Enter the text message from my friend Leah on Tuesday evening: "Mags.. you doing the 10k on Saturday??" Ugh...why the hell not? I entered online and told her that I was running.
I wasn't too pleased with my decision to enter. I had run the Pittsburgh Half Marathon in May and done way better than I'd anticipated on way less training than I should have had -- my goal was to run under two hours and crossed the finish line in 1:51:59. I took two weeks off and slacked at getting back into my training until this past week in preparation for the 10 miler. I didn't think I was ready to run the 10k and really didn't want to do anything but run a PR. I ran the same race seven years ago when I was in college in 54:04. It was an OK time, but nothing to write home about. My 10k split from the half marathon was just faster than that, so I had the ability to run a PR, but I doubted that my lack of training would provide that outcome.
Back to today.
My breakfast was nearly nonexistent...half of a half of a bagel. My warmup was nearly the same -- a run from the parking lot to the track to pick up my packet and back to the car to drop off my freebie shirt. I wasn't expecting anything and just hoping to finish in a reasonable time. Don't run to be competitive, I told myself. Use this as a training run. Telling me to not be competitive is like telling the sun not to shine.
The gun sounded and we were off. I passed my friend Mike from work about three quarters of a mile in and he gave me some friendly ribbing that I shouldn't be passing him already. I caught and passed Leah about a half mile later. My legs felt good, so I just kept going after the people in front of me. Most of the second mile is uphill at a fairly good grade and I passed some more people, a lot pf them women. I had started pretty close to the beginning of the pack at the start, so I knew that there couldn't be too many more of them out there in front of me.
I just kept plugging along and made it through the halfway mark at right around 24 minutes. My 5k PR is 24:16, so I knew I was running well and kept pushing. There's another tough uphill part right at the beginning of the second half of the race that killed me the first time I ran the course seven years ago, so that made me a little nervous. I made it to the top of that hill and then the course wound downhill through a residential neighborhood where the 10k course and 5k course run side by side. The closest female competitor in front of me started fading just before the course started back up the hill as we started to leave that neighborhood, so I made my move and passed her.
There's one last uphill stretch for about 200 meters before the rest of the course is downhill for a mile. My friend Joy was working the last water station right there and said, "There's only three women in front of you!" That's all?! If no one passes me, I'll place in the top five and get a plaque! Before I even ran the race, I looked at last year's results and saw that if I ran under 50 minutes I had a great shot at breaking the top five, so that got me really excited. I made it to the top of the last hill and the fifth mile marker (a quick glance at my watch told me that I was right around 41 minutes) and then it hit -- that panicky feeling that I wasn't sure if I could hold my pace. Calm down. You've come this far and you can place. You can get a PR if you just use the downhill and GO. I don't know where it came from, but I did calm down, finished the downhill strong, turned the corner and headed back toward the track and the last half mile of the race.
I entered the football stadium knowing that I had just under one full lap to go. You have less than a quarter of a mile to go. PUSH. I started trying to kick as soon as I hit the track. I strided out the back stretch as much as I could and then hugged the curve as I came around to the last 60 meters. I hit the 100 meter dash start line and saw the 10k clock running just in front of me -- 49:33. GO. NOW. I could get in under 50 minutes! I was going to place in the top five! I kicked like my ass was on fire and came in at 49:47.
I made my way to the water and food tent and then back to the fence around the track to cheer on Leah and Mike as they finished. Then I had to hang around to wait for the awards announcements. When they got to the 10k women, they got through the top five and my name wasn't called. HUH? I collected my first place age group medal and then took a look at the full finishers' results board. Sixth overall...by just 31 seconds. Well shit. I can't say that wasn't a letdown, but the whole race was great. Earning a PR by 4:17 was awesome...I can't believe I ran that fast after not having run consistently for a few weeks. Now all I can hope for is that this race will be a good indicator as to how next Saturday's race will go.
Another bonus from today: One of my tracklings ran the 5k and was second in her age group and the 11th female overall. It made me so proud!
I just kept plugging along and made it through the halfway mark at right around 24 minutes. My 5k PR is 24:16, so I knew I was running well and kept pushing. There's another tough uphill part right at the beginning of the second half of the race that killed me the first time I ran the course seven years ago, so that made me a little nervous. I made it to the top of that hill and then the course wound downhill through a residential neighborhood where the 10k course and 5k course run side by side. The closest female competitor in front of me started fading just before the course started back up the hill as we started to leave that neighborhood, so I made my move and passed her.
There's one last uphill stretch for about 200 meters before the rest of the course is downhill for a mile. My friend Joy was working the last water station right there and said, "There's only three women in front of you!" That's all?! If no one passes me, I'll place in the top five and get a plaque! Before I even ran the race, I looked at last year's results and saw that if I ran under 50 minutes I had a great shot at breaking the top five, so that got me really excited. I made it to the top of the last hill and the fifth mile marker (a quick glance at my watch told me that I was right around 41 minutes) and then it hit -- that panicky feeling that I wasn't sure if I could hold my pace. Calm down. You've come this far and you can place. You can get a PR if you just use the downhill and GO. I don't know where it came from, but I did calm down, finished the downhill strong, turned the corner and headed back toward the track and the last half mile of the race.
I entered the football stadium knowing that I had just under one full lap to go. You have less than a quarter of a mile to go. PUSH. I started trying to kick as soon as I hit the track. I strided out the back stretch as much as I could and then hugged the curve as I came around to the last 60 meters. I hit the 100 meter dash start line and saw the 10k clock running just in front of me -- 49:33. GO. NOW. I could get in under 50 minutes! I was going to place in the top five! I kicked like my ass was on fire and came in at 49:47.
I made my way to the water and food tent and then back to the fence around the track to cheer on Leah and Mike as they finished. Then I had to hang around to wait for the awards announcements. When they got to the 10k women, they got through the top five and my name wasn't called. HUH? I collected my first place age group medal and then took a look at the full finishers' results board. Sixth overall...by just 31 seconds. Well shit. I can't say that wasn't a letdown, but the whole race was great. Earning a PR by 4:17 was awesome...I can't believe I ran that fast after not having run consistently for a few weeks. Now all I can hope for is that this race will be a good indicator as to how next Saturday's race will go.
Another bonus from today: One of my tracklings ran the 5k and was second in her age group and the 11th female overall. It made me so proud!
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