10k racing

I had a nice weekend. On Saturday I raced a 10k. This was my first race at this distance in over two years. My last race was in 2009. It was a Turkey Trot 10k and I had set a PR at that distance.

It really felt like I was a brand new runner trying to conquer a distance that I wasn't used to racing. My Saturday morning got off to a bumpy start because, my husband got a call early in the morning, informing him that he had to go to work. He knew how much I had been looking forward to my race so he  informed the dispatcher, that the earliest he could be there was 9:15am. He had made prior arrangements to watch his son, while his wife went to run a race.     This made me swoon. Normally work always comes first.

The race itself was a small local track club race. The goal of the race was to collect used running shoes for the less fortunate. I woke up at 6am and I made breakfast for my husband and son. I wolfed down my eggs and toast, got dressed in a hurry and left the house at 7:30 for an 8:00am start. In my haste I forgot my donated running shoes.

The course was on a pretty paved bike path located on the far east side of the Las Vegas valley and if you didn't have directions you wouldn't know it was there. I did a short warm up and did my ritual of saying a short prayer. The "gun" (horn) went off and the runners were on the move. The weather was perfect, no wind and it wasn't a very chilly morning. I took off and found my groove. I had a specific goal to run 7:30 per mile. I had to borrow my husbands watch to keep track of my splits. I hit the first mile at 7:23 and I felt good. At mile two I felt someone running up behind me. I had a feeling that it was another woman and I threw it into another gear to get some distance. I hit the turn around point and I realized that I was in 2nd place. I was excited and nervous at the same time. I knew I was running well. But "could I hold on"?

This was early in the race. I felt good here.

Well  the lady that tried to pass me at mile two caught me at mile five, and it became a dogfight. She would move up close I would pull away. She would eventually catch me down the home strtecth. I usually pride myself on my finishing kick, but I was dead at the end.  After the race I had a quick cool down, cheered on a few runners racing,  and then I had to hurry home because my husband had to go to work.
Today I am looking at the race in hindsight. I thought my legs would be trashed but, my back and core were more sore from pumping my arms. Also at the halfway point I had energy to cheer on runners and at the end when I was fighting it out I managed to  tell my competitor,  "good job". So I think I need to start doing shorter intervals (200, 400 meter repeats) I usually do tempo runs or progression runs. I need to do shorter harder stuff to increase my lactate and pain threshold.


I finished the race 47:10. That's about 7:35 per mile. I am happy because it is getting easier. In other news I am down 7lbs. I still have another 10lbs to lose but, it will happen. I can't wait to see where I am a month from now.