Run with Dennis 3.5M

Sunday I did the already traditional Dennis Zilinski race at the PNC ArtsCenter in Holmdel. This race was started 4 years ago as a tribute to this soldier who died in Afghanistan. I always liked it because it's for a good cause, it has a patriotic vibe, with all the army cadets running, and it's very close to home. I did it on the first edition, then again next year, and took a break last year. But since I had nothing else planned this weekend, there was no doubt I'd be there.

I was looking for some redemption after my 5K from two weeks ago. I usually post here after every race I'm doing, but the Great Race of Middletown was so bad I didn't feel like writing anything. I have all the excuses I need - 3 weeks after BassMan, in full off-season mode, with very little training. But still I didn't expect it to be so disappointing. I lasted for 2 miles, and then it all fell apart, like in some of my first races ever. My pace over the last mile was comparable to the pace on mile 13 of the Half Iron. I love stadium finishes, and still I almost felt like stopping on the final lap on the track. Even cheering from the mayor and another township committeeman didn't help, and it was one of my worst racing experiences in recent years. Time: 23:46

At this weekend's race I was looking to recover some of my morale. In the past 2 weeks I stepped up my training a bit, although not by much. The race is 3.5 miles, a very non-standard distance (this is the only event where I've ever run that distance). And since it always comes at the end of the season, the times are not too relevant. The first year I did 27:11, the second 27:50, but that second time it was extremely cold - like low 30's. I really didn't have time goals this time, although I thought it would be nice to PR. I gotta say this is a very hilly course.

Before the race, we had an emotional ceremony dedicated to Dennis Zilinski and a few wounded soldiers, then the army cadets started to run in cadence, and soon after the race started. I kinda like the course, although it may be described as one of the least glamorous imaginable: through the parking lots of the ArtsCenter. First, there's a loop through the surrounding park, and I started quite fast, keeping in contact with the race leaders. Of course, I got tired pretty quick and started getting passed. After a few ups and downs, the course went downhill to the bottom of the parking lot. It helped me recover my pace a bit, and I kept running pretty strong. After about a mile, we headed down again, through the woods, to the overflow parking lot. I like running fast downhill, so I passed a few people here, before getting to the big loop around that second lot. Everything was going good, but I remembered the last race, when I crashed shortly after the midpoint. We went back, and of course we had to go up that hill. I slowed down a lot, but apparently less than other runners, because I picked them one by one. I was exhausted at the top, and I wanted to conserve some energy, since this wasn't a 5K, so there was still a lot to go. All this time, I had in my sights the cadets formation which started 5 minutes before us, and I wanted to catch up. We went down again, under the highway, and then did a 180 to come back. I caught up to the cadets running their cadence around their and it was pretty cool. The were singing and running very disciplined, and people coming from the other side kept applauding. So I felt pretty bad passing them, but I had to do it and started the big climb towards the finish. It was getting tough here, but I was feeling pretty well, and I wasn't fearing a collapse any more.

As I could survey the parking lots, I realized most of the people are behind, and there weren't too many ahead of me. And a PR seemed very doable. We went on that rolling loop that we did at the start, and my pace was strong, but couldn't do any faster, especially on the uphills. Final turn, and seeing the time on the clock I just coasted to the finish, no big kick for me. The official time was 27:04, but since I started quite back in the pack my Garmin showed 26:58, which was like a far-fetched goal of mine (under-27). And yes, it was a 13 seconds PR!!

Besides the actual time and the PR, I was most satisfied with the strong race and consistent pace. Considering the extra distance and the very hilly course, it was on par with my short races earlier in the year (7:42/min pace). And my final place - 30th out of 329 (top 9%) proved to me that I did pretty well considering the difficulty of the course. I know this year my running performance was derailed by the broken toe in the spring, but I hope to come back much faster next year.

One more final comment. My Great Race of Middletown time was not that bad after all. Pretty much what I was doing 2 years ago.... And this weekend pace was even slightly slower. But 2 and 3 years ago, the Zilinski pace was much slower than 5K. Anyway, that race 2 weeks ago might've been just a stupid race, where I went out too fast and then fell apart in the last part. This weekend it was much better, as I held a quite even pace.