10.0mi, 78:17

Cruiserweight, "Goodbye Daily Sadness"
mewithoutyou, "January 1979" in the last 800m

WX at 0700: 73 (23), DP 73 (23), BP 30.14 (1020), ESE 5 mist, RH 100%

Odometer R1: estimate 40mi

Z4 hard.
Resting heart rate at 5:15am = 47 (134/98)

There are three lessons to be learned from running the 9th Annual Fort Bragg Army Birthday Ten-Miler:

1 - I have probably reached the point of diminishing returns by wearing flats during a 10-mile race. My knees and calves are in the hurt box, bad. No more flats for any race longer than 10km.

2 - You don't have to be elite to collect hardware. You just have to hang out with the elite to get collateral hardware.

3 - Attempting to eat unbelievably sugary cake a few minutes after crossing the finish line will make you want to ralph.

This goes down as absolutely the most painful 10-miler I've ever run. Period. Most of it is attributable to the weather. Warm, humid, and just not suited for running. My difference between the 82d Airborne Division 10-miler and this is about 30 seconds, and I tapered all week for this one.

I was thinking to myself how much I'd rather be road marching, because I was trying to keep contact with various folks around whom I'd started. Rest assured I hit every water stop. At least the race administration was squared away. Water and Gatorade at all but one water stop, water stops every 1.5 miles or so after the 2 mile part, and a big ass fire hydrant water spray into the air. And bananas and Gatorade and oranges and cake (it is, after all the Fort Bragg Army Birthday 10-Miler).

The variance of mile splits belies the overall 7:51 overall mile pace. My fastest split was in the downhill start on mile 1. My slowest split was 8:22 at mile 3 which marked some uphill but I'd also say was attributable to not really warming up and making the transition from start to steady-state. I was able to catch a fair number of folks on the downhills, but the uphills were rough. It's interesting to see I generally settled into pace by mile 3. I ran the tactical race I normally do; although I shouldn't have gone out that fast.

The race finishes on an uphill, but plays a fairly evil Jedi mind trick in that you pass the start banner and you KEEP GOING into a stadium. That paid off for me in that I was starting to pass folks in mile 7 (as is my norm for a 10-miler) and continued to pass right into the stadium. The uphill finish killed a lot of runners; I just had to hang on until we entered the stadium, which was all downhill into the chute. I'd guess I picked off some 15 runners in the last 600m and it was gratifying that I placed eighth for the team, last person to score.

Now, when the team I'm on has the overall 1 and 2 finishers, you know that's a good sign. I was last to score, and the team won the post championship. It was interesting to hear some grumbling when my unit was mentioned over and over for individual placers in various age categories. It's neat to get a gold medal from the Acting Commanding General of Fort Bragg. I'll see if I can scarf up a photo later.

Splits
1 07:06 07:06 07:06
2 15:02 07:56 07:31
3 23:24 08:22 07:48
4 31:02 07:38 07:46
5 38:46 07:44 07:45
6 46:39 07:53 07:46
7 54:13 07:34 07:45
8 02:24 08:11 07:48
9 10:20 07:56 07:49
10 18:17 07:57 07:50