looks, false flat all the way. 5:49. After this I knew it was a matter of steady as we go, hovering this pace. The challenges would come from 2.8-3.75 and all of mile 6.
Mile 3. Clicked it off quick, not easy. 5:46 even with some downhill that’s my style. Coming up the hill closing out I knew maintaining pace into mile 4 was key.
Mile 4. Woof. Self doubt hits hard in the sun on the uphill drag past Cape High. The race - at least against myself - at B2B is won on the two harder sections. If you can hold strong, you can “recover” into mile 5, then after mile 6…we’ll, you finish harder and are done. Luckily amidst the doubt, I came alongside Jacob Brady. We exchanged a few quips, whatever we could manage and he told me I’d been running super well lately and clearly once again having a good day. I told him honestly it was really a struggle here and the smart racer told me there was the downhill ahead to prep for the next beating. 5:43.
Mile 5: on a better day this would feel like some mixed of turnover and gravity propelling a runner to an easy faster mile. It was nothing of the sort. The downhills were clunky and the flats were without rhythm…I just wanted to go back uphill where I at least felt I was outputting relatively well. I took a moment and let myself back down from the effort, a mental lapse that I was able to suppress and regain focus. Not easy, but we’ve been there before and we’ll all be there again. The pace was good (enough) versus the feel, and that’s mostly what mattered. 5:55, thanks to the downhill - no thanks to me. 😰 and the heart rate barely dropped. As expected the B2B for me came down to execution on mile 6. It was a 1.25 mile race. Just 5 laps, not bad right?! Lol
Then it FUCKING HIT ME. I was pretty much immediately cross eyed. Harry Nelson was there guiding finishers. I said “Hey Harry ! It’s Travis Kroot!” This seemed to worry him because of course we know each other. He asked if I needed help as I inhaled useless hot damp air that continued to leave my lungs begging for sustenance. I wobbled, pretty considerably, because the next person asked multiple times if I needed to go into the Med tent. I asked if I could just have an IV without the hubbub, but said others would absolutely need it way more. Surprisingly that reassured the woman and off I went to wobble and plop in my soaked shoes towards the grassy knoll best known as “the actual final test of B2B”. Ruth (16yo) walked by me, clearly more expert at this racing deal. We exchanged pleasantries. As always with young athletes who are fast as fuck, I have a deep curiosity if there is joy in it or if it already feels like a job. I got some strong sense of the former, despite my lack of function.
Up the hill and BAILEYYY!!! Oh man what a joy to see that woman. Even now it brings a tear to my eye (as I wrote at 1am and she’s doing a night shift at Maine Med). She’s really carried a lot for me - emotionally and physically - through this transition back into fitness.
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| PR!!! |
Up the hill and BAILEYYY!!! Oh man what a joy to see that woman. Even now it brings a tear to my eye (as I wrote at 1am and she’s doing a night shift at Maine Med). She’s really carried a lot for me - emotionally and physically - through this transition back into fitness.
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| Even better than the PR! |
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