6.2 Miles – 41:32 (6:42 pace)
32nd overall and 7th in 30-39 men’s
First off I have a confession. I have gained back a chunk of weight and I have been in denial but I am ready to own up to the fact that I need to fix my diet. I am proof that you can’t out exercise a bad diet, I ran 230 miles last month and put in some good races recently. My running fitness feels really strong and it makes me wonder how fast I could be if I weighted as much as I did last year at 180lbs vs my current 196lbs.
I had a crummy running week and decided to write this race off as a workout. On Saturday I felt good and ran a hilly 10 mile course at 8:15 pace not something you should do the day before a race, but I wasn’t going to race. I should know when I am lying to myself I cannot “not race” but it does seem to take the pressure off.
Mile 1 – 6:28
I feel very marathon geared and not 10K geared. I decided that the best strategy was to go out at PR pace and then see how I feel. I wasn’t sure if I was in shape for a PR but I wanted put myself in the right place that I could get a PR (40:45 on this course in 2011).
Miles – 2 & 3 (6:45, 6:47)
That was a blazing fast first mile, my fastest single mile this year was 6:14 and I was paying for it the next 2 miles. I just tried to hold on to a decent pace while suffering. The crowd began to thin out and everything just kinda relaxed. This course has a fair amount of downhill and I was defiantly taking advantage by coasting and recovering. I completed the first 5k in about 20:41 not bad at all but I would be hard to match.
Miles 4 & 5 (6:54, 6:42)
Running a 10K (and shorter) is a lot different because pacing is so different. I feel like you take what each mile gives you and try to do the best you can each mile. After the 5K mark I defiantly felt recovered from mile 1 but now the course was harder and hotter. They started this race a 8:45 am, I think I was blind the majority of the race from all the sweat in my eyes.
Mile 6 & 0.2 (6:41, 6:05 pace for the last 0.2)
Like a lot of the races I have run, if you can hold your pace even you are going to pass a lot of people eventually. In this last mile I was passing people like crazy but looking at my watch I saw that I was going exactly the same speed. When I hit the last mile marker I did speed up a little but there was no sprint to the finish today.
I felt like I had slowed down a lot during the race but my second 5K was only 0:10 slower at 20:51. I missed my PR by 0:47 seconds but I can’t help but think that I could have beaten that time if I was lighter. Looking at the guys I finished around I am least 40lbs heavier than most of them.
