ran my longest- 8.5 mi (Read 93 times)

No faster than 11:00ish first couple of miles.

Try not to get too wrapped up in the numbers and miss out on enjoying the race experience, especially if it's your first 10k.

+1

Its amazing how much of a tunnel vision you get when running close to your redline.  Takes a lot away from your first long race experience.  Try and remember the scenery, camaraderie of running with a few hundred of your new friends,  how running faster than you've ever run in your training feels so much easier in the race etc.  You can then leverage these positive feelings for your subsequent races when you try and improve your time

Thank you all! ill keep this all in mind!

Actually I meant that I was thinking to break up the race in thirds.

1st 2 miles this pace

2nd 2 miles that pace

last 2.2 miles whatever..

 

but I have no idea what to expect so I’ll just try to enjoy it like you all said!

The strongest advice I can give you is to start conservative. Start 20% slower than you think you should. Because of adrenaline, even a too fast of a pace will feel kind of easy early on. But, beleive me, it will catch up to you fast. The last thing you want is to be at 1/2 mile or 1 mile and feel gased and distressed and be forced to slow down when really the race is just starting.  I don't think you will like your race experience if you start too fast and have to hold on for dear life. Think about, if you are feeling good at 3 miles, there is a lot of race still left to pick up the pace. Also, when you do so, you will be passing runners vs you being passed. Psychologically and physically, you will feel so much better about the race if you have the ability to finish stronger, and you will easily make up any time you lost from being a bit conservative early on and have a faster overall time. Enjoy it.

Distance runs will improve your speed. Part of speed is the underlying ability to sustain it. Be proud. Pacing is important too but if you are hanging on with all your energy just to run a 10k, it is hard to race it. If you can run 10k easy because you have run longer many times, then you can focus on pushing the pace. In running we call it base building. And remember the half marathon is just around the corner once you start going 8, 9, 10 miles. ;-)

Thanks  Dpschumacher. I actually ran my first 10 mi yesterday! And strangely no major problems. My knee was starting to twinge a bit but I was able to pick up the pace near the end. It was exhilarating!

I was just thinking that I’m this close to a half marathon distance!

tchuck:  everything you said, I believe. It’s going to be difficult for me to stay slow bc I have a certain goal I want to achieve. For a full marathon, I don’t care too much about time. I just would LIKE to finish before 6hrs...would be great if it were about 5-5:30hrs.

But for this 10k for some reason I’m stuck on “I have to beat THIS time bc it’s such a “short” race compared to a full, and I’m better than that.” 🙄🙄🙄

most of it is bc I’ve been running a little over a yr and made great strides and can go fast for very short distances.

but the biggest thing is if I don’t have an exact number/plan to follow I’m going to end up going a bit faster. It always happens. I’m doing an easy run and I finish faster at the end. Or I say I’m going to go slow but I end up starting “just a bit” faster.

So yiure right in that i hat I probably will make a huge mistake!!  I wish someone could just tell me what speed to run at! But that person has to be someone who sees me running, feels what I feel while running, everyday. And that would be ME! Ugh. It’s bad enough being solely responsible for little kids, now I gotta dictate how my runs should go too.

the other thing is, I do all my weekday runs (easy, tempo, 400m) on the treadmill. I THINK it’s calibrated pretty close to my gps watch. I feel like I’m running about the same pace.

And although my outdoor runs are ONLy long runs (so I keep it at an 11-12:00 pace), my treadmill runs lowest pace are about 10:20.

That is easy for me and by the time I’m half done..it’s up to 10-9:30 depending on how strong I feel. And that will last 20 - 10 min, respectively.

on the road, I usually start around 11:30 pace. It’s a long run that’s getting longer so Ive learned (after MONTHS) to control myself.

one person here told me to start at 11:00. I can TRY, but I already have in my head that I’ll start at 10:30 😬

I’m already doing the math in my head...if I start 2 miles at this pace, plus 2 miles at that, divide by total, what time will I finish etc...

😩

 

Start at the back of the field where the slower runners will force you to start slow for the first mile. You will feel energized every time you pass someone and the chip time is the only thing which matters. Start out conservative so your last 2 miles are full of energy instead of you being out of gas and having to walk.

 

Stop worrying about what your time will be and focus on having a great experience so you will be motivated to do another long race a month or two later. If you push too hard and crash at the end, you will say to yourself "why did I invest all that time training to have such a bad time at the race?"

 

I am new like you and ran my first 10k exactly a year ago (many 5k's before that). My 10k PR a month ago was almost 9 minutes faster than my first 10k and I have run several longer races since. Running has become my new hobby and I really feel like I owe it to that first 10k because I started conservative and felt so energized at the end.

This is good. Thank you...