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| 2015: Overall Female Winner 2016: Walked w/Baby Boy 2017: 1st Place Age Group/4th Female Overall Also, I can't believe I didn't think to recreate the same pose this year. Total Mom Brain. |
Going into the race, I don't know that I had a real goal. I've had some wonky leg muscle stuff the past few weeks, which I attribute to strength training/boot camp classes. I've always had it in mind that this race should be a time trial, nothing more, just to see where I'm at. Once I know that, then I could set some more specific goals for the year. It would also give me a point of reference to see how much faster I can get by the end of the runningnerds One Mile Race Series.
The weather was super blergh: mid-high 40s, intermittent showers, and just enough of a breeze to make you cold. I'd planned to wear capris and a t-shirt. When I got to the race, though, that seemed really, really cold. I was glad to have a quarter zip, rain jacket, and new warm-up pants (that didn't drag on the ground!) to do a warm-up in.
I met the 10KTuesday girls and we did a two mile warm-up around the race site. It felt GOOD. Our warm-up was a 9:25/mi pace, and it felt super chill and easy. One of my favorite things about having this little training team/group is the camaraderie we give each other on race day. Having a team to chat and warm-up with beforehand is amazing. By the end, I felt warm enough to shed my spare layers and head to the start in just what I'd planned on wearing the night before.
Three of my 10KT ladies were racing the mile (fun fact: all of our husbands were also doing the mile!!!). All three of us, at short distances, at least, are very comparable (at longer distances, the others are clearly faster than me). I was looking forward to having a bit of a pod to run within, and maybe chase through the chute. When the gun went off, though, I found myself among only strangers.
I love the mile. I love breaking the race up into something as short as a quarter mile, and being able to really push a little, knowing that it's not very far at all. I felt great for my first quarter, and the second (a little downhill). Then I looked at my watch, and saw my pace was around a 6:50/mi. Blergh. I resigned myself to just keep a steady push, hoping to at least finish somewhere around a 7:30. After all, it was cold, my legs weren't really warmed up, I was probably playing it safe with my muscles, and I hadn't done proper speedwork since before Chicago.
The course is uphill from about 0.6mi until the last turn (then it's still uphill, but at least there's the turn to help you reset). I resigned myself on that hill to push, but didn't go all out. I saw my parents and son in his stroller at the corner and smiled to myself, and then leaned into the last uphill to the finish. This was another race that was hard, but not PR-hard. I finished feeling like I'd had a good, hard, interval at speedwork, but certainly not a race-level kick at the end (in fact, if you look at my pace graph, there was NO kick).
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| ...and, yet, THIS happened |
So, real talk: this course is short, by at least 0.02mi, so I'm not a 6:14 miler. Buuuuuut, my PR is on this course, and it was 6:33 in 2015... I've cut almost 20s off my mile in two years. Also, if you extrapolate that pace out, I still ran a sub-6:30 pace for a full mile. That's freaking awesome.
New goal, which miiiiight be a bit ambitious, but, hey, ambitious goals make for outstanding achievements: sub-6 mile.
Other cool parts of this race:
- having my family there
- helping my son with his first 50m dash (kid had a HUGE cheering section of all our ATC friends <3 )
- finished 1st in my AG, and 4th overall female
- the other 10KT girls finished 5th and 6th female (and J won Masters Female!)
2017 is off to a GREAT start!
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