Yea! It hurt, just like I thought it would, but I made my target and I am happy. The age groups were 40-49, I actually won my age group - because they took the overall masters winner out. I missed overall masters to a 40 year old, who beat me soundly (by a whole minute -- a huge amount in a 10K). So, my prize was nice as I got "first age group winner" (a very very nice pair of gloves), but I am counting it 2nd in my age group. The woman who beat me was in the 50 year old age group -- how great is that??? Not only that, but the 2nd woman in the 50-59 year age group beat me too!! I was 9th woman and 58th overall (out of 221).
I overslept ... I don't know what it is about me and 10K's - this time MichelleL was not here to wake me up. Luckily, I only woke up 35 mins late, so it was ok. I ran 3+ miles wu and 3 miles cd (much more slowly than my wu). It was about 35F and a little windy, but not as bad as it was during my track workouts. It was a flat course (a few blips but nothing to complain a lot about, but you felt them).
The mile markers were off, I tried really hard to not get freaked out and just run by what I knew I could do. I knew the course was certified, so I suspected that it would turn out ok. My strategy was to run the first 3-4 miles under control and then start racing, "run the first 1/2 of the race with your head and the last 1/2 with your heart" (I think Jack Daniels said this). My "wrong" splits were: 6:54, 7:25 (wrong - someone around me said it was a 7:11 split - it was uphill with a tough headwind, but not 25 seconds!), 6:58, 6:08(wrong), 7:51 (wrong - average of these two miles would be 6:59), 6:52 (hurt hurt), last .2 6:45. I think the last .2 was actually slower than the split showed, even though I was racing a guy that was right off of my shoulder (those 100m strides paid off today -- I beat him over the line by a stride) - it hurt. Did I mention how much it hurt? ;-). At 4 miles I saw Dean and he said "Ok Bon, you are doing great, now start passing these guys in front of you". Being the "follower of directions" that I am, I did. I just concentrated on picking off people, even though it hurt. My friend Merry passed me in mile 2, but I passed her at mile 4 - and according to her she tried to keep up with me but by mile 5 I was speeding up (it did not feel like it to me - though I was breathing hard by mile 4). Even though my splits were off my average pace was 7:00.5 and that is all I care about overall - well, that and that I did not slow down at the end ;-).
Ahhh. it took 4 years, but I finally did it! Thank you for your kind words and encouragement bloggers!
Happy Sunday bloggers.
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