I registered for this race over a month ago. Last week I emailed the race director so that they could add me to my team for the team competition....showed up this morning to check in and my name wasn't on the list despite having a confirmation code...so they gave me a bib and I filled out a new form. Luckily I didn't have to pay again. Needless to say once I finished it turns out that I'm not listed in the results. Good thing I kept my watch time. Maybe they will add me later. I hope that didn't cost us the team competition. Anyway, on to the race.
I've been sick this week with a nasty cold...that's part of the reason my mileage this week sucked. I needed a down week anyway. Luckily I have not had a fever and no aches, just a cold, so I decided to race. I Started with our phenom female team member and went out in 5:23...pace felt good, not too hard. For whatever reason the next mile marker said 5:38...but that had to be off. Anyway I quit taking splits after awhile. I went through the 5K in about 16:52. By that point I was all alone, as I would be for the rest of the race. I tried to keep myself surging and every few seconds to stay on the pace but I went by feel. I concentrated on relaxing and really puching myself and it paid off. I ran a negative split. Ran 33:40 or so...who knows when/if I'll be in the results.
Pros: I'm getting faster. The pace was fast but I was very strong all the way through...I really only felt pretty bad in the last mile and mental fortitude kept me giving my best but I really had to concentrate. Coming off of a 5 month injury and having only 1.5-2 months of real training, I'm very happy with this result and I should be able to go much faster this fall.
Cons: I've run three 10Ks faster. However, these were all on flatter courses, ideal seasons, and not coming off of injury. I'm always by myself in these types of races. The elites are way the hell up there and all of the casual runners, womens elites are well behind me...It's annoying. Perhaps I should work my way into 90 mile weeks and I can compete with the pack. We'll see.
All in all I';m on my way to better racing. Once my summer "season" starts on July 4th, it will be all about competitive racing.
Results (Im now in the results!)
PM: 1 hr. pool run
Photo by Cheryl Young
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