44:29 was what the clock said when I crossed the finish line, but I don't know my official time so I may be off a second. Anyways, I'm PUMPED. Slaughtered my PR by almost 5 minutes. Anyways, got the kids up early, drank a cup of coffee and ate a banana, then drank a cup of water, loaded up, and drove to the course. We got there with an hour to spare. There was a playground right by the finish line! I couldn't have asked for a better setup than that! Warmed up with about 10 or 15 minutes of slow jogging and one burst of race pace, then found the starting line and lined up about 5 minutes before we were off. There was a ton of people there. Anyways, I took off at what I thought was about the right pace, trying not to get overexcited. 1K split was 4:15. A little fast. Can't remember my 2k exactly but it was 8 something. Still a little fast. Saw my kids cheering for me when we passed by the playground around the 4k mark. Then we ran through a bunch of people lined up cheering for us and that was actually really awesome and made me run faster. Crossed 5K in 22:13 still feeling pretty good and just kept plugging away. Somewhere between 6k and 7k it started to get harder. I just kept telling myself to relax. Relax. Tempo. Relax. Tempo. That was what I kept repeating over and over in my head. Don't know why! Anyways legs were feeling clompy like my feet were slapping really hard, but around 8k that feeling seemed to pass. I started to push at 8k knowing that I was probably slowing down. Concentrated on form and staying relaxed. Crossed 9k at 40something and knew if I wanted under 45 minutes I better turn it on. I turned it on, dropped into a dead sprint as soon as I could see the finish line, and when I was coming down the home stretch I could see the clock was 44 something so I was grinning like a fool when I crossed the finish line! Not to mention my kids were screaming at me to sprint! I am very happy with this race! I feel like I had some left when I finished so at my next 10k in a month I will not be afraid to push a little harder--I now know that at this pace I will not blow up and die before the finish. Leg tiredness seems to be what slows me down in the end more than my breathing. My breathing felt pretty good and controlled the whole race. I will have to keep plugging away at those strength drills. Anyways everyone have a great Easter! | 