Wawasee Flotilla 8M Race Report

As I posted on last year, I did this race again on the Fourth of July.  Its kinda nice that they moved it to the day of the Fourth instead of one of the Saturdays before/after.  My wife and oldest son ran the 3.3 miles (my youngest opted out).

Race Day Registration for the 3.3M.  $15 (Seriously), and only $12 for Early Reg

I registered for the 8 Mile

With my stronger run base this year, I was hoping for a faster time than my 50:15 from last year (and 7th overall finish).  The weather cooperated pretty well.  It had been rainy, windy, and cold through Tuesday, but this morning was quite pleasant.  Low 60's, low humidity and no real wind to speak of.

$15 Includes a T-shirt ($10 without)

The setting is nice at Lakeside Park on the edge of Syracuse Lake, across the street from the community center.

Everyone was pretty psyched to run the race:

I started out in the second row back from the start line.  All the 3.3ers and the 8M'ers start together.  The 8M runs the same course as the 3.3 and then an Out and Back to Oakwood.

I didn't get much of a warmup in, only a couple hundred yards.  So I knew the first mile would feel a little rough.  I kept checking my Garmin to make sure I was at a sub 6 pace.  As I came through in 5:52 I actually felt pretty good.  It felt fast, but not overly so.

The 2nd mile went like the first, as they were both pretty much flat country roads.  The 3rd mile was along North Lakeshore Drive and had its share of (small) hills.  My pace lagged a little bit, but didn't fall off too much.  Its hard to tell where you are at in this race as you are with all the guys smoking a 3 mile race.  Then as you come back to Lakeside park, you make a couple of quick turns, so you really can't see who finished and who went on for the full 8.

In miles 4-6, I felt pretty good and was cranking out sub 5:55's.  I definitely started to tire some the last couple of miles.  They are pretty flat and I could see the guy ahead of me.  He didn't look like he was going that fast, but with my 6 flat miles I couldn't reel him in.  I knew at the time that I needed to throw down a couple of 5:50's, but I just didn't have it in me.

I was quite pleased with my 47:23 finishing time and 5:55.8 average.  Almost 3 minutes faster than last year (20 seconds per mile).  I was especially pleased with my pacing.  My fastest mile was 4.4 seconds faster than my average, and my slowest mile was 5.0 seconds slower than my average.  I finished 7th overall (again) and won my age group (again).  All in all a fun race.  Got a nice long sleeve shirt for winning the AG. Now its time for HammerFest 2K13!