What's your "race style"?

I ran the Lake Union 10k yesterday in Seattle. It was a perfect run morning: cool weather, beautiful course, less than 1,100 runners (I think because the paved course around the lake isn't very wide). The race started at 7:30 and I was meeting up with some running friends, so, living an hour South meant my alarm clock went off incredibly early (4:30).

A view of Lake Union from the South end.

Side rant: I always worry too much about what I eat for breakfast the day of a race. I haven't yet made a majorly regrettable breakfast choice - but I've read enough running blogs that I'm overly concerned about some sort of emergency happening during a race (read: needing to poop). At least when you're up three hours before a race, you've got plenty of time to stand in line at the porta-potty.

Back to the topic at hand:

There are SO many different ways people approach race days. Some choose a goal time to try and beat, while others don't worry about their completion time. What do you do?

I recently purchased a Garmin 910xt and it's really changed the way I run races. It allows me to see my pace, my heart rate, and will let me compare my times for each mile ran (among the million other things it also does). This handy tool really lets me see how I'm doing, in real time, and lets me know how much harder I can push myself. I always try to beat whatever my previous time running that length was, and my Garmin helps me keep from starting out with a pace I can't maintain over the course of the run. 

Another tactic I've adopted during races, is to find someone with a pace a few seconds faster than mine, and follow them throughout the race. Sometimes this ends up with a long game of leap-frogging some poor stranger. Other times, I just find someone ahead of me with bright clothing on, and try to keep within eyesight.

For this race - I started out with (what felt like) a super fast pace. But, after a mile in, my watch told me I was right on track for my regular race pace (which is always faster than my training-run pace). After I wove through the pack to where my pace was, I found a guy in front of me with bight blue Mizuno Precisions on, and was able to creeper stalk  draft him the whole race. I was feeling pretty good during a few places and smoked this poor stranger up the hills, but then he came right back and passed me on the straightaways. (I should take that as a training tip, probably... but I'll choose to focus on the fact that I run strong hills.)

After the race, I made sure to find the guy and thank him for being my pacer. He was nice, and laughed as he said, "Yeah, I noticed you on those hills, you did well". (Which I think translated into: "You chicked me twice, but then I caught up... so they get cancelled out, right?). He finished REALLY strong; probably a good 15 seconds ahead of me, even though I sprinted the last 100 yards of the race, just to try and get those seconds down. 

I looped back around to a point before the finish line, so I could cheer on my running buddies, and here's where I got to thinking... What are these people's plans of attack? Some people looked like they hadn't just ran six miles, while others were pushing it so hard I was afraid they were going to miss the turn off for the finishline. 

It was pretty obvious that some runners were trying to beat a time, while still more seemed to be taking their time and enjoying their surroundings a little more. (Also, I was standing near the camera guy, and it was HILARIOUS to see the ridiculous things people were doing for their photos. I saw people with the look of death on their faces, covered in sweat, all of a sudden flash a HUGE smile, do an air jack, and yell, "WOOHOO" for this camera guy - and then immediately go back to exhausted-runner. It was hysterical!)

From this, to Richard Simmons, in 1 second flat.

Do you know what kind of "race style" you have? 

I like to treat races as endurance training runs: a way to get in some speedwork, and push myself a little harder than I so when I'm just competing with myself. And, it's the best time for me to PR. Less distractions, more competition (I'm just a LITTLE competitive. Like 10 steps behind Monica from Friends, competitive...)

So tell me what your plan of attack? Beat everyone? Don't be last? Beat a personal time, or within a certain time limit? 

Do you have a plan of attack for the camera guy? Mine? Avoid him at all costs... running directly behind someone else is not out of the question.