Berbee Derby Race Report!

I haven’t written up a race report in a while but I figured I owed it to my fans! A couple weeks ago Jess and I signed up for the Berbee Derby. The Berbee Derby is a 5/10K race on Thanksgiving morning and is one of the big three 10k races in the Madison winter running season (Jinglebell Run and Shamrock Shuffle are the other two but I probably won’t do those this year.) I ran this race last year but only because I preregistered. I woke up last year and it was 0 degrees and windy which was doubly bad because it was the first crappy day of the season so I wasn’t used to any cold. Had I not paid already I would’ve bailed but such is life and it was go-time. I finished in 58 and a half minutes last year although I think my time was off a couple of minutes. Anyways, I was afraid to preregister again but Jess was so I went for it.

This year was different. I’ve done an Ironman and have been doing some faster running although I didn’t feel like I’ve ran enough. My goal was to run a sub 50 minute 10k. In training I’ve been close so I hoped with a race pace I could do it. I got up 3 hours before the race to eat breakfast and have some tea. Diet-wise I was ready. Jess and I got there a bit early and read the paper for a while. A half hour before the race I started to warm up and my legs were very dead! I was afraid it was going to be a long run! Finally I warmed up and stretched and got my starting spot right in the front! My other goal was to lead the race. It was 45 and sunny out, perfect running weather and I was a tad overdressed!

The gun sounded at 9am. I was off and it was pretty hard to lead the race as someone else had the same idea. I held him off for about a quarter mile before he just ran by me and the fade was on. I was probably about 100th place when I passed the 1 mile sign at 6:42. I kept getting passed and hit 2 miles in under 14 and 3 miles in 22:11. I thought I was fading faster than I was as the next couple of miles were pretty tough but I hit the 5 mile mark at 38 minutes which pretty much sealed my sub 50 minute 10k. The last 1.2 miles is tough, lots of uphill with a small downhill and then a flat finish. I hit 6 miles at 47 even but didn’t feel like sprinting it out to try and rock a 48 and ended up cruising in at a 48:25. So I was pretty excited for that. Jess came in at 1 second over 1:04 which is awesome for her! Saw a bunch of other friends out running and all were pretty happy with how they did!

My stats:
Place- Overall 312/958, 263/593 males, 44/78 in the 25-29 mens age group. My mile pace was 7:48.
I was one of only two leaders of the race; the guy who passed me a quarter mile in went on to win.

My reward, a PR in the 10k, some Boston Cream Cake, a Caramel Latte from Starbucks and some awesome Thanksgiving dinner later that day (and a happy fiancé!)

Later that day I learned they showed the start on the news so you could see me rockin’ to the lead on TV! Unfortunately I missed it but hopefully I’ll find some footage and some photos to post later.

Thanks for reading!