I’d like to amend the schedule (already). I just noticed on my Business Law syllabus that my final exam is on Monday, 5/19. That would make spending most of a Saturday down in DC on 5/17 for the Capitol Hill Classic 10K exceedingly difficult. Therefore, I want to remove the Capitol Hill Classic on 5/17, and add the MCVET 10K in Baltimore on 5/25. My 10K debut will just take place on a much less grand stage. This likely won’t change my intention to run the Kiwanis 10K on 6/7. Rather than taking a week off after my goal race (now the MCVET 10K), I’ll probably just go on two weeks of active rest to keep my legs rest for Kiwanis, while preparing to enter training for the Baltimore Half. However, I can’t guarantee a stellar performance at Kiwanis. I don’t think that League consent is required for this, as the schedule isn’t yet set in stone. Let me know if you have any major objections to this.

My main goal is to not run the first mile too fast. That shouldn’t be much of a problem, because I’ll probably end up getting stuck behind a crowd (4,000 strong at the starting line). Ideally, I’d like to go out in 7:00. Also, since this is my first race since Thanksgiving and I had a period of time-off plus recovery training, I’d like to have my slowest split be no slower than 7:30. I did a two mile “tempo” two weeks ago at around a 7:20 pace, and a 2.5 mile tempo this past Tuesday at 7:35. Being that a mile warm-up/cool-down was down immediately before and after these runs, I don’t think an average 7:15 pace is out of the question for Sunday. Therefore, my third and final goal will be to finish in 22:30. I won’t be terribly concerned if I run slower than that, however, as the weather may be somewhat treacherous. The race isn’t until 1:30, as there will be a huge after-party following the finish. However, Sunday morning may feature snow and rain, and the afternoon may see winds as rough as 25mph (per weather.com). But I guess the weather for March races are always a roll of the dice.

Adubb: What was your 10K time at that race you ran in Colombia in 2007? I'm just curious as to whether or not I should begin to establish a goal time. I would need to run a 7:15 pace to hit 45:00. I just ran a 6:46 pace for a 5K this past weekend, so I guess 30 seconds slower per mile wouldn't be out of the question in 10 weeks, given that I stay healthy.

I believe it was between 3:50 - 3:59, but I could be wrong. I'm 99% sure it was under 4:00:00.

I haven't run it before, but if it's like any other substantial road race, traffic will likely be diverted for a good period of time.

http://runforhospice.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.map

That's quite a 10K performance. I had been thinking it was closer to 46:00, but I now definitely remember you mentioning how the first half was done under 22:00, and that you didn't slow down that much in the second half. To be honest, this makes me feel much better about my goal time of 45:00. Despite you not running that much recently, I still think of you as a superior runner (especially based on how you beat me by over four minutes at the 2006 Turkey Trot). However, now that I know you could (can?) run almost 44 flat, I'm much more confident that I can hold 7:15 for 10K. On another note, I didn't think about this until after Alden mentioned this recently... the fact that the first 400 meters of the race was downhill definitely helped my cause. My co-workers confirmed that the first mile marker was where I uneasily expected it was, meaning my first mile split was closer to 5:50! The would put my second mile split at 7:25, and third at about 7:00. On one hand, I think 20:57 may be overstating my abilities... on the other, I think the benefit of the downhill may have slightly been subdued by the crowd I had to overcome in order to open up my stride at the beginning of the race. That brings me to Hospice... judging by the course map, this may have one (or more) substantial uphill battles. I've adjusted the next few weeks of training by swapping any speed hill workout for the Van Buren hills (the 200 - 300 meter hills I've mentioned in training). I plan to do four of those bad boys this week, five next week, and six the following week. The week after that, with one week before Hospice, I plan on eight speed hills before tapering every so slightly the week of the race. Of course, all this could be thrown out the window if my knees begin to hurt. Also, I remember that when I first started running again in '06, I decided I would hold off on getting any kind of racing flat until I broke 21:00. If I get flats before Hospice, I hope those can wipe 3-5 seconds per mile from my time. If so, after another four and a half weeks of training, I don't see this being out of the realm of possibility: Mile 1: 6:30 Mile 2: 6:30 Mile 3: 6:15 200 meters: Under 45 seconds DR pointed out recently that I've been fairly soft with my predictions. That's kind of true... I have probably been trying to hold off race day heartbreak by setting loftier predictions. I'm going to make up for it by predicting that I will break 20:00 for the second time ever at Hospice.

I'd like to break 20:00.