Doing What I Can

Sioux City Race for the Cure today. My first race of 2010, i cant believe its been 6 months since I last raced. Had a good warmup of around 12 minutes and strides. Started off the first mile easier than some of the sprinter-types. Hit mile 1 in 5:32.6. Started the race in about 5th, but by mile 1 it was a two man race, me and the leader, who had about 15 seconds on me, i clocked him around 5:16 for his first mile. Hit the 2nd mile in 5:54.5 (11:27), I had gained a lot of ground on the leader, he maybe had 5 seconds on me by the 2nd mile. From the halfway point through the 2nd mile I noticed he kept looking back to see where I was. From the first time he did this, I knew I had the race won. You dont look back unless you can feel something slipping, ive been there before unfortunately. I ended up passing him with around 600 to go for the lead. I felt good throughout the race, and really had more than enough to solidly close the race. Took the 3rd mile in 5:41.6, a 13 second negative split from mile 2. Finished up the last .1 in 39 seconds. Ended up pulling away to win the race by 6 seconds. Pretty exciting, I love winning races, its a great feeling. Got nice recognition at the awards ceremony, even was handed the microphone on stage to answer a few questions in front of a large audience...kind of caught me off guard. The main thing that today was about though was the cause--racing for breast cancer, I love doing races for such good causes and to be able to win today I felt like was a tribute to those who aren't so fortunate and aren't able to enjoy a weekend road race like I am. Pretty cool all around.

Cooled down for about 2 miles and some light static stretching. Next decision, whether to race 5k or 10k this coming saturday...prolly shoot for the 5k again.

6 mile run today, with 3 miles right at or under 7 min pace making them GMP miles. Felt really good, had a lot of pop in my legs. Splits:

1- 7:12.2

2- 7:26.5

3- 6:58.2 (21:36, 7:12 avg)

4- 6:52.6

5- 7:00.0

6- 7:09.5

TOTAL-- 42:39, 7:06.5 avg pace

6 soaking wet and cold miles today total. 3 miles total w/u and c/d with 12x400 repeats on the track with 1:15 rep breaks. Hit each between 1:18-1:20, total time was 15:48 for 3 miles or 5:16 avg pace. Felt pretty good given the conditions and felt like I was flowing. leaning towards 5k this weekend.

 4 easy today in 29:35, or 7:24 avg pace. I am going to run the 10k this weekend, shooting for somewhere in the 36's.

pre race 2 today, felt a little sluggish, not too concerned because I always feel bad running first thing in the mornings. 14:56, 7:28 avg for the run. Just a nice easy shakeout with 6 strides afterwards to boot.

I have wanted to run this race for the past 3 years, and I finally got my chance today. ended up choosing to run the 10k. 100 people ran the 10k, 300 some odd ran the 5k. Today was my first race win in a distance longer than 5k, felt very good. I started things off very well and dropped the rest of the field with a 5:39 opening mile. I was all alone from there. Right off the start this kid ran with me for around 400 meters, and we were kind of chatting when all of a sudden he turns to me and says "I'm just one of those stupid kids that starts out fast, I can't hold this pace forever" and with that dropped off significantly. I got a good chuckle out of it because people don't usually say stuff like that, pretty awesome! Here are my splits:

1- 5:39.3

2- 5:58.0 

3- 6:08.3

4- 6:05.3 (23:50, 5:57.5 pace through 4 miles)

5- 6:09.9 (30:00, 6:00 exactly through 5 miles, pretty cool to hit 30 exactly)

last 1.2- 7:41.9 (around 6:10-6:15 pace)

TOTAL-- 37:43, 6:05 pace

Overall, I actually am not happy with that time at all. I felt like I easily should have been under 37. I was disappointed to see my finish time when I came across the line. I just got tired late in the race, probably because all of my speed work has been shorter and quicker lately as I have been 5k prepping. It shows that I had it through 4 miles then kind of went downhill. Another reason I slowed after that first 5k (which was 18:30 and right on 37 pace), was that I had no one to run with. I won the race by 3 minutes so I had no one pushing me, i always feel like others help push me to run faster. I did catch a lot of the 5k people, so that helped a little, but overall, i just lost some steam and got tired. Need some more training for these longer runs. Oh well, i cant complain, I won and got $40 cash for the win! Plus they are sending me a custom tulip time mug in the mail. It was a great day, awesome weather, great people, well organized, i thoroughly enjoyed myself.