An unlikely 10K PR!

It's been awhile since I've posted, but I had to tell the story of today's race. It was just me against my own limits.

Just to back up a bit, after my April bronchitis, I started back at mile ONE. Yep, started all over. My pace was slower (and still is) and my leg strength was gone. Add to that it was fast pitch season, t-ball games, piano lessons and recital, and just end of the school year stuff PLUS two birthdays for my kids, and my aunt passed away. Yep, May/June--total blur, plus climbing my way back from being sick.

I did have a great 12K race, getting 1:17:01 for time on a very hilly course, average pace about 10:15. I was very happy with that!

I got a nine-mile long run in with an average pace of 10:26 (but I had to stop and pause my garmin once) and on a Monday I decided to do a local half-marathon that upcoming Saturday. I decided I'd treat it like a training run. Well, Tuesday night food poisoning kicked in, and let's just say I didn't recover well. By Saturday, I was still dehydrated (muscle cramps that week too--which I never get). I ran the first 5 miles and actually had to STOP running. Really, I was done. DONE. BONKED OUT. I walk/jogged the rest of it, so when the course was actually a half mile short, I was feeling relieved. My time is just sad...for where I am at this point...but I learned a lot about the effects of dehydration. It's real stuff.

The following weekend my long-run training goal was 11 miles in under two hours. I did it in 1:56, average pace of 10:34! I felt like I had a mental victory, proving to myself I can still run distance, even if it's slower than I'd like it to be, I can still do it.

WHICH BRINGS ME TO TODAY....

Today was a local race for a small town in my county. My good friend was helping organize the race, and she told me it was a flat and fast 10K. Before I got sick, I just knew this would be the race that I would finally get my 10K in under an hour. But with my paces lately being in the 10:15-10:30 range, I knew this was not possible. So here were my goals:

Goal 1: 10:15 pace average, finish in 1:03-1:04ish time
Goal 2: 10:00 pace average, finish in 1:02

I honestly didn't think anything under 1:02 was realistic for me at this point.

So the race starts, and it's a downhill. My feet are moving as fast as I think is necessary. By one mile, I was feeling good, and the time was 9:36. I knew this was fast for me, so I told myself to slow down. Mile two was 9:39...again, needed to slow down, but I was feeling really good. Good enough to maintain it? I didn't know. At this point, the elevation starts to become just a very slight incline, nothing drastic, just slow and steady. Mile 3 was 9:51, and at this point I'm at about 29 minutes. Now I'm starting to think...can I keep this up? Maybe I can get under 1:02?

So I'm half way through the race, and I keep pushing. Mile 4, 9:50...OK...not bad at all, I feel OK, and I realize that under 1:01 is definitely a possibility, and I'm headed for a PR if I can do that!

Mile 5 9:52. OK, I'm at 49 minutes...HOLY ______ (fill in your favorite word here)...IS UNDER AN HOUR A POSSIBILITY? I know I have 1.2 miles to go. If I can run 9ish minute miles, I've got this...my brain says... So I push. I push hard, and at 5.7 miles....I'm sucking air, so I stop. I think I stopped for about 50 seconds to catch my breath. And I look at my watch, and I pretty much watched the under 1 hour possibility slip away. But still, under 1:01 and a PR is definitely a possibility still, so I push hard. Mile 6, 9:52 (and remember, that's with a stop) and I can see the finish line, so I push on....

FINAL TIME: 1:00:35. I forgot to stop my stupid watch, so on my Garmin it says 1:00:51, but I know what my real time was. A VERY UNLIKELY PR!

Now I'm thinking, maybe I'm not too far off from a 10K in under an hour after all? What if I hadn't pushed so hard at mile 5 and instead kept it steady? I'll never know, but I'll keep learning and trying.

Now next week is supposed to be a 12 mile training run...but I'm doing a half marathon instead. I should be able to run the whole thing. I figured it's only 1.1 miles more than I was supposed to do anyway, so why not go for it? I'll keep you posted!

Thanks for reading!