Medical Center 10K RR

Training:
Spotty at best.  When my formula is on target, I am as good as I've ever been but those days are rare.  In the past few days, I've benefited from a product called glutathione which has reduced the extreme sensitivity to zinc and copper.  YES!  Still, I was in a state of flux and need to tweak the formula a bit.  I have not had good luck in races this year so if I had a chance at a decent showing, I was going to take it.

Trip:
Somewhat of a stressful trip.  I took half a day off work on Friday, which was a good call.  I wanted to get into town before dark and find the race start so I needed to leave no later than 2 PM. Bowling Green, Kentucky is located about an hour north of Nashville and slightly more than 4 hours from home.  As usual, the Nashville traffic sucked and I lost a half hour in stop and go traffic even though I got there before rush hour.  After a couple of wrong turns, I found the starting area on the campus of Western Kentucky University then looked for the expo, which could not be found on my GPS.  I ended up stopping at O'Charly's for a steak and rib combo then arrived at the expo to pick up my number just before it closed for the night. One less thing to worry about on race morning.

Race morning:
I seemed to be trending toward more zinc and less copper since starting the liver glandular.  That means that my copper is probably rising.  I just hope it's bound copper, not toxic copper.  I went with all Thym-Adren (more zinc) but felt a little off warming up so I popped 2 ADHS (more copper).  That may have been a bad call but thanks to the glutathione, I will not be horrible if my formula is slightly off.  YES!

Course:
Tough but fair.  I saw the elevation chart on Map My Run and it looked to have a long gradual climb late in Mile 1.  It went back down in Mile 2 then appeared to be relatively flat from 3-5 followed by a steep hill early in Mile 5 but it did finish downhill.  Not surprisingly, the chart was misleading.  The 2 hills that I feared the most were not as bad as expected but Mile 3-5 was about 80% uphill.  It wasn't steep but long and relentless.  Mile 6 was actually mostly downhill but the course ended up slightly net uphill, which tells you the difficulty of Miles 3-5.

Race:
The gun went off and I was out at a fast and controlled pace starting from the edge of WKU and heading out into town.  I made a small adjustment after seeing a mildly slow split at the quarter mile.  I was back on target shooting for 6:30ish pace early.  The climb did not begin until about 0.7 miles in and I held the pace well and found myself trading places with 2 or 3 runners throughout the first 5K.  I gained back several seconds through a mostly downhill 2nd mile and was on pace for a time just north of 40 through the first 2 miles.  I have run a 39:44 on a track but my road PR is rather soft at 40:55.  It seemed like I had chance at it, albeit slim with the hills ahead.  The long incline began just after 2.5 miles and I began to lose contact with my pack.  Still. I passed the 5K mark just over 20:15, which was exactly the same split as my road PR.  This time however, the 2nd half would be much harder.  I still felt decent through most of Mile 4 but the power cut off shortly thereafter and I was really hurting in Mile 5.  Fearing the hill at the end, I was prepared for a meltdown at the end but surprisingly, the course turned back down for the most part and I managed a bit of a resurgence.  Passing slower 5K runners was also a boost in confidence.  I thought I might be over 42 when I was really hurting but as the finish line inside the football stadium was drawing near, I had a shot at a sub-41:30.  I turned on the speed running down the sideline at sub-6 pace and got to the line with 2 seconds to spare.

Splits:
6:30-(6:30) perfect    
6:19-(12:49) downhill
6:43-(19:33) slipping.  5K in 20:15
6:50-(26:22) pain
7:07-(33:29) Strugg-a-ling
6:43-(40:12) feeling better
1:16- (41:28)

Final thought:
A decent showing.  I believe I would have done better in holding the pace if my pills were exactly right but thanks to the glutathione, I kept it respectable.  Without it, I certainly would have melted down.  I figure that 40:30ish was the best I could do on this course with my current fitness and I came within a minute.  I'm fine with that.  I won't have my best stuff every time out but as long as I am fairly consistent, I'll enjoy these events.

After:
Toured the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green and then stopped in Nashville for lunch at the Wild Horse Saloon.  It was a smooth ride back to Birmingham.