Oct 13 10K Experience (2nd 10K)
OK, while I was reading some of the running experience posts that I enjoy so much, I realized I never include any of that “race experience" stuff in my post,…just times and goals. So I think I am going to give the more colorful side a shot.
On Oct 13, I ran my 2nd ever 10K event, at the American Family Amerifest 10K in
The Amerifest 10K had 276 runners and I finished in 1:07. I did a 5K in
We arrived separately with our families and didn’t find each other until we were being assembled to the starting line. We positioned ourselves toward the rear because it’s always better to pass a few folks than be passed and get the cracks about being in the way of the faster runners. I also have to mentally not pay attention to his pace because he takes these little fast strides that wear me out hearing them, but that is his running strategy. I focus on try to take a longer stride at pace I can maintain.
Anyways, we talked strategy for a minute before we started. I told him I planned to start slow and then slow down as I tire. We chuckled and got going. The first mile is always painful for me as my body works through it aches and pains and gets into a rhythm; the first psychological wall.
We passed a few and few past us, then we started getting the spaces between groups on mile 2. Into the second mile we seemed to be keeping pace with a lady running by herself. Everytime we got close she speeded up. After the third time she conceded some and jogged with us a ways then speeded up again. Just being my usual self, I started cracking one-liners my brother-in-law was enjoying. When I realized the lady in front was chuckling a bit also, so I quipped about how my underwire bra was just cutting me in half and wasn’t sure I could go on like this. The lady started laughing and slowed. As we passed I encouraged her to stay with us, she had been a good rabbit for us to chase. She then admitted she had only trained at 2 miles and wasn’t sure she was going to do the whole 10K and the laughing had finished her off. As we turned the first corner an started down a slow long hill on mile 2, she faded back and we never saw her again. Half way across the 1 mile crossover to the course back to the finish, the slow down-hill became an incline, equally slow and long. The course leveled back out as we turned the next corner at the 3 mile marker. My pace was a little faster than usual I thought and I was hanging pretty good with my brother-in-law who was quite chatty and we were having a kinda punchy conversation. Then we started up an incline again but this time the incline led to a steep hill I didn’t remember when I cased the route the day before from my car. I must have gotten distracted by traffic or something or wrote it off as much smaller that it appeared on foot; staring you right in the face before you got to it, with volunteers with first aid and EMTs at the top to confirm this was going to take some people away; PSYCH JOB!!.
I was getting a bit winded at this point and warned my partner I was going to have to walk a bit soon. He grunted and I decide to beat this hill before slowing down. Somehow I conquered the hill but I was whipped. He puttered onward and was out of sight as I got a couple of swallows of water and kept walking.
I was surprised at the number of runners in our pack that stopped completely to get there breath. After just a short distance I decided a slow jog would be faster than my walk and it was killing me to see people passing me I had passed on mile 3. I also passed another mental wall and got my second or third wind as I realized once jogging again, I felt pretty good and certainly no worse than before the hill. I had a brief chat with a lady I had been trying to catch for a while and a military looking guy I caught up to; turned out was in the reserves. We had passed each other a couple of times before he pulled away from me the last time at the 5 mile mark and I pulled away from the lady.
Then I saw my brother-in-law up front. I don’t know if he got tired and slowed or waited for me or some combination but I was able to catch up to him. He seemed a little surprised but impressed. I was feeling pretty positive at this point as I had never jogged as much of the 10K distance as I had this day. As we got to the last turn, two of my three daughters (that jogged the 5K and had finished) found us and cheered us on. They told me what a good time I had as it was only 1 hour 5 mins. They were impressed but I was crushed was almost giddy that I must be on a 60 min or less pace. Then they came out onto the road and ran with us to encourage us all the way to finish strong, so we started kicking. It may have been considered a sprint, but it quickly dwindled back down to a kick. My brother-in-law kicked past me right at the line and finished about 2 seconds ahead but 1:07:38 was my time.
That is a 31 minute improvement over 7 months from the last race but I was bummed. Then after I got the official posted results online to learn I finished 16 of 18 runners age 50-59 and many of the 60+ runners were faster, and finishing 241 out of 276, didn’t help my ego. So I consoled myself by considering, as in the Radford 5K where I did a personal best of 27 minute but finished 24 of 27 runners (bringing up the rear); this was a race with mostly serious runners. It is certainly a different level than the array of talent at the UKROPS run with 20,000 runners. That race is good for the ego and where I hope to post my sub-60 min 10K in April 08. That’s my goal and motivation to stay with it through the winter.
Keep at it guys and girls. I love reading about your achievements and experiences. They certainly help to keep me motivated.
