JSCH, by the time I got to
JSCH, by the time I got to the long downhill I was so mellow that I no longer cared about time, and was determined to just enjoy the run. After a few minutes of that I got bored, and started passing people. I kept building speed slowly and did'nt overstride because I concsously made the effort not to after reading the advice in this thread. The faster cadence came easy once I knew not to cave into my natural tendancy to overstride the downhills.
I have been lining up near the front at any non-starting mat timed races, and since I don't want to look like I'm inconsiderate I run fast (for me) for the first 1 1/2 miles. It feels fine, so I keep it up til about the 1.5 mile mark. I also realize that I probably won't increase my speed during a race, so starting out as fast as I comfortably can seems to make sense. By the time I am into mile two I realize that my heart rate is probably too high , so I go into cruise and start having a lot of people pass me. That's when most of the comments come, and they are all positive as well as motivating. Usually by then I only pass people who have burned out and are walking. With the long downhill starting at mile 2.5, I was still just taking it easy and enjoying being a smiling part of the parade, but after a while I realized that I was putting in no real effort, so the passing started. I really can't remember another race where I passed RUNNERS in the final mile, it was fun. The gravel last 1/4 mile was'nt the dessert like grass was at a race a few weeks ago, but it just made the BFRunning look all that much more awesome to the crowd at the finish.
On the downhill I just made an effort to not over stride, on the gravel finish I just tried to run extra light with a higher cadence.
