Healthy Kidney 10K - 5/17/08

Overall time of 46:13 and a mile pace of 7:27. This was a two second PR for me in the 10K distance (Scotland 10K in March 2008). This has been a really good running stretch for me over the first quarter/half of 2008. Again, I know these don't last forever so I am glad to ride this a far as it goes.

This was my first race since the corral system was implemented a few weeks ago. Everyone was discussing their bib color on Thursday, but I did not really know yet what the colors meant or how the corral system was set up. When I picked up my number yesterday, I had a red bib and a number of "1596." In addition, the bib had a blue sticker on it - I didn't know what it represented but I would find out later at the race.

In order to try and squeeze in a longer run today, I decided to run an easy 3 miles or so from Engineer's Gate to the start of the race - these three miles plus the race would give me about 9.2 miles plus for the day. It was getting a bit hot during my pre-run but it was a good way to loosen up my legs before the race. I've noticed in the past that I've gotten good race times when I've run 2-4 miles beforehand.

I got to the start of the race with about 10 minutes to spare and made sure to find my correct corral. I saw that there was a 0-999 corral so I figured that I needed to find the next corral, which was probably 1000-1999. Evidently, I would not need to go any further. Once I passed by the 0-999 corral, the person checking people in told me that my blue dot on my bib allowed me to start the race in the first corral. I thought to myself "oh my god", I can't believe that I am going to start a race with the elite and top athletes. I still don't know exactly what the blue dot meant, but I didn't care. It allowed me to begin with the big boys. I figured that this would probably never happen again so I might as well take advantage of it. I looked around and saw some very fast Flyers (PD, JD, JT) and thought to myself "what am I doing here?" but I was going to have fun with it.

I knew that start in the first corral would have its good and bad points. On the good side, I would be able to get out of the gate right away and be able to "ride" the quickness of the faster runners. However, I also knew that if I didn't watch myself I would get sucked into running a fast first mile and potentially tire myself out. Instead of passing people in the beginning as I've done in the past when starting in the middle of the pack, I knew that most of the first and second corral would be passing me and I needed to be disciplined enough not to go any faster. Well, the plan did not exactly go as I had hoped.

When the gun went off, I tried to stay calm and not go out too fast. I was feeling OK during the first mile. Even though I didn't feel like I was going that fast, I knew that it was probably just an illusion and that the quicker people ahead of me were causing me to go faster that I had hoped. I ended up running my fastest first mile ever - a 7:08. I got a little worried at that point that I went out too fast and that I would struggle for the rest of the race. I was able to still get a very fast time for mile 2 (7:18) but I was beginning to tire out a bit and I knew that I still had 4.2 miles to go. From that point on, it was going to be a mental race for me, rather than a physical one. I needed to convince myself to stabilize my pace and slow down a bit or else I would hit the wall and have a very hard and uncomfortable second half of the race. Although I was able to gut out good times for mile 3 and 4 (7:25 and 7:45), I was worried about the fact that my times kept on increasing and I was struggling mentally. This is where you see what you are made of. Sometimes the best races are when you are able to recover well in the middle of a race, rather than just getting a good overall time. I was able to bounce back on mile 5 (7:33) and then pick it up a little bit for the last 1.2 miles (7:31).

I was extremely happy to see that I beat my previous 10K PR from only a month or so ago (Scotland 10K) by two seconds. While the Scotland 10K was a consistent race overall where I felt great throughout and got my first 10K PR in several years, I think I was prouder of this one. I went out way too fast in the beginning (my fault) and had inconsistent mile times, but I was able to recover mid race and run a strong mental race. I could have easily gone in the other direction after the 5K and slow down considerably, but I told myself to keep going and to ride out the rough patches until it got a bit easier. Mental toughness is equally or more important than physical importance in a race.

Mile Splits:
Mile 1 - 7:08
Mile 2 - 7:18
Mile 3 - 7:25
Mile 4 - 7:45
Mile 5 - 7:33
Last 1.2 miles - 9:01 (mile pace - 7:31)
Total Time: 46:13
Avg Pace: 7:27