Is it really a win if the other competitors don't know they are racing?

Tonight was another fun night of speed work at the track.  The workout was a fairly laid back workout...a let's all get back in the groove type of workout.  The weather was actually warmish in the mid-40's with a light rain that started about half way through the workout.  My running partner and I got in a good warmup before the start.  I packed an old pair of shoes because I just hate getting my shoes all wet in the rain.  Unfortunately, these shoes did not agree with my legs during the warmup.  I was not feeling it and was actually worried I wouldn't last through the workout.  I took some time to stretch and that seemed to help.

We got started with the workout as a full group. Normally, those of us that are a little slower get a one lap head start! The workout was a triple ladder: 800, 600, 400, then 400, 600, 800, then 800, 600, 400.  The 800's were at half marathon pace, 600's at 10K pace, and the 400's at 5K pace.  We got 30 seconds rest between intervals and 1 min 30 sec rest between each set. 

It was really hard to keep to the half marathon pace.  As people would pass us, we caught ourselves speeding up a couple times.  We readjusted each time and kept ourselves settled until the last set. We had a good pace for our 600's and 400's even though they felt painful.  Our final 400 we went for it and didn't leave anything on the track.  The two fastest runners of the group were our unofficial timers. When we finished our last 600m they were 100m away doing their cooldown jog.  As they reached us, our rest time was over and we started our final 400m.  It was completely unspoken between the two of us but we both were going for it and trying to beat them. 

We finished up about 35m before them so we won the unofficial race.  I had no shame in telling them that they were in our race and pushed us to a fast finish.  We didn't have a time on our split but the other two runners estimated that they were running a 7:45 pace so that is a pretty rocking finish for us.  We normally aim for 2:00 min splits on our fastest 400m repeats when we are in peak conditioning.  It's awesome when your fitness jumps out and surprises you! The workout turned out so much better than I expected from how I felt during the warmup.  What a great start to the week!