Spotlight on Nursing 10k

I ran my third 10k this past Saturday.  It was a fundraiser race with a pretty small field (~150).

I woke up approximately an hour and a half before the race. The temperature was expected to be around 45* at the start of the race. I absolutely cannot run in pants, so I wore my typical 3/4 5/8 length pants (tights that go just passed the knee), a tank top and my technical long-sleeve top on top. I ate two mini cinnamon streusel muffins — which probably aren’t the best pre-race fuel but they did the job. I also then realized that my Garmin was dead. I’m not sure why I never remember to charge this thing prior to a race, but I almost always forget!

I arrived at the race site about 20 minutes before the race. The perfect amount of time to grab my number and find my co-worker. We actually had not planned to meet up (although I knew some co-workers would be there since I had signed up for my firm’s team), but we decided to start off together and see if we could run the whole thing. My co-worker is fairly fit, but claimed she only has ran 3 miles. I say claimed because she hung with me for all 6 miles and we only walked a few seconds through the two water stops.

The first mile was okay. I started to heat up during this mile and really regretted not wearing sunglasses because it was super sunny and the sun was at the perfect straight-in-the-eye position as we headed east. I took my long sleeve shirt on some point after the first mile and absolutely loved the temperature. I think my body works very well in the 40-50* range for running. The next couple of miles were fairly uneventful.

At mile 4, we entered the canal where we would run the last two miles of the race. The canal is a special place for me for a number of reasons: (1) it’s where I started running four years ago. I couldn’t run more then a tenth of a mile without walking for another tenth. (2) It’s where I did my first triathlon this summer, and (3) it’s amazingly flat which makes it ideal for running.

The last two miles were basically a down and back (down one side and back the other). I was feeling fabulous during these two miles. I picked up the pace a but but I think I could have picked it up a bit more because I was feeling great after the race — too great for the end of a race. I definitely felt like I hadn’t left it all out on the course, but given that I have a half marathon next Saturday that’s probably okay.

If you’ll recall, I finished my last 10k, which was the Mini Marathon Training Series 10k and was in March, with a time of 1:03:06 which was a 10:06 pace (I went on to run the mini marathon 2 months later in a pace of 10:07). I finished this race in 58:43 which is a pace of 9:27. If I’m able to keep this pace for the whole half next week my time will be 2:03.14.  I need to have a pace of 9:09 to beat 2 hours. I’m hoping to just beat my PR of 2:12:50. Based on how this race went (and how I perceived my pacing to be — without anything to actually tell me what my pace was each mile), I have a plan to try the following mile splits (in minutes): 10, 9:45, 9:30, 9:15, 9, 9, 9, and a whole lot more 9s. I have no idea if this is going to happen or if I’m capable, but I’m going to try.