"A" 31:30
"B" 32:30
"C" 33:30
I found out about this race through one of my running buddies, Dan, and had to check it out since it sounded fast. It was so cheap to pre-register that I couldn't pass it up. Of course then I got on google maps and found out it was an hour away! I decided that was within reasonable distance though. I car-pooled with four running buddies: Dan, John, Pam and Chip. The drive was pretty easy, mostly on the interstate. Fun to car-pool with them and conversation took my mind off the race.
I did not feel nervous for this race until about half an hour before the start. I wore my favorite (most comfortable) running shorts and it was hot enough (74 degrees) to wear a sports bra. In the summer a sports bra is kind of my speed trigger. I do track workouts and tempo runs in one and it lets me know it is time to run fast. This doesn't work in the winter of course, but I was able to find a couple of outfits that gave me the same mental boost.
I warmed up with Dan for maybe 1.5 miles at an easy pace and then did three run outs at race pace and two short sprints. I only do runouts for 10k or below. I was going to approach this race like a 5k. Go out pretty fast and then settle into a good pace, kick it in from one mile out. I stood in about the third row to start and tucked in behind the elite crowd right after the gun. Within about 400 meters I could tell the front three or four ladies were going to go sub six minute pace. There was one girl that seemed to be right around 6:10 pace and I tried to go with her but some physical warning bells (heartrate!) let me know that wasn't wise. I hung back from her. She ended up finishing 6th about a minute in front of me. At about 1500 meters a lady passed me moving very fast, definitely sub 6:00 and she ended up going on to finish fourth. That was one calm start for her! Fortunately, that is the only woman that passed me the whole race. There were a handful of guys that passed me, but I passed a few as well. Mile 1 was 6:20 and didn't feel that good. It was really windy and rainy and humid as hell. I think the dewpoint was around 80 percent. I took a sip of water at the first water stop and dumped water on myself at every water stop.
The middle of the race is a bit of a blur, but here are my splits.
2 mile: 13:08
3 mile: 19:36
4 mile: 26:09
Finish: 32:35
Seventh female and age group winner since the first lady in my age group finished in the money.
That second mile was SLOW. Most of the guys that passed me, passed me in this mile. I had thrown out my "treat it like a 5k" theory and gone into 10k mode. In the past 10k has been the worst distance for me. In the middle miles I do what I call "falling asleep" and tend to be over-cautious on effort. To be honest, there might be a tad bit of laziness involved as well. I kind of cruise at a more comfortable pace than I should. When I got to mile 4 and calculated that I'd need to run in the 6:20s to get a 32 mid, I tried picking it up. You can see the finish line a long ways off in this race. Near the finish a guy passed me, but I stayed on his heels and then used him as a target to sprint past in the last hundred meters. I try to do this at every race. It usually means a cut of a few seconds for the overall time and a second or two off the overall pace. Sure enough, he averaged 6:32 and I averaged 6:31. Besides, it is a good opportunity to practice kicking, even though I'm not really competing with these guys.
After I finished, I asked some of the top finishers their times and places and found a new developing elite runner to follow on Twitter. I love to follow runners that are working towards elite status. So inspiring to watch their journeys. I cheered in the running buddies that I came with, as well as club members, Becky and Alan. They all had pretty good races despite the humidity. As usual, I felt fine about the race until after the awards and then I started picking it apart. Really wanted a high 6 teens or 6:20s for this distance, but it is what it is. I guess I should work on being grateful for the improvement over the past 10 months. Last June I did a mile all out in 6:48, so five at 6:31 is not too bad. Marathon training is going to start in earnest now!
Result and finishing video for Renee Harden: http://results.chronotrack.com/event/results/event/event-7436
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