Well, this is not the official time. I didn't stop my watch, and realized it when they were cutting off my chip, so I stopped the watch at 35:00. Even 35:00 would have been a big PR. TOO BAD THE COURSE WAS AGGREGIOUSLY SHORT. This is unexcusable. I am not pleased with the administration of the race, between this preventable, foreseeable error, and the timing screw up, I just don't think this race is a good option for serious runners. A volunteer told me before the race when I informed the volunteer by the course maps that I knew the course would be short, he said yeah, they clocked it that morning at 5.6 miles, yet they did nothing to fix this. They could have started the race further south and made the track loop partially on the grass, or added somewhere else, but I guess they thought we all would be happy with our PR's instead. Anyway. . . Prayed last night for some good prerace stars and got them. Went into work before the race to pick up some docs. Decided then to change into shorts from my tights (it was already 42F). Did a 2.6 mile warm up, chatted with the Sojourner chicks, ran to the Cannon Center a couple of times for their unused bathrooms (just 3 minutes from the start, meanwhile there was an incredible line at the track bathrooms). Decided to wear my singlet, so was in a tank top and shorts, and the weather was probably 43-44F, with some wind. I start next to Melody and Amanda, and a blonde chick lines up near us and she looks serious. Turns out it is Emily Bates, who I knew only by reputation, but now I have met her. At the gun we take off, Emily leads, then I lead briefly, then she leads again as we start the ascent, the first mile has 122 ft of climb, mostly in the last 1/3 of the mile. My first mile split (by mile markers) is 6:23, I was going for 6:20 since I knew there was uphill, so I felt ok with that. I pick off some guys as the hill continues into mile 2. The hill peaks at about 1.33, with 49 feet of climb, thats about when I passed Emily, then the 9th E downhill starts. The races second mile marker was way short, at least by 1/3 mile, my split was 3 minutes something, so from that point on I knew the course was short AND the mile markers were crap. That affected my psyche a bit since I can't rely on my lame gps, nor the mile markers, and the course was short, so I just tried to stay in the uncomfortable-but-sustainable zone. Not much to report after this, I stayed in first place, I did feel a lack of motivation in the 4.0-5.0 mile zone. We met up with the 5k group at about 4.8 miles and stay with them to the end. This would be good in theory, to have people to pick off. The problem is that I met the pack of 5k'ers who are just a tad slower than my pace, perhaps the 20:00 5k crowd. So it was easier to match their cadence than to pass them, but I made myself pass some, and with 200m to go around the track I put on some speed, then was done. A bit of dry heaving and crying. I wasn't really pleased with my strength in the second half. I feel like this race has taught me what I need to work on, my speed-endurance. Whatever that is, its the well you draw on in the second half or last third of a 10k. Mine is weak. My goal in the race was to break 38:00, and I measured the course on the course tool as 5.6, so if my time was 33:48 (not sure that it was) then that is 6:03 pace, and that gets me under 38:00. We'll see when the results get out. It was nice to chat with blog and nonblog runners. I talked with JulieC, Crockett, Tom and Kim Lee, Kent W, I met Cheryl from the blog (so nice to put a face with a blog), I talked a bit with Amber Harper (is Anderson her married name?--she won the 5k time--btw the 5k was LONG, geez), a couple of other Sojourner girls, Amanda and Melody, of course, and it was so nice to meet Emily Bates. She is quite accomplished, a professor with a PhD in genetics? and a strong athlete on top of that. So that's the 10k that wasn't. I am grateful to be racing :D
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