Capital City Classic 10k Race Report (NC 10k Championships)

Executive Summary:
3rd overall in 31:30. The starting list was full of great guys, with the line-up including:

-Bobby Mack (USA Cross Country champion and 27:52 10k)
-Alex Varner (14:17 road 5k)
-Brock Baker (1:07 half and former UNC XC captain)
-Devin Swann (1:06 half)
-Marc Jeuland (Olympic Trials Marathoner)
-Paul Springer (8:15 3k)
-Reed Lyon (3:5x 1500m)

These guys are awesome. I mean, Bobby has calf veins that you could cruise down in a romantic paddleboat, Alex has boyish good looks that can be used to vaccinate against Bieber fever, and Brock's name alone conjures images of a lacrosse playing porn star. Crap...after that last sentence, a majority of North Carolinians just voted to amend the Constitution to include a provision that calls me "yucky." Also, just in case, I am no longer allowed to drink at community water fountains.

It's funny because 61% of the state is willfully on the wrong side of history.

(from here)

Pre-Race:
School's out for summer! That means it's championship season, so Duke traveled to Princeton for the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship this weekend, where Megan finished 3rd in the 5k in 16:32 (All-East in her 3rd race!). She is amazing. (her blog is at this link, she is an awesome writer)

May also means it's graduation season, which is really sad when friends are leaving. It also reminds me of the time I was threatened with suspension in high school because of my graduation speech (in case you were wondering, I was President of the Dungeons and Dragons Elf Class 4).

You heard him!

The gist of my speech was that the only thing everyone can control is the type of person they are. Who you are is a daily, moment-to-moment decision. That decision is made with every interaction at the cash register, and every conversation with a friend. And you know what? It doesn't fucking matter who you were in high school. At the time, it feels so important--the nerds are nerds, the mean girls are popular, and the jocks get the attention on morning announcements. But in a year, no one will care about high school accomplishments; they will only care about whether you choose to smile at a stranger, or go out of your way for a friend.

So if you liked high school, that's great. Just know that no one will care about that touchdown you scored that one time against that one rival. If you didn't like high school, know that, starting tomorrow, those 4 years only mattered insofar as they shaped you as a human being. And for everyone reading, students and non-students alike, let's decide who we want to be every single morning we wake up, and let's be that person.

Tomorrow is such an exciting opportunity because character is a choice. When asked about the meaning of life, Kurt Vonnegut said, "We're here to help each other through this thing, whatever it is." If we make the daily decision to help, even in the smallest of ways, we can make the biggest difference.

While I was and always will be a huge nerd, I was more known as a football player back then.

While that is a rough paraphrase of a longer speech, the cuss word is an exact quote. That may be a mistake in a school system where one of my science teachers presented evolution as one of several theories. I imagine that guy got a kick out of Barack Obama's evolution on the issue of gay marriage.

Anyway, this is a race report dammit! (/record scratch) (//cut to montage of me making trips to porta-potties while the narration details my bowel movements) (///all set to Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe")

So I got in a good 30 min warm-up, which ended when I took off my shoes and ran through sprinklers at the NC Capitol Building. Unfortunately, I forgot that sprinklers move, and left me shoes directly in the spray zone. Subsequently, I went to the porta-potty. A good way to horrify people is to walk out of an overused porta-potty with squishy shoes.

From my all-time favorite Tumblr.

Race:
The gun sounded, and a group quickly formed with the aforementioned awesome runners. Somehow, I got a ticket to the stud parade, and bounded to the lead group of Bobby, Marc, and Brock. We stayed comfortable over the light rollers, with Bobby really backing off the pace we expected him to set. I actually think the presence of such an amazing runner threw the race for a loop--a lot of runners deferred, which left Brock and I going to the front. We traded the lead for the first few miles, going through 5k in 15:23.

I can't even stretch this to relate to the race.

Our 3-person group had a gap as the course turned onto the highway for a gradual uphill mile. Bobby went on and brushed his shoulders off, opening a sizable lead in a very short time. Brock stuck his move for a half mile, which left me in no-man's land in front of the chase pack. I feel like those long, straight, sunny sections favor group running, and I could feel myself slipping just a bit. At mile 4, we had a descent that let me regroup, and the ensuing uphill was steep enough so the group behind shattered.

Now the race was on for the 2nd through 5th prize money, with Bobby clearly setting the pace at the front. I kept the focus on Brock about 10 seconds ahead, though I knew that the low-14s road 5k'ers were likely chasing like mad up the hills. When I passed mile 5, the cheers behind seemed distressingly close, and I resolved to kick in to try to move up the podium. So I kicked like Bruce Lee on the next steep hill.

Sadly, my uphill kick was like Bruce Lee now, and not Bruce Lee in 1972. Brock and Bobby were too strong to catch, though I did have enough for one final acceleration to the line to hold off Devin. Bobby finished the rather hilly course in 30:46, Brock was next in 31:21, I hit 31:30, Devin was 31:34, and Marc/Alex finished sub-32.

3rd place netted $150! It was super humbling to run with those NC legends, and that company in the results really makes me want to try a faster road/track race soon. Now excuse me while I go make the daily decision, every morning I wake up, to help...

...myself to a nap.

Thank so much for reading, and for everything else! You guys are awesome :)