To the risk of killing some of the suspense, I made it to the (age group) podium again and one of the organizers asked how many times I had run this race. I replied with 14, only to feel bad all the way back home knowing I had made this up and might have inflated this impressive number, out of the total 30 editions. Especially knowing that I had quite a few conflicts at the end of September, like the 150-mile Spartathlon in Greece 2 weeks ago, a few runs of Firetrails 50-mile that same weekend, and a couple of years missing because of injury, and a few business trip conflicts too. Well, I had not checked but 14 was the right answer, bingo!
What a series: 2002 (34:39), 2003 (34:52), 2006 (34:16), 2007 (33:57), 2009 (37:14), 2010 (34:25), 2011 (34:24), 2012 (35:21), 2013 (36:24, 1 day after the appropriately-named Stevens Creek 50K!), 2014 (35:59, 7 days after a podium at the 24-hour Nationals), 2015 (36:29, 7 days after Ohlone 50K), 2017 (36:07), 2018 (38:18, followed by a 50K training run right after the race), and 2025 then.
The RD briefing, mostly to invite us to participate to the raffle.
There was some construction on the traditional course, adding some a gravel section to get to the entrance of the park, on the way out. My last 10K was last December, as part of a DoDouble where you first race a 10K, then a 5K, with 90 minutes between both start times. Coming back from my meniscus injury (7 months off running), I had run 40:36 and 20:08, ending up winning a huge trophy for the best age-graded performance. This time, without having to save energy for a 5K afterwards, I was hoping to at least break 40 minutes.
As you can imagine with a flat race, it started very fast. I had heard two guys on the start line talking about a 5 minute/mile pace, which I used to hold but haven't for quite a few years now, even at the track. I covered the first mile in 6:27 which was already feeling way too fast based on my recent training.
Second mile was 6:42, included that new gravel section through the large parking lot at the entrance of Shoreline Park. I could hear a runner breathing in my neck through the third mile which we ran in 6:39, then 6:37 for the 4th mile during which he passed me. I couldn't hold his pace but still managed a faster 5th mile at 6:35.
The last mile is interesting as we get back on the bike path which is shared with the 5K loop, hence bumping into the pack of that other race, starting 15 minutes after the 10K. The challenge is not only to slalom to pass the slower runners, but also avoid those still on their out segment. Including a few strollers, not to forget trail users on their bikes. Despite all these obstacles, and in my red zone, I clocked 6:29 for mile 6. But the effort wasn't enough to make my goal, crossing the finish line in 40 minutes and... 30 embarrassing seconds.
I know, everything is relative, I still won my M60 age group by a good margin, and it wasn't a very competitive race. Speaking of relativity, albeit not light speed, I did check a few age-graded data points:
- David Rogawski, 38, won the race in a time of 36:11.1. That's a 74.7% age-graded or equivalent of 35:20.
- In the Masters, 6th place overall, Tipp Moseley, 44, ran 34:59. 75.45% age-graded, or 34:59.
- The one who impressed me the most in the top 10 is 15-year old, Cody Nemec, who finished 4th overall in a time of 37:11. I would have expected a much higher age-grading as it only came as 76.14% or 34:10.
- On the other end of the spectrum, the oldest finisher, Jun Amano, clocked 1:03:45.9, at 78! An age-grade of 63% or 41:54.
- As for me, the age-grading came up with 80.82% and a normalized time of 32:40.6. I haven't checked the 190 finishers, that might be a top score, there is that!
All results on the chip timing company website.
I believe I'm still at 90 to 95% of my capacity and the missing gap has to see with glutes, mainly, and hamstring for the leg power, speed, kick. It has been a year since I resumed training consistently after the 7 months off last year (15 months since the knee arthroscopy).
Before the award ceremony, I went back on the course to run a 5K cool down 5K in 22:39.
Super cool to have a 5K participant, Sameer, introduce himself to share that he enjoys reading my blog.
Oh, and that other sweet tradition of the past 3 decades with Hobbie's contributing their delicious sheets of coffee cake, yummy!
Our M60 podium:
Another artistic design of the race t-shirt, and special thanks to the sponsors which help even more money to keep extending the Stevens Creek Trail from the Bay to the Cupertino hills.
Now on to our traditional Ruth Anderson Memorial Endurance Run tomorrow, running loops around Lake Merced in San Ferancisco. I'm still not sure if I'll stop at 50K or go on to the 50-mile (we can decide at the 50K mark). And I'm checking this time in case someone asks me again, this will be my 16th participation to that one.
See you next year, all Friends of the Stevens Creek Trail!
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