10k race report

Beautiful (slightly hot) weather for the 10k today. Jen came with me, and Sarita ran the 1.5 mile loop race. This race starts at 1pm, on the beach, so I got there after putting Andra down for her nap which was nice that she slept most of the time I was gone. (She's been sick, with a cold for 9+ days and a bout of real vomiting last night, though she seemed better today if uninterested in food.)

I wasn't sure what to expect, which seems to be the case a lot lately as I haven't officially been training, just kind of doing whatever I feel like. Which is ok, it just leaves me kind of unsure what my race goals should be. After my pathetic run with Natalie Sunday (I've decided to blame the talking...or rather, attempt at talking between gasping breaths...for the slow pace), I ran 3 more times last week with the BOB (Mon, Thurs and Fri) which put me at 20 miles for the week. Not bad. The BOB runs felt ok, probably because I wasn't trying to talk up the hills!

My ultimate goals for today were to run steady (something I managed to do in the 5k a few weeks ago, which felt good) and run a sub-9:00 pace. I thought I could maybe pull an 8:45 pace, but anything more didn't seem remotely possible at this point. Back in May on a pretty flat course I ran a 54:38 (8:48 pace) 10k. I didn't actually remember that until I just now looked back. At any rate, my time was approximately 54:15 today (official results say 54:23, still 8:45 pace) which would be exactly an 8:45 pace. Plus I did run reasonably steady, for a while anyway...approximate splits were 8:20, 8:25, 8:54, 8:24, 9:35, 9:14 and 1:10 for the .2 which I think adds up to 54:12, but official time will be a bit more. The course was the same as last year except backwards...for traffic reasons I think they ran the middle part (it loops) in reverse. It made for short steep downhills (the uphills I let myself walk last year 6 months pregnant) and loooong gradual uphills (which in reverse I would've sworn were flat!). I felt pretty slow towards the middle and end of the race. Not actually as slow as the 9:35 mile, but slower than an 8:45 average. I'm pleased, but just not sure why that pace felt slow. It sort of makes me want to get back on a training plan...I'm in decent shape and some focus, speedwork and upcoming cool weather could spell some results for me. But....eh....we'll see.

I'm not sure how hard I pushed. My breathing was always under control, heavy but not like a lot of people I heard. I don't think I'm ready for really pushing it. Thinking back on my 10k PR (May 2007, before I started blogging) which was an 8:08 pace, I know I did push there. Today was more relaxed. I'm not saying that if I had pushed harder I could've done better...truthfully, if I had pushed harder, I would've given up and walked. I just think that mentally I'm not where I was. Good, bad...who cares. It's just different. But I'm happy I'm out there, running reasonably fast, even if my distance isn't back where I wanted it. There's time. And I really do think I'll run more with the fall and even winter weather. I don't like the heat. And I bought the weasther shield for the BOB so Andra can come with me even once it gets cold.