I have been excited to run a 10k since the last 10k I ran in November…mostly because they are almost never offered anywhere anymore. It seems there are either 5ks or half marathons…at least in my life. My best 10k times are just splits from half marathon PRs…well until last weekend.
This particular race is a masters championship race so there are a lot of fast people and big competition that come down to run it. The club that I’m a member of (Tidewater Striders) have a big rivalry with another local club and they use age grades times to determine the fastest team overall. Plus it’s an excuse to sport a team singlet so I look like I’m a serious runner or something…
Dad and I got there and casually warmed up but I mostly warmed up my vocal cords chatting to everyone. It was nice to finally be back in Virginia and see a whole slew of great runners and my friends. I love actually knowing more than 1 person at road races. I got to the starting line and was ready to go. Normally this race is upwards of 70 degrees, there is no shade or cloud cover and it’s sweaty just thinking about it…this year it was roughly 50 but the wind was out of control.
With that we lined up and the race was off. I hit the first mile in 5:55 (where is my pizza deal?). I was somewhat boxed in and there was a pack of about 10 people around me, with me being the caboose. I would love to say I was drafting off of them but I was about 5 feet behind about to blow away.
By mile 2 (6:21) the pack had fizzled out and I noticed I was roughly 5th female overall but it didn’t look like there was anyone in my age group ahead of me. (I don’t even deny that 20-24 females is generally a pretty easy age group compared to 25-29 but also anywhere in the 30s. We started running along the water and that is where the wind started.
Around the 5k point, I thought I might blow away. I hit it in 19:45 and was like oh my gosh…ain’t no one negative splits a 10k in the wind if I don’t break 40 I’m not going to be happy. So I started to run…faster…I would have been pretty torked honestly if I hadn’t broken 40 and I barely ever make goals like that for myself. Mile 3 was my slowest mile due to wind and whatever else at 6:36.
Around mile 4.5 I had in my sights my 14 year old rival. We always run roughly the same 5k/10k times over the summer. I knew I probably had some endurance on him so when I caught him I said “we got this man, it’s a sub 40 day for both of us” and we upped the speed a bit. I later passed him but he thanked me and was glad our rivalry can continue. I was glad we both ended up breaking 40 minutes. (though I’m not actually sure if he had already broken it before).
I hit mile 4 at a 6:24 pace and mile 5 at 6:27 pace. Then just charged the last final stretch which was just straight and looking at the finish line. During the last mile all I could think about was a sub 40. Then realized I was 40 seconds ahead of that…there is a reason I decided being a math major wasn’t for me..ha ha…In short this race felt good, not great, the wind certainly slowed me (and everyone) down but at least it wasn’t a heat box.
Splits were 5:55, 6:21, 6:36, 6:24, 6:27 and 6:11…typical race for me. My races tend to be in parabola form with fastest towards the outer miles and slowest towards the inner. I didn’t feel terrible during the race by any means but I didn’t feel awesome like the Nike half a few weeks ago either. I just felt like…I’m running a road race.
I got to see Kris and Renee who both ran PR’s and took 1st overall and second respectively. I probably say this a lot (and they are tired of it) but both of them are huge idols of mine.
Questions for you:
What is the most common race distance near you? (probably after 5ks I’d assume)
What or when is your goal race?