Notes
First 10 mile race. Yay! Did better than I hoped for and expected. Awesome.
Race weather started off really humid, temperature in the 50s but air like pea soup. I felt myself gasping for air from the get go, which was uncomfortable and I had to tell myself to keep my head in it. Which I did. Sweat wasn't evaporating at all and I was hot (wearing short sleeve shirt, vest, and shorts). All in all, first 5 miles went pretty well, though. I stopped for Gatorade at the 2 and 4 mile areas but only drank mouthfuls, not the full cup.
My pace the first mile out was fast for a long race (especially because I thought I was aiming for 10:15-10:30), at 9:52. The next mile was 10 minutes flat and I guess I felt like I could hold it. The next several miles were all right around 10 flat, nice even pacing. That continued through about mile 5. I did at one point have kind of a cramp/stitch in my right shoulder/back area which made breathing painful, but I persisted and it went away. At a couple points when I slowed for water, my legs felt wobbly, but overall I was doing all right.
As I went toward City Hall and the 6 mile marker, though, I started having tough times. I would say around mile 5.5 or so I was really feeling kind of weak and wobbly and wondering if I was going to have a problem. There was a group of recruits from a policy academy doing cadence calls, and it gave me the psychological boost I needed. I ran alongside of them to the 6 mile marker and my pace had slowed beyond 10 minutes (I forget what, maybe 10:15 or 10:20) but I was feeling kind of bad and decided to run next to them for the next mile. It really did give me the lift I needed and kept me going, and I'm glad I did it. But at the 7 mile marker, my split was 11 minutes. I knew if I wanted to have a chance at hitting my goal time, I had to speed up, so I did and left the group behind.
I don't remember my exact splits, but I was definitely closer to pace around miles 8 and 9. I think one of them was close to 10 minutes, the other was a bit slower but much better than the 11 minute mile. Running into South Philly helped; I could tell myself that this was like another training run, that I was on my way home. Around this time it started raining for real, and I had to put my hat on to keep the rain out of my eyes. But overall the rain was a godsend. The air was no longer so humid and became much more breathable. And instead of being a soppy mess in a pool of my own sweat, I was refreshed and cooled. Perfect timing.
The last mile I absolutely kicked ass. I knew I couldn't get under 1:40 because I was at 1:31:38 (Going into the race, 1:40 would have been a lot faster than my goal, but once I had those early mile splits I got a little excited and thought maybe I could go for that). But I didn't want to back off. I told myself there was only one mile left and I could do it. I thought I could at least finish in the 1:40s and get my time closer to 1:40 and further from 1:45. And I did. On the final mile, after having run 9 miles, I managed a 9:28 split. I passed a ton of people who were flagging and finished my race damned strong and feisty. 1:41:06 for a 10:07 pace. Faster than I would have expected going into the race, and especially impressive on a day with crappy weather.