Notes
Got up early, ate a banana and had a bottle of water before leaving for Nottingham (courtesy of my Mother driving me).
I had had several good runs, so I was ready for a great race, stretched, and really settled into a nice groove over the first mile or so. After the first mile, however, the number of hills on the trails really came to surprise me. I did pass several people walking and gutted through the first several climbs, even though I slowed my pace dramatically. Miles 2-5 were mostly in the sun on narrow trail, so the heat and humidity became awful. Following the pattern of everyone else I was passing, I tried to run up the inclines partway and walk the rest before running the flats and few declines.
As I passed mile 5, I was exhausted but decided I had two choices: keep breaking things up with walking or try to HTFU and finish strong. Choosing the latter, I enjoyed a short shady break and pushed through to where I expected to finish (mile 6.2). As I sprinted up a volunteer pointed us to a large field we had to run around before being sent towards the finish chute. I slowed to a comfortable pace and remained there for the next .5 mile. Again, I picked up the pace and pushed to where the finish line was. However, they routed us around another short loop before bringing us into the finish. My garmin finished at 3.85, and several oither Garmin wearers had similar mileages.
Overall, a very frustrating first 10K. According to others, the course was tough. I love running trails on weekends but am severely disappointed that I had walking breaks on miles 3, 4, 5 and 6. The heat was also a huge factor for the day.
This 10k completely suprised me at its difficulty and was a bit discouraging, especially after a week of great training runs. Even with the heat and nasty trail layout, my splits were not what I wanted them to be. I'm now officially worried about my ability to meet my goal and have a good race for the Philly Distance Run, but there are 8 weeks until that race, so I just need to stay focused.
Splits:
Mile 1: 9:36
Mile 2: 10:49
Mile 3: 13:13
Mile 4: 12:24
Mile 5: 13:06
Mile 6: 12:26
Last .85: 11:02