Monument 10K Race Report

Prologue...

Sitting down to write this race report, I realized I haven't blogged much about my running lately.

Between a few changes in perspective, some encouraging training sessions - and the cooler weather, the past six months were scattered with new pace goals and PRs.

Reflecting back, I think I've been afraid to jinx it. Maybe these were fluke training sessions. It seemed premature to put it out there in black and white. My running was improving?

Now, before any ridiculous ideas start crossing your mind, please know, I am still slow.

But possibly a little less slow.

The Report...

Starting the season with a running race was a relief. The night before, even with packing my bag with numerous options for the weather, getting ready wasn't a big deal. I filled two bottles with Gatorade, picked out my running clothes and clipped my number to my fuel belt.

The day before included an early morning long swim and a late evening bike. I slept well (except for waking up a few times to loud, torrential downpours that I hoped would be gone by morning) and woke feeling fairly rested.

Thankfully, the worst of the rain did pass. Race morning was cloudy, humid, drizzly, damp, but no thunderstorms.

I drove to TRIgirl BL's house. She and her husband drove us to TRIgirl SJG's house. We grabbed garbage bags to keep us dry for the mile-ish walk to the race start.

We ran into a bunch of TRIgirls (over 60 TRIgirls were participating) - and went through the usual last minute search for port-o-potties. Then it was off to find our wave, where tons of women in pink were already clustered together.

TRIgirl BL and I had been discussing our race plan for a few days. We'd settled on aiming for 9:30 for mile 1, then taking off five seconds per mile for the next 4 miles, then one final pick-up for the last 1.2 miles.

Given my running history - and that last year's 10K was a 1:01:26 - a smidgen under a 10 minute mile pace - this was an ambitious plan. I dropped my prediction to 58:30 from 59:00 for the TRIgirl contest to see which team could come closest to their estimates.

Our wave gradually made its way to the start. We hit the mats and TRIgirl BL and I began weaving through the crowd for the first half mile, looking for openings. Once we found a decent place to settle in, we noticed TRIgirl LD was right there with us.

The three of us ran almost the whole race together. First mile, felt good, pace was fast - 9:18. Revised our plan - hold 9:15ish for the next few miles. Mile 2, still felt good, 9:11. Mile 3, going along fine, 9:16. Mile 4, not bad, 9:02. Mile 5, 9:16. It was time to pick-up the pace and my race started to get hard. TRIgirl BL encouraged me as I fell back a few feet (thank you, TRIgirl BL). Having to go to the bathroom did not help. I was soon keeping up again, but barely. Mile 6, 8:56. Last .2, TRIgirl LD sprinted ahead. TRIgirl BL and I crossed the finish line, I was one second behind her - at an 8:24 pace.

Overall race time - 57:05 according to the official results.

A PR of about 4 minutes and 20 seconds since last year and 2 minutes from any runs this year.


Epilogue...

The rest of the day was a blur of TRIgirl activity. We found the rest of our teammates and heard others' stories of great races and PRs. We had a champagne toast at TRIgirl Annn's (with perfect post race nutrition - chocolate covered marshmallows and bananas - YUMMM). Then it was off to TRIgirl AM's housewarming party. The evening wrapped up with our half IM dinner - which was fun and very informative.

It was a great race - and a great day. I owe much to TRIgirls, Ironwoman Canada (who called me after the race and said next year would be 55:00!) and my teammates.

Thanks to them...

I am still not fast.

But possibly a little faster.