Races are fun! I really enjoyed the anticipation leading up to the race yesterday and then the subsequent morning of, and feeling like I'm on vacation, etc. Good times.
I didn't train at all for a road 10K, I think I did 1 half of a interval about a month ago with Nan when I was in between trails and that's about it. So I had no idea what to expect out of this race...but I felt like I was in good shape even though I've only been running 15-20 miles a week the last month.
My plan was to go out in just under 6:30 pace and hold that the whole race and my goal was just to do the race in sub 40 minutes. But I also didn't want to kill myself on this race or go all out because I've got my first 30 mile trail race this weekend and I'm a lot more interested in feeling ready for that. I decided to wear my nathan water bottle waist strap for this race with just one 10 oz. bottle in it. I'm so accustomed to wearing it, that I would almost feel weird without it...but also, I really like having water when I want it, and it is about 1 bazillion times easier to drink from a bottle than a little paper cup they hand you as you're flying by. It was a great decision, I loved having it during the race.
Nan and I warmed up for 2 miles before the race which was perfect for me. Then we waited about 7 minutes and we were off with the huge crowd. Everyone was going out at 5:45 pace or faster as I was in the very front in the first wave. That was not in my game plan so I just took it easy and let everyone go, as I held back to a 6 min/mile the first 1/2 mile. After that it starts up hill and I settled in right under 6:30 pace.
Mile 1: 6:15
The 2nd mile is uphill and I felt good, just held to my goal of sub 6:30 and it felt smooth and easy
Mile 2: 6:28
The 3rd mile was similar, mostly uphill. I felt great, in fact I wished the hills were steeper because I felt like I would pass more people if they were
Mile 3: 6:29
The fourth mile had a couple steeper sections and I knew this was the last of the main uphill of the course so I pushed harder and passed some people I had been tailing for a couple miles and my pace was stronger on this mile
Mile 4: 6:23
Then it was downhill for a mile, and I probably could have pushed a lot harder here, but I suppose I was content to recover on the downhill and save up for the final 3/4 mile uphill finish that I knew was coming...so I cruised pretty comfortably in mile 5 and a girl who I had been following who looked exactly like my wife from behind caught back up to me
Mile 5: 6:23
Then the race started to feel a little challenging on the final uphill mile. But I felt strong and I wasn't maxing out so I was pretty sure I could hit my goal. But it wasn't super easy at that point. I pushed hard and then the final hill into the stadium I knew I had to keep cranking in order to hit my goal of sub 40 because I was cutting it close.
Mile 6: 6:31
I sprinted onto the track and around half way to the finish and was very pleased to see a 39 on the clock.
Final time: 39:51
That was fun, and felt great. It felt good to hit my goal. And I was very pleased to see I could hold a 6:24 pace for 10K pretty comfortably on zero road training. Makes me wonder what kind of pace I could run if I actually ran 40-50 miles a week on the roads. But it doesn't make me wonder hard enough to actually care to do that, because the mountains call my name way too loudly.
Nan was waiting in the finish area for me with Scott Ensign, and they both had really solid races! Nan killed it in 35:50 taking 2nd for women. I'll never keep up with her in a road race! And Scott clobbered me also, the website says 38:02 for him. I think he was trying to go under 38 so he JUST missed it! But hey...I would say its close enough, its a great time for a 48 year old dude.
Afterward we hung out for a little while and got some free massages, ate some pretty tasty burritos at the expo and then jogged back to the car. It was a beautiful spring morning for a race, absolutely perfect morning actually. We had a great time. Now its time for me to not run anymore this week and save up all my energy for a 30 mile mountainous beat down of fun this Saturday. I hope the weather next weekend matches this weekend, that would be ideal. It was an amazing weekend for running Boulder this weekend.
