Today was my first 10K that I have raced. I was looking forward to it this week but things did not go completely as planned. The weather report had changed and the wind was going to be strong for the start of the race. In fact, when I woke up this morning I could hear the wind howling. When we got to the race site I was still somewhat optimistic as it didn't seem that bad all the time. The wind was steady from the west at 24 miles per hour. Most of the course was going to be north/south with a little bit of east/west. I did a little bit of warm up before the race but I was not very careful about my time. The next thing I knew it was 7:56, I was 1/4 mile away from the race and I could see people hurrying up towards the starting line. Whoops! I was at the starting line and did not feel completely loosened up but was doing my best. The race started and off I went. The 5K and 10K race started out together so there was a good number of people starting out fast. I quickly got into a 6:30 pace then eased it slower to about a 6:50 something pace. I thought I would take it a little bit easy for the first couple miles then gradually pick things up. The first mile included a section of course going directly into the wind. It was tough but manageable. As I was finishing up the first mile I noticed my pace slowed a little bit and I was not able to get under 7:00. The next mile was about the same. At the beginning of the second mile a few people passed me. I was able to eventually pass them except for one, a 17 year old girl who I decided I would at least try and keep up with. My ankles still felt tight and very uncomfortable, my breathing and the rest of my legs felt ok. I was hoping that it would pass and I'd get into a good pace. Just past the turnaround I saw my wife running with her friend Kathryn. Jenny asked me "are you doing it?" I said no, but I felt some inspiration. I picked it up a little bit and as I got closer to the 4 mile marker I was determined to finally get under 7:00, which I did. I nearly caught up to the girl that had passed me. The 5th mile I was getting whipped by the wind some more and struggled to not totally blow it. My pace slowed a lot at one point and it took all I had to try and salvage it. Finally for the 6th mile I was able to get into a pretty good pace. As I got close to the finish line I heard several people I knew call out my name and cheer me on. Kathryn's boys were there yelling for me. Despite not having run the best that I thought I could have run, I gave it all I had for the finish.
Here are my splits: 7:00, 7:00, 7:07, 6:45, 7:10, 6:53, 0.26@6:28 Sometimes, it comes down to who has shown up for a given race. I saw the results and was pleased to see that I did get first for my age group. I went to look for Jenny and Kathryn. I soon saw them coming in strong. Jenny came in one minute faster than last year. Last year I paced her in and she was not able to beat that time on the 10k's she ran after that without me. But for this race, she beat that time, despite the whipping wind that did me in. Great job Jenny and Kathryn. Also, for the first time I met a fellow FRB blogger in person. I saw Mark from http://tamparunning.fastrunningblog.com So, that was kind of neat. I chatted with him for a bit. I had seen him at the Tampa Bay Lightning Bolt run 5K and I think I had followed him for a good part of the run. Something seemed familiar about him and I later remembered where I had seen him. So, today I said hi and introduced myself. Hopefully I'll get to meet from more FRB'ers eventually.
| 