Notes
Wow. Where to begin. Mark and I went out to the island today with the intention of breaking my PR in the 10K. I knew a solid PR was in the works as I've felt on fire the past week, but I did not expect this big of an improvement with minimal speedwork. Mark dropped me off at the starting point while he went back to the markt parking lot and parked. He met up with me by riding his bike 6 miles out to the start. While he was gone, I did a 2.25 mile warmup and some strides out on the course. Body felt really loose and good and I had a feeling I'd be able to operate at the top of my game. When Mark got there, we promptly started. Rolled through the first mile in 5:30 which was TOO SLOW and got me nervous. There was a small incline during some of the first mile which might have thrown me off a bit but I quickly recovered and hit the 2nd mile in 5:21. From here the pace began to feel like a constant sprint. I decided to committ early and hang on for as long as possible even if it meant dying at the end. Somehow I kept it going logging 5:25, 5:18, 5:26, 5:22 for the next 4 miles, not feeling great, but in control. I went through a good patch around mile 4 which was suprising as it seemed to come out of nowhere. But mile 5 and 6 quickly hit me and It was a tough campaign the rest of the way. The last half mile seemed to stretch on forever as I was really pushing it and feeling the burn pretty good! But somehow I came up with a hard kick at the end and left it all out on the road after I had finished. Mark was riding his bike next to me most of the time giving me water when I needed it (twice), offering encouragement, and ringing the cowbell and blowing the whistle to try and motivate me to keep on pushing. Well it seemed to help keep me focused as I ran an all out effort successfully and DESTROYED my previous 10K PR by 1:34!!! Many thanks to him for coming out there with me in the morning and helping me. Weather was ok, around 67-68 degrees with hardly a wind which was nice. It did get a little hot at the end but it wasn't that bad. When I finished I was dripping in sweat and very exhausted but VERY HAPPY as I felt that I had given it my best shot and ran a great time. I don't run 10K's very often but I'm glad I did today and now I can be happy with this time for the foreseable future.
Splits: 16:45 1st 5K
16:35 2nd 5K
3K Split: 10:05
8K Split: 26:48