Race Report: Bread for Schools Run -- Half Marathon

Greetings,

Bread Run for Schools Half Marathon -- Fabius, NY -- a small agricultural village in upstate/central New York, about 20 mins south of Syracuse. The race was Sunday, October 10, 2010 --10/10/10. Would this be a perfect-ten-of-a-day? Almost -- but not quite! It sure was a beauty:  crisp, 39 degrees, clear, sunny, but warming up nicely.  I headed out from Albany Sunday morning, around 6:15 a.m. Once again, I was heading to central western New York for a race.  It's interesting, I had never gone west in New York State for a race until this season, and here I was for the second time in two months on I-90 west. I'll keep from boring you this time and just say that it was a beautiful trip out I-90, with flocks of geese in flight, thick fog sitting in the valleys, surrounded by beautiful autumn colors. Each fall I am always amazed, watching geese make their way south in temperatures and winds that would literally freeze humans to death in seconds, and these rugged feathered creatures are flying hundreds of miles to their winter homes -- truly remarkable!

As I made my way west, yes I consumed my tasty QT2 Systems Coaching (http://www.qt2systems.com/) race day breakfast.  (See older posts for the delicious menu items.) Although, I did mix it up a little with a new Powerbar drink product called Powerbar Perform (http://www.powerbar.com/). A portion of my race day breakfast includes consuming one 20 ounce bottle of sports drink; and over the last two years, I have been using Powerbar Endurance drink mix. The NEW Powerbar Perform is conveniently bottled in 20 ounce plastic containers, which eliminates fussing around with mixing, and there are a few great flavors.  My favorite is the orange/mango. The Endurance and the Perform Drinks have the same carbs and are equal in sodium and potassium, so for me it's the convenience, especially when traveling and the additional choices for flavors. The other great thing about both Powerbar Endurance and Perform is the great light taste; many other sports drinks are way too sweet and will often lead to digestive issues when racing or training. These great products can be found on the Powerbar website (http://http://www.powerbar.com/).

I arrived early at the rural Fabius/Pompey High School and was greeted by several really nice volunteers. I could tell this event was very well done, with great signage indicating registration, bag drop, massage, along with several "big race" amenities. And the setting was stellar. It was a perfect day for racing, a beautiful venue, great people, and a race committee made up of a group of high school friends looking to give back to there community. They were 'The Boys of "56-57" Fabius/Pompey High School Basketball Team', and I'll tell you these guys have put together one heck of a race (http://www.breadrunatfabiusny.org/).  Check out the website.  I checked in and made my way out for a little warm-up run.

 As I walked over to the start line, my mood was a bit somber and sad as I passed by a cemetery and could only think how much Mike enjoyed being at my races -- I missed him, Jill and the kids so much!  It was a very nice morning, a great venue, but I just didn't feel quite right.  I hoped that this feeling would pass and the 10/10/10 day, with a morning as perfect as the date, would turn things around for me.  At the start line, most of the runners were lined up quite a ways back from the actual line, except for a few uniformed racers -- and they looked fast! These speedsters are part of Stotan Racing, a running team from the Syracuse area focused on working with post-collegiate distance runners. I took my place next to them.  BANG -- off we go! It wasn't long and they were gone, so I focused in on my goal pace of 5:55.  Those guys were smokin' along around 5:20-5:30. I knew at this point in the season, that pace was a bit fast for me.

As I worked to settle in at my pace, I could tell the old body just wasn't feelin it -- not sure why!  I seemed to be struggling with my form and pace and just couldn't get any real rhythm.  My hope was that it would come around -- it didn't.  I really worked for 13 miles and was a bit disappointed with my situation, but fortunately another runner had caught me around 3 miles in and was kind enough to run with me, as he really didn't have a goal time and was happy just to be running with someone. We were sort of in no-man's land as the Stotan speedsters were out in front and the other participants were well behind us. Steve ended up running with me for about 5 miles, it helped in a huge way just having  another athlete to run with, but my condition remained and I knew it wasn't going to change. Steve ended up pulling away around mile 10 or so, eventually catching one of the Stotan runners for a fourth place finish, as I battled my way in for 6th. It was a tough day out there for me, but the course was beautiful as it meandered through the beautiful countryside on rural county roads all closed to vechicular traffic. YES -- CLOSED! That was sweet!

Check out the website for this race (http://www.breadrunatfabiusny.org/); it's really cool what these guys are working on out there.  I would like to see this race grow, not only is it very well done, includes a really good prize purse ($1,000 1st Place, $750 2nd), but it goes towards a great cause:  funding schools. Check it out!  It's only about 2.5 hrs from Albany and the course is just beautiful.

Overall, for me, it wasn't a great day; but it was a good training session -- thanks in large part to Powerbar -- and a nice morning. Thanks for reading. Next up MIAMI 70.3 (Half Ironman) -- only 7 days away!