Racing Recaps

Distance: 10.12km Time: 1:08 Pace: 6’49 kCal: 1118 Heart: N/A RPE: 6/7 Type: 10k Race

This was my third 10k of the month and I think it was one of the most organized races I’ve been to yet. It was held on a school campus and the road closures and organization for parking was excellent.

Plus the camera people were all over the place before the races coming up to people asking if they’d like their pictures taken.

Everyone was happy and cheerful.

 

It’s hard to believe that it was extremely cold and pouring rain.
I’m sure glad I had my umbrella – but I needed to pack it away before the race.

I must admit I’m getting more organized with this whole race thing, too. I had my knapsack and it only contained the necessities. No kitchen sick, or extra food – Just a clean fresh pair of socks…
I love clean socks after running – it’s like being in heaven.

The day before I drove through the race and I knew there were no serious hills (yeah!). So I was pretty confident that I was not going to get lost. I also checked all my equipment the day before (lesson learned).

We lined up in the coral and once again I’m at the back with half the people still holding their umbrellas. Each time I tried to inconspicuously edge my way under one, I got looks of hostility. Oh, well. Take it like a man. 52°F and raining – while I’m in my shorts and t-shirt.

At 3 minutes to the start, I link up my foot-pod, GPS satellites, and heart rate monitor to my watch. Oops, the HRM in not linking. Oh crap – not again. But with experience, I said what-the-hey and just turned it off (later I found out that the battery died overnight). No music this time either. I wanted to focus on my running.

At 7:30 I’m ready to go, but still no start signal. I was getting cold.
Three minutes later we’re off.

It was raining quite a bit, but at least now I was on the move and started to warm up.

Before I knew it we passed the first 1k. It was all down hill no I ran a faster-than-normal pace. Next, around the curve and up a small hill – these were nothing compared to the week before… so up I went. I flew by the first water station and kept on going.

I was looking to someone to follow. But everyone was either faster or slower than me. So rather than keep a steady pace, I let the road and gravity dictate my speed and stride length. I then found a group of runners that I could be with. But only a few minutes later we reached the 5k turn-around and they were gone.

Once again I was on my own.

At the 4k mark I grabbed some water, and as I was sipping it, a 7 to 9 year old boy whizzed right by me. Thirty seconds later the puffing mother slowly passes on my left. That was some cool excitement.

I saw my wife just after the turn-around and knew she was going to get a PR and easily break 1 hour. Me? I was doing pretty good and my ankle was still behaving. My goal was to get under 1h08m and at a 33m turn-around time it was looking good.

Ten minutes later I was day-dreaming and noticed that my pace was a lot slower than it should be, so I picked it up again. Five minutes later I was doing it again. I guess the sound of the rain is just too soothing for me. But finally I become more aware for what I was doing… I was running! Oh, that’s right.

I felt like Forrest Gump running from coast to coast.

At the 8k mark I became more aware of what I was doing and finally become more alert. I slacked off a bit and I was determined to make up lost time, but it was all up hill until the end.

So I did the best I could and sill couldn’t find anyone with the same pace. As I was passing people that were walking and encouraged them, knowing that we were almost to the end. After doing that I few times, I looked behind me to see those that I just talked to, bringing up the rear. That was when I felt like Forrest Gump running from coast to coast.

I felt sorry for leaving them behind, but the end was near and I wanted a string finish. I came around the final curve and saw the finish line just up ahead. The half-marathoners were also coming in now (they started earlier), so I finally got to run with the pack. Next thing you know, we’re all sprinting towards the finish line.

Did I break 1h08m? No. Missed it by 29 seconds. But I’m sure I could have if I didn’t loose focus. I’ll know what to look out for next time, so it was another great experience… and that last 30 seconds sprinting in the pack was very exhilarating.

Oh, and my wife? Yup! She broke one hour!
Time to celebrate.