Race Report: State Farm Run (3/29/14)

We got the whole Sellers family out on Saturday morning and did a nice local race here in Lincoln. The State Farm Run had a 10 miler for me and a mile run for my two boys Gavin (9) and Samson (5).
Gavin had a nice showing and finished 2nd overall in 6:25. Samson ran 11:28 and showed some real heart running most of the race and then finishing hard with a little moral support from my wife and his older brother. This was Samson's first road race.
Gavin will start his track practices with a local club here next week. Lately he's just been running easy 2 or 3 times per week.
It was great that I could watch my boys run at 8:30 AM while I warmed up for my 9AM start time. I'm very proud of them both!

This is Samson in blue finishing hard. Gavin finished his race and then turned around to encourage little brother.

Samson strides to the finish in 11:38. 

As far as my race goes, it was my first road race of the year and I treated it more like a tempo run. I had a conservative goal of just breaking 60 minutes going in and I was glad to reach that goal with a 9th place finish in 59:08. Not a fast time by any means, but considering my lack of speed and tempo work so far this year, it was about what I expected. I clearly need to do some speedier workouts in the next 5 weeks leading up the the Lincoln Marathon in early May.

This is the race start with Kaemmer , Wolford and Wandzilak (left to right) leading the way early.

It was a cool morning right around 30 degrees at race time. I enjoyed running much of the race with my Lincoln Running Company teammates Neil Wolford, Ryan Regnier, Brian Wandzilak, Tom Woods and also Nebraska Run Guru Elite team member Pete Kostelnick. It was also great to see LRC teammates Hayley Sutter, Austin McKillip, Brian Kelley, Jason Schmaderer and Derek Sekora there finishing close behind me. We put 5 runners in the top 10 on the men's side of the 10-mile race. We also had Ryan Dostal and Cole Marolf go 1-2 in the 5k. Full LRC race recap here. Kudos to the Lincoln Track Club for another well organized event.

The best side of Kostelnick (black arm sleeves), Regnier (black gloves) and myself (orange hat) in the first 100 meters.

I got out in the 5:35 range for the first mile which put me in about 6th or 7th place. Regnier was feeling good and decided to move up after about a mile leaving me, Kostelnick and Woods to run together. Regnier ended up third, representing our crew well.

My first 4 miles were all in the 5:30's and then I decided to back off just before the 5 mile turnaround, letting Kostelnick and Tom Woods pull away from me just before the tunnel at about mile 4.5. I was feeling some tightness in my hammy (despite wearing pants in attempts to keep it warm) and decided it would be smarter to back off. I ran closer to 6 minute pace the next few miles. I dropped back down to 5:50 for my final mile. I felt pretty comfortable the whole way, hopefully meaning I have more in the tank than I showed!

This is my finish, in all its Google-enhanced glory.

It was encouraging when I woke up on Sunday and didn't really have the sore calves that I would normally have after a race like this. And my hamstring also felt pretty good. I hit another 25 miler on Sunday to make it a 45 mile weekend. I'm not sure if all these long runs will translate to marathon success this spring, but we'll see what happens. In my mind, I don't really have a goal race yet for this year. I am doing what I can to be ready for Lincoln but I feel like it's an early marathon and I won't be in top condition quite in time. Hopefully I round into shape in the next few weeks.

In any case, I do hope to find an event on the trail in the 50k to 50 mile range in late May or June to make a goal race. This is my Ultra Year, after all.