Pre-Race
We met my mom, Mike and Brenda at Caribou at 6:45am for some pre-race
beverages. I was still feeling a bit stuffed up from my cold…yes I got a cold
before my “should be breakout 10K.” I was very angry Friday morning when I woke
up with a stuffed up nose. I actually wanted to cry because I trained really
hard for this 10K and it was going to be ruined by a damn cold. But alas, I
drank my delicious Caribou hot chocolate, excited for the day but also nervous
how my breathing would be effected.
The Start
It was pretty chilly and very windy morning when Eric, DJ and I stood
at the start line. DJ dropped down to the 10K from the full marathon…she was
smart! The temperature at start time was 45 degrees but with 12 mph wind it
felt cold. But I was ready to go; I wanted this to be awesome. There were almost
700 of us lined up at the start. The Half and Full marathoners were around too.
They started 30 minutes after us. They blew the horn and we were on our way. At
about a half mile I thought to myself I’m crazy. This cold, windy air is going
to make me sicker but I pressed on.
Mile 1 was good at 11:12. There were a ton of people around us. DJ was
way ahead of us…and she said she was walking it…liar! The first couple miles were pretty boring as
we ran through some neighborhoods. There were some rolling hills that don’t
even show up on the elevation chart. I run up all the hills! Mile 2 came in a little slower at 11:16 but
like I said there were some hills.
The Middle
Between Mile 2 and 3 was the first water stop. I walked through the
water stop because I still haven’t mastered drinking and running and I didn’t
want to get wet when it was so cold and windy. Mile 3 was my slowest of the
entire run at 11:22. I wasn’t too upset because I walked through the water stop and I knew what was coming…the
HILL! The main reason I decided to jump up to the 10K this weekend was I know the
hill would be fun to run down and I’d have a good time. I was right. Mile 4 was
all downhill and my pace for that mile was the fastest mile EVER for me. I ran
it in 10:19. My fastest mile by almost 30 seconds. Somewhere on the hill I past
DJ and never looked back. Eric always told me that hills were equalizers. He
was right. I was feeling awesome…until I hit the bottom of the hill.
The Finish
Flying down the hill was great but when you get to the bottom you realize
you still have 2 more miles to go. It really was a blow to my ego. But I kept trucking on. Mile 5 was tough as
we ran on Stoltzman Road and they didn’t block it off to traffic so we had to
run on the shoulder with cars whipping past us going 45+. That was the toughest
mile mentally even though it was my second fastest at 11:11. Mile 6 brought us on
to Riverfront Drive. It was a relief we had the road to ourselves. Mile 6 was
slow at 11:19. Eric left me at some
point before we reached Mile 6. I had enough in me though to sprint to the
finish. My last split was a 9:36 pace. I think the speed workouts are helping.
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| It took over a minute for me to get over the "start" line. That is my time says 1:08. |
Results and Analysis
My overall time was 1:07:43 with a pace of 11:04, my fastest 10K by 12
minutes. This 10K was a little short of a true 10K but who cares. If you extrapolate
it out it would have been about 1:09. That is still 10 minutes faster. I was so
happy with my result. I was smiling crossing the finish line. I felt great
afterwards too. The 11:04 pace was also my fastest pace for any of my runs ever…and
I went 6 miles! I know that big hill helped a lot but I am excited for my next
5K. Maybe, just maybe, I can get under 35.
My time for the last half of this 10K was 33:59! That included the
hill. If you take the hill out of the equation my 5K time was 34:55. I can do
this!
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| Mankato Marathon 10K Medal. Nice medal! |
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