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Notes

Intro

This was my third and final tune-up race for my upcoming debut marathon. I am following Pfitz 18/55, which calls for tune-up races 6, 4 and 2 weeks before the big day. I had set PRs in my two previous tune-ups and I was hoping to set another in this race. I set my 10K PR in 1997 when I was just 25 year old. To beat that, I would have to run faster than 6:56 per mile. Based on my recent training, I was pretty confident I could pull that off.

Pre-race

I have slept well before other recent races, but I was really keyed up the night before this one. I went to bed at 10:30, but just couldn't sleep. I eventually did fall asleep and then woke up 2 hours before my alarm and then had a hard time getting back to sleep. Nonetheless, I felt pretty good when I was drinking my coffee at 6:45. The race started at 9:05, so I got to the race around 8:00, leaving plenty of time for registration and warm up. It was a chilly morning, so I wore my brand new arm warmers in the the warm up. I had never worn them before and wanted to test them out before the marathon. They felt comfortable and warm, but I dumped them right before the race. I jogged 2 miles, faster than I would like, did a few strides and then lined up for the start, with 5 minutes to spare.

Mile 1: I felt good from the very start. Like those around me, I went out way too fast, but I managed to dial in a more reasonable pace after the first quarter mile. At one point, my Garmin said 5:45 or something ridiculous, but I ended mile 1 with a time of 6:23.

Mile 2: At this point, I briefly wondered if I could run sub 40. To do that, I would have to hold a 6:26 pace for another 5 miles. I tried not to look at my Garmin so much and run more by feel. When I finished mile 2, I noticed my pace had slipped a bit to 6:32.

Mile 3: Before the race, I heard people talking about a hill in mile 3. I run a lot of hills, but not at a sub 7 pace. When I saw the long hill ahead of me, I gulped and gave myself permission to ease up a bit. I pushed as hard as I could up it, but it just kept going. Later my Garmin said it was just 80 feet, but it felt brutal at the pace I was running. Fortunately, we came right back down after the crest and I picked up some time on the downhill. I finished that mile in 6:51.

Mile 4: Up until this point, I wasn't really racing against anyone else. I was just running my own race. Once I had the big hill behind me, I started looking for people up ahead that I could pick off. I don't think I had been passed after mile 2 and I was starting to catch up with people who had been ahead of me the whole race. This was a good mile for me. 6:39.

Mile 5: This is when things really started to get tough. I felt I should be able to get back down into the 6:20s, but just couldn't get there. There were not a ton of racers ahead of me, but I tried to focus on the next guy and keep it moving. I might have passed one or two people in this mile, but I gained on several others. When I hit the 5th mile marker, I realized I had set a new 5 mile PR with the memorable time of 33:33. My pace for that mile was 6:43

Mile 6 and 6.2: Most of the last bit was a straightaway. In a sense this was good, because I could see the finish from more than half a mile away, but I was already digging deep and that finish line just seemed so far away. I passed an older guy with about 200m to go and was gaining on a younger kid when a high schooler came flying by. I had passed him in mile 5 and he was cursing and yelling and complaining. Obviously, he had more left in the tank than I did at the end, but I think he had less fun. I crossed the line in 41:29 and was completely exhausted. I had forgotten how much 10ks hurt. My final split paces were 6:25 and 6:24.

Post-race

I usually like to stick around for the awards, but I was done at 9:45 and awards weren't scheduled until 10:30. We had a busy day planned at home, so I cheered on a few other finishers and then left. Later, I checked results on the web and I noticed that the AGs were in 5 year increments and that I was actually 3rd in my AG. I don't know if I will get an award or not, but I am pretty pleased with 3rd. But more importantly, I am happy that my 41 year-old body beat my 25 year-old self by a full minute. Obviously, I have been training much more than I ever did before, but it is still gratifying. Most importantly, this race was a good confidence boost for my upcoming marathon. I'll go back into taper mode and try to stay healthy for two more weeks. The 10K was nice, but the marathon is the goal race.

Event stats:

AG: 3/39

OA: 22/473