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February 24, 2007
Spring Thaw 10 Miler
Overall a great race, well run, great shirts and good food afterwards but I will mention that the name is rather misleading because (1) it's not spring yet and (2) nothing thaws when the temperature is 15 degrees. Oh wait, when I woke up this morning it was actually 4 degrees. Did I mention that I don't like living where it's cold? (there...I feel much better now that I have my weather complaints out of the way... :)
ANYWAY - I should mention that although it was cold it was very sunny which made it much better. And the race didn't start until 10 am so the temps were probably more like 20 by the time we raced...
O and I got to the race around 8:30, picked up our stuff, hung out in the warm building and then finally around 9:15 started a short 20 minute warmup. We stretched quickly, I unhappily took off about 5 layers and we headed down to the start of the race. There were actually people wearing shorts. Crazy!
I didn't quite know what to expect in terms of what I was going to be able to do in this race. I haven't been running much faster than 8 minute pace as of late and have not done any fast workouts (save one fartlek last week) for quite some time. So I thought I would try to start off at about 7 minute pace and see what happened.
Problem is, I have no concept of what 7 minute pace feels like these days. So we start and we go through the first mile and it was 6:37. Opps. To make a long story short, we stuck around that 6:30-6:45 pace the whole way. The splits:
6:37
6:51
6:43
6:33
6:37 (halfway in 33:23)
6:33
6:41
6:42
6:34
6:30 (2nd 5 miles in 33:01)
total time 1:06:25
The course was a 5 mile loop that we did twice so it makes for good comparison of first half vs 2nd half. I was very pleased to have run the 2nd 5 miles faster. I honestly don't know if I could have run much faster but I felt strong the whole way. I suppose at this time of year that is a good place to be in. I placed 3rd overall for the women - one women was very far ahead (maybe ran 63 or 64 minutes?) and I didn't see her at all. The 2nd place women came flying past me with about 3/4 of a mile to go. I'm a bit disappointed that I couldn't muster up enough oomph to go with her but she was running quite a bit faster than me and my last mile was my fastest so I'm not going to beat myself up about it. I was also glad to see that 1st place women is a multiple DII All-American and Olympic Trials qualifier in the marathon and the 2nd place women is also a very good runner with PRs much faster than mine (at least at the shorter distances anyway).
So all in all I am pleased with the performance. It is a 10 mile PR for me although I've only run 2 other 10 milers one of which was very low key and the other involved a course that basically went downhill for 5 miles and then turned around and went back up that same hill for 5 miles - not very conducive to fast times. Like I said, I was most pleased that I felt strong the whole way and negative splited. Now, all I have to do is be able to hold that same pace for another 3.1 miles after having swam 1.2 miles and biked 56 and I'll be in great shape for my half IM this summer. :)
After the race it became very apparent that my legs were incredibly unhappy with me. My hamstrings in particular were pretty angry. O and I jogged very easily for 10 minutes and then stretched - but I still felt like a ball of tightness.
I knew I still had a 50 minute bike ride on the schedule and although my orginal plan was to get on my bike as soon as we got home, I knew that wasn't too realistic given how my legs felt. So I showered and stretched really well, took a nap and then around 4:30 hopped on my bike for 50 minutes. I thought it was going to be really bad but honestly it wasn't bad at all. It was only 50 minutes for one and I think it actually helped loosen my legs up some. I think... :)
So that's my first race of the year! I think I'm starting off really well. If anything today's race just got me excited to get going again. Next up is a half marathon at the same park (on pretty much the same course) at the very end of March. And then I may do a cycling race in April. And then...yes then...the triathlon season will be upon us! YIPPPPEEEEEE!!!
PS: I have to report that nobody correctly guessed the one DMB song on my master mix which is actually a pretty good thing since I was bluffing about having a cool prize to give away. :) The song is actually Crush.
Good night all!
Posted by beth at February 24, 2007 5:37 PM
Comments
Wahoo PR!!! I'm glad your year started off on such a rockin note. Well done. Well done!!
Posted by: Audrey at February 24, 2007 6:35 PM
Congrats on a successful first race of the year! It's a nice feeling to start the season so well!
Posted by: Meghan at February 24, 2007 9:06 PM