STK 10K TT

April 17th, 1999

This time trial is required to be on a Storage Technology running team STK. Once on the team, STK pays for your Bolder Boulder 10K entry. Since Sheri works for STK I was eligible for team membership also. The Trashman joined us along with about 20 other employees. Race time (9:00 a.m.) temperature was 27 degrees, but brilliantly sunny. The field was quite diverse and only five of us even came close to breaking 45 minutes. Two guys bolted away from us immediately and went on to beat everyone by almost a minute and a half. Sheri and I thought we'd be running together most of the way, Sheri opened up a gap on me early on a maintained it up the long starting hill.

Trashy and I ran right behind each other for the first mile when I started to pull away a bit to reel in Sheri. This course is very challenging with lots of hills. The total gain for this run is probably around 250 feet. I think it is a tougher course than the Bolder Boulder course. I did the first mile in 7:11 (Sheri did 7:07), but it was a significant hill so I wasn't concerned. I wasn't going all out in this time trial. I haven't done any speed work for a couple of months and just wanted a good tempo effort. Sheri felt the same way.

I pulled even with Sheri just past the two mile mark, which I failed to see. Sheri said we went through the second mile at 14:19, a 7:08 mile for me. I started to steadily open up a gap on Sheri as we worked up another tough hill. We headed down the backside and a long way out to the turnaround point, which I reached at 22:36. At the 7:10 pace I ran for the first two miles, I should have done the 5K in 22:12, so the third mile (about 7:34) was tough. Sheri was five seconds back and Trashy was about five more seconds back. I immediately thought that I was in danger of not breaking 45 minutes and picked it up going back up the hill we just came down. I went through four miles in 28:43 - back on a 7:11 pace.

Shortly after the four mile mark, I could hear Sheri closing strong on me. I hadn't slowed down, it was just Sheri making a push to catch me and run the last two miles with me. I gave her the thumbs up sign (never wanted to waste precious oxygen on talking while racing) when she pulled even with me. Almost immediately she winced in pain and pulled up lame. She might have even uttered a propanity, but I must have heard that wrong. Sheri doesn't say such things.

Sheri immediately stopped running and I turned in a circle and asked if I should stop. She told me to continue because this was my last chance at running the time trial for STK. I told her I'd come back for her as soon as I finished. Remember it is below freezing out and Sheri was running in shorts! She was the only running in shorts. Trashy, who almost always runs in shorts, said at the start of the race, "Wow, she's even tougher than me!" I said, "Trashy, if you had legs like that you'd be running in shorts also."

I continued pushing the pace in the fifth mile. With one mile to go I was at 37:16 and only needed a 7:43 mile to break 45 minutes. That was easy on a downhill mile, of course, and I set my sites on sub-44. I worked hard all the way in and finished in 43:36 for an average pace of 7:02 and a 6:20 final mile. Trashy had to work hard the last mile to break 45 minutes, which he just barely did: 44:59! This was the Trashman's first ever 10K. Actually that is not completely true. He has walked the Bolder Boulder before. This was his first time running a 10K and he set a PR by over an hour and ten minutes!

We immediately jumped in the car and went looking for Sheri. I was afraid she would be completely frozen by now. I had already thought she might just walk home because she injured herself about a half mile from our house. We didn't find her on the course and, sure enough, she was at home. She was quite upset. I knew she would be. This was the same injury that only bothered her last weekend. Now it threatened to end her running for awhile.

Sheri not being able to run is much worse than me not being able to climb. She runs six days a week and just simply loves running. It would be like me not being able to breathe or eat or watch TV or, horrors, not being able eat Hostess Snack Cakes with abandon! There was little I could do to comfort her. At least she could walk. Physical therapy will start on Monday. The ice packs are already applied. Definitely a tragedy on a simple tempo run... Injuries suck.