Woo Hoo! I Did It!!!

Workout: Mini-Marathon 10K Training Race

So today was suppose to be a lark. I was running this race just because it would be fun and a good distance, I like 10K’s. As a carrot though if I could finish the race in 48:00 (7:44/m pace) then I could improve my starting corral for the Mini in May. I already had a preferred start as a result of my Miami time so my thought was I would start out the race at a 7:45ish pace and see how many miles I could keep it up.

The day was beautiful. It was mid 20’s and sunny. On the way to the race the wind was blowing but that seemed to die down at the start. There were a ton of runners to my surprise. Someone said they heard there were more than 2400 pre-registered and who knows how many registered this morning. I was amped just standing around before the race.

So the thing that most anyone advising you on running a race will tell you is to not start out too fast. My first mile was 6:52…. 6:52…. Oh my God. I knew I was screwed at that point. Then the nest few miles I seemed to settle down into a 7:30 pace. Although I was dog tired in the middle of mile 2 I thought if I could just keep up 7:30’s through mile three I could back off and run 8:00’s the last three miles. Of course implementation of the strategy is often the problem. Here were my splits…

mile 1: 6:51
mile 2: 7:22
mile 3: 7:23
mile 4: 7:37
mile 5: 7:37
mile 6: 7:34
mile .02: 7:08

My total time was 47:40, I had 20 seconds to spare. Holy cow, I never thought I could do it. I crossed the finish line where my Dad was smiling and rooting me on. I walked over the barricade where he was and leaned over and thought I was going to hurl. But I did not. I was so excited I knew I had made it! What a great day!

6.2 miles/47:40/Avg 7:42