Notes
TC 10 mile on a cool, calm October day. Overall, I am pretty pleased with my result as it was a 57 second PR on a very difficult course.
As I look back on it, I am pleased with 5 miles (1,2, 4, 8 and 10) but not as happy with the other 5 miles. I got out fast on the first mile which was mostly flat into a downhill and I used the long downhill to carry that through mile two. Mile three was a tough climb up the River Road under the Franklin Bridge up and around to the top. That was a tough mile. Once over the bridge, I ran the next mile really well as it was flat. Right after that is where things got really tough. Mile 5 had a small climb towards Lake Street into a quick drop followed by another climb up towards the big hill leading to Summit and then miles 6 and 7 were the long climb up Summit towards Hamline Ave. The end of the 7th mile was right before Hamline Ave. which meant the first tenth of mile 8 was uphill but I was basically done climbing. I am happy with my effort on miles 3 and 5-7 because I thought I was really pushing it but I was not as happy afterwards with my splits. I think I should be able to maintain a pace closer to 6:15 on those so that was a bummer. I made some time up on mile 8 after taking a little bit of time to recover from the three miles of climbing before a bad mile 9. I don't know what happened there but 6:20 seems unacceptable to me. I'm not happy about that mile. I turned the corner and finished very strong though and I was not expecting to run sub 6 on that last mile. I felt good but I did not expect that time.
Overall, I am pleased with the time but worried if I can maintain that average pace over 26.2. I know this was a very tough course but I have mixed feelings about that. It's great that I have decreased my 10 mile PR by 2:48 this year though.