Very true that the 10k is at times over looked as a distance to test oneself.

thanks for starting the group. i'm planning a 10k for february and hope to do around 48 mins. congrats on your marathon!

Thanks for the group. I have never run a 10k but I really want to. It is definitely on my list of races to run.

“Among racers it has been said that the 10k race is the perfect distance because it combines distance with speed nearly equally. A 10k (about 6.2 miles) is long enough to challenge a runner's endurance but is not so long as to slow a runner down. (Most people aren't sprinting at the end of a marathon, but it's certainly possible at a 10k distance.) Is 10k the perfect distance?” I borrowed the above quote from a quick Yahoo search, but I have heard it many times before. My first race ever was a 10k that I ran back in the late 70’s and it was there where I became hooked on runninig. It was easily the most popular road racing distance and what you were measured by. All other distances were based on “10k equivalents”. To some degree this still holds true today, but not to the extent that it did then. If you can run well at the 10k distance, chances are that you will do well at all other distances between 5k and the marathon, if you train for them. If we look at some of the greatest marathoners from past and present, they all cut their teeth on 10k’s. Frank Shorter, Alberto Salazar, Paula Radcliffe and the great Haile Gebrselassie are a few that come to mind. Gebreslassie is the current world record holder in the marathon, but set many records at 10k and won Olympic gold medals before moving up in distance. Paula Radcliffe likes to run a hard 10k just before her key marathons. This is exactly what she did before winning the most recent World Cup in spectacular front running fashion. If only more of today’s runners would think about this before rushing into marathons that they aren’t prepared for, they wouldn’t be sorry. Since that first one I have run 161 more 10k’s, easily the most of any distance. As a late starter in this sport, my best was a 33:48 that I ran at age 43. That same year I also had a 33:50. However, I can’t remember any one of them being more satisfying than the 39:36 I ran this year as a 61 year old. A month later I lowered it by another 4 seconds, proving to myself that the first one was no fluke. It took me more than 2 ½ years of trying to break 40 minutes, and there were several times along the way that I doubted it would ever happen again. “The harder the battle, the sweeter the victory”, as the saying goes. I had to be in every bit as good of shape as I was when I could race almost a minute per mile faster. The push that I started about 3 years ago followed a 7-year period during my 50’s that I didn’t run much and almost never raced. You are never too old.

Good to see you back eispickel...and thanks I have some other ideas, such as another thread where members can list next scheduled 10k, goal time, and and possilby a comment. Have to shove off for work now. Will talk more later. JIm

Jim, thanks for the post....I like that...and not to highjack the thread......but my very first race back in the 80's was a 10K in Manhattan, Kansas. Guess who also ran that race....Frank Shorter.... I've been away from running for a long time and am just getting back into it. BUT I ALWAYS remember that race as an I CAN do this.....with the added excitement of watching Frank Shorter pass me going towards the finish line while I'm still a long way from the 1/2 turn around. Very cool and very exciting! modified....post doesn't look right!