41:55, 14th Overall
Perfect conditions on a day to support a great cause. My first
race since Boston, and first race where not injured in quite some time.
I wouldn't say I had low expectations for this race, it was more like no expectations or even no concept of expectations. All during May I was running mid 20's for mileage and it was getting worse and worse with the hip area pain. I kept on taking time off but nothing seemed to work. But eventually with some exercises that Jenny showed me from an article by coach Jay Johnson and a month of physical therapy I think I'm back to normal and hopefully better than I was before even when not injured.
Before the race I did a 1 mile warm up. It was a beautiful morning with the sun rising up over Tampa Bay, looking out from Vinoy Park. While it was still dark the pier was illuminated with pink lighting in honor of breast cancer awareness.
I went out way too fast the first mile but it felt great (6:13),
the
other miles were: 6:35, 7:00, 6:48, 6:46, 6:40 with the last bit after mile 6 in
6:01 pace.
Two minutes slower than my PR but a very lifting race.
Running the first mile actually felt like one of the best first miles of a 10K I've run. But, after the first mile I couldn't quite hold on and needed to readjust and I just focused on keeping it under 7:00, which I did except for the third mile which was up hill. I got passed by a few people here and there up to about the 4th mile. There was a woman that passed me that I almost caught up to a few times but eventually she got away from me, finishing about 20 seconds ahead of me to be the overall first female. There was also a guy that ran up behind me and said "are you Mark?", he said he was in my age group and that I usually beat him (his name was Steve). He also said he was supposed to be running with his wife but he got a little carried away. I said I think that today was the day he might get me. He told me to follow him which I did for a while but he got away from me.
I
think I can scratch off the (injured) now.
