Cleveland Rite Aid 10k

May 15, 2011

I recently ran in this year’s Cleveland Rite Aid 10k on May 15th in Cleveland, Ohio. It was good to get this race under my belt and get the taste of Rotterdam out of my mouth. I’ve always believed that you’re only as good as your last race and as harsh as that is, that’s also why I scheduled my next race as soon as I did. Rotterdam was a learning experience for me and I hope I benefit with my next marathon from it.

With the expectations and preparation I had for the 10k in Cleveland, I believe this race went as well as it could have for me. I was only 1 of 2 Americans this year in the elite field with Mario Macias from Alamosa, Colorado being this other American. Within the first 800 meters of the race, the lead pack was made up of 8...4 Kenyans, 1 Ethiopian, 1 Moroccan, myself and Mario. The first mile was generally uphill, but I had completely missed the mile marker, (if there even was one, but I heard from the other runners we were just under 5 minutes for the first mile) before I knew it we were already at two miles, but I was astonished when the clock said 9:55. Immediately the pace quickened. I latched on the back and went for the ride. One of the other runners went out the back door and we rolled the next mile going through 3 miles in 14:40. By the turn around en route through 4 miles I was starting to feeling the lack of speed preparation for this race and I fell off pace myself. From 4 miles until the finish I was in no-man’s land trying to close as much distance between me and lead pack. Between mile 5 and 6 I saw my old cross country coach, Mike Fraley, and it helped provide me with a second wind and I hammered home to the finish in 30:49, 9 seconds off my 10k best time in which I ran through the 10k split in Jacksonville at the 2011 Gate River Run (yes, my 10k PR is still a 10k split in which I ran in another race).

I have the Bolder Boulder 10k coming up at the end of May and then I’ll be traveling to Carmel, Indiana for the US Men’s 8k Championships. For the rest of this month I’ll be doing much more speed training and I’ll be looking to improve my 8k PR from 24:28 down to under 24 minutes.

Perhaps the best thing about this latest trip to Cleveland was the joy I had seeing college friends for the first time in a very long while, especially all of my teammates from MCXC!