4th of July 10K Race Report

Race start - 8 am
Temperature - 68 degrees
Time - 1:15:45

This morning I got up and had my usual pre-race breakfast, 2 slices of toast one with peanut butter and one with nutella.  I drank some water and got ready.  The weather was a little humid, so I decided to wear my "warm weather" running clothes, a racerback tank top and a running skirt.  I also took a few minutes to make myself a pace sheet so I wouldn't have to do complicated computations while running.

My goals for this race were as follows:

A Goal (perfect, better than expected day) - anything under 1:19:00 (I didn't think I would be able to take too much time off of my long run pace, so I didn't expect anything drastic.
B Goal (average day) - anything under 1:20:00
C Goal (less than average day) - a time of under 1:30:00

Bonus Goal:  Finish the race to get a new PR no matter what!

My race outfit (except the jacket).  I did somehow manage to lose my headband during the race.

We headed off to the race and got my packet.  The shirt is nice enough, but men-sized, which never seem to fit me well.  I was very nervous and did my warm up routine twice, just to give myself something to do.  The race was "gun timed" so my stopwatch time is faster than what my official time will be.  The race started a few minutes late and was rather crowded at first since the 5K and 10K were along the same route.  Once nice thing that I realized when they described the course is that I would get 3 water stations even though I only doubled my distance!  It's the little things, right.

I did my first mile in 11:31, much faster than I really wanted to go, so I intentionally slowed down.  It started to rain right after that first mile and it made the 5K turnaround really tempting but I went past and it became obvious how few people were doing the 10K.  I became nervous that I might be the last one to finish (the race probably only had 150 people and probably 2/3 did the 5K) but I kept going at my pace knowing I could finish.  It stopped raining after mile 2 and then it started to get humid, which made things a bit more challenging.  I had been ahead of my splits and I wasn't so much surprised, but definitely excited, when I got to the halfway point at 37:11.

Soon after that, I caught up with the couple I had been using as my bunny rabbits since the 5K turnaround.  I chatted with them a bit until we got to mile 4 and then I left them behind.  That was probably the most difficult mile, as I thought it would.  I walked more in this mile that I did in any of the others, but then I got to mile 5 and the first water station at the 5K turnaround and I knew I could do it.  I kept going and ran most of those last 2 miles, which felt really good.  According to my gun time, I took 1:15:57, but according to my stop watch I took 1:15:45.  Not a huge difference, but every second counts.

I was really disappointed at the reception I got, no one except my husband was there to cheer for me and the few people behind us.  They were announcing the awards and there wasn't even any water left.  I know it was just a small race, but running out of water is something that shouldn't happen.  I would have been in trouble if my husband hadn't been there with his water bottle.

We loaded up and headed off to Tim Horton's so I could get a bagel.  It wasn't as good as the ones from Panera Bread, but it was yummy, possibly more so since I was rather hungry.

After the race, we went home and had a rather uneventful afternoon.  I did take a nap and I iced my left knee some since it was kind of achy after the race.

In the evening, we went over to the home of some of our friends to celebrate and relax.  It was a great time!  I got to see all the people who I have missed most while I was gone.  It was a good evening of food and fun.  We went home around 9 since my husband has class tomorrow morning.  We spent the rest of the evening relaxing before bed.