10k back home in Iowa today, wanted to see what I could do for time. Not a normal leadup, travel and other things made it so I ate differently the night before and morning of, I also stayed up later and slept in later, not a great combo, but kind of had to throw out the playbook and was okay with that. Turns out I did end up having pretty severe stomach issues about halfway into the race, and while I made it to the finish, it did not feel great. I also got another sidecramp - just like in boston. This one was about 5.2 miles in, so about 1 to go. I think I didn't eat enough last night for dinner and this morning, since it was different than what I am used to, I decided to just eat less and I think that backfired a little. My body was just out of gas. I noticed it BIG time on my cooldown. I had absolutely nothing and barely squeaked out 2.2 miles cooling down, was going to go 4-5.
The race was on the Greenbelt Trail, one I used to use for the majority of my runs when I lived in West Des Moines. So I was excited to get to race on it. My garmin was way off today though. I don't think it could find me on the trail since its winding and its thickly forested. It had the course at 6.10 miles, which is pretty short, but the map I downloaded from the watch was all wonky - cutting off turns, going way off trail - just not reliable. I mapped the course on MapMyRun and it came out to exactly 6.21, which is pretty close for a 10k. I'm going to assume that the MapMyRun map is more accurate since it actually followed the contours of the trail and its twists and turns. Makes me kind of skeptical about my garmin now though, it freaked out a little at boston too, and i noticed today during the run that it felt like I was holding like 5:45 or so, but it kept saying 6:00 until I got to a clearing then it showed 5:40-5:50. Super weird, but seeing the map afterward helps me think that it just didn't get a good track on me during the race and so it measured short.
I also don't really trust my splits either, as it was not accurate to begin with, so even though it kept them, I'm going to disregard them. One thing I do know is I was around 18:15 at the turn. I would have been a little faster, but a dog on a leash jumped out in front of me and I almost had to stop. Just overall, lots of crazy things happening on this run!!
All told, I despite the watch glitch and the slowdown for the other trail traffic, I actually still wasn't too thrilled with how I ran. I just didn't feel like I had "it" today. The stomach problems were a big concern, and I know I slowed down in the 2nd half for those. The side cramp was also frustrating, but again, i think I just didn't eat enough the last 16 hours. I did win the race though, and pretty handily too. I got a $25 Scheel's gift card for the effort and everyone organizing the race was really friendly and kept telling me how good I did. That was awesome!! It was a good cause too - Huntington's disease, so money well spent on the registration. Overall, I'll focus on the good cause, the always great trail that I miss, and the win. I know not every day is a PR day and certainly today was just not one for me, but a good effort nonetheless and always fun to get out and race when I can!
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