Beautiful weather saw some fast times on my return to the streets of Cape Elizabeth. The lead pack saw some intense action as Gebre Gebremariam managed to hold off a mid-race surge by Alan Kiprono and Wilson Chebet to win the race in 27:40.4. There were 11 runners under 29 minutes.

The women’s race wasn’t quite as close but was almost as fast, with Lineth Chepkurui setting a new sub-31 course record in 30:59.4. Wude Ayalew was also beneath the former course record in 31:06.9. The top 7 were all sub-34.

Weather-wise, the course saw the best conditions for running in it’s 13 year history despite record high temperatures this year. Just from Friday to Saturday the temperature dropped about 30 degrees and 40% humidity.

My friend Peter got this great picture (to the right) of Martin Fagan leading last year’s runner up Boaz Cheboiywo coming into the last half mile. Martin really shouldn’t have looked back, Boaz beat him by 2.1 seconds to take 8th place overall.

Here’s an audio recap of my race that I recorded on the drive home after I got done running, followed by a transcript.

[podcast]http://files.marathoning.org/audio/RunToWin/20100809_Beach_to_Beacon_10k.mp3[/podcast]

For me, it was a great race. I had a little trouble getting there. It was one of those deals where I left about ten minutes later than I really wanted to and that added probably a good 20, 25 minutes on to the drive to get in there just because it’s such a circus to get to Cape Elizabeth, but I managed to make it in time.

I parked over near the high school, and got to the front of the starting line about 90 seconds before the truck needed to pull away to take the baggage for the elite area to the finish line. I manged to get my bag on there, and then I had 15 minutes to just finish warming up and say hello and see what everybody’s strategy was and to see who would be running around me.

My general goal was just to go under 36, which I wasn’t sure if I could do. My training has been going pretty well, but it just hasn’t been very high mileage lately or anything. I decided that I would try and go out in a 35 minute pace for the first half and then just see what I can do after that.

The Beach to Beacon is a pretty quick course. The first mile especially is very fast. I was kind of hoping to go out around 5:30, which would be the slowest that I’ve ever gone out in that race in recent years. From there I wanted to just try and see what I can do.

I did pretty well with that. I went out in a 5:28 pace, got through the first mile and did a really good job of cutting tangents and everything. So that worked out really well.

My second mile wound up being my slowest mile, which was a 5:47, and since 5:48 is the time for 36 minutes, you know I did better than that. The second and third miles, I just kind of settled in to a consistent effort, which I did really well with. I got in at 5:47 for the second mile as I’ve said, and then I was I believe 5:38 for the third mile.

So when I got to the 5K it was 17:32 and I was not feeling great, but I wasn’t feeling bad at all. I was confident that I was going to do well, and I didn’t think I was gonna slow down too much. If things went well, then I would be able to pick up the pace and run right at 35 or even a little under. So I kept going.

The fourth mile is always the fast one. From 3 and a half to to 4 and a half, you’re basically running straight down. So that was a 5:27 for the fourth mile, and then the fifth mile was a 5:36. So the first half of that fifth mile you’re going pretty much straight down and then it evens out. You have a slight uphill towards the end of that mile.

From 5 to 5.7 is a rolling uphill ascent towards the park where the finish line is. And then after you turn into the park, you have this really steep but short uphill stretch and you take a right into the last half mile downhill finish right to the finish line.

My sixth mile was also another 5:36. So despite going uphill for that, I managed to put in a good effort. Every year that hill remembers me and I always do really well.

I caught quite a few people, a couple of my team mates were right around there, and a young guy that I know from the area.

So I ran through there and was just trying to take off as many people coming into the finish as I could. My final time was 34:46.0 net and 34:49.1 gun.

If you look at my two 5K splits, those are both season best 5K’s for me this year. I believe my best 5K up to this point has been a 17:40 that I ran at the Back Cove a few weeks ago. Everything else has been in the low/mid 18’s. So, I’m very happy with how I did.

I wasn’t sure that I would be able to run that fast but if you never take any risks, then you’ll never have a good race like that. Hopefully next year I can get into even better shape and go back and set a PR on the course. I’ve run 34:06 there 2 years ago, so I’d like to beat that, and it would be nice to get under 34 minutes.

So that will be my goal for next year, but this year I was very happy. The weather was absolutely beautiful. It’s the best running weather I have seen at Beach to Beacon in all the years that I have run it. And it was just such a good time. It was about 30 degrees cooler, about 40% less humidity that it was just the day before even. Everybody seemed to run pretty well.

(More Info: B2B – Full Results – Photos: Maine Running Photos – B2B)