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October 24, 2004
Good Race, Bad Pacing
I essentially had three goals coming into the Army Ten Miler: 1) don't stress out too much, 2) run ~75 minutes, and 3) negative splits. Well, I accomplished goals 1 and 2, but did horribly on 3. I ran 73:11 according to my watch. Here's how my splits went:
7:03 (I let the crowd pull me in)
7:07
7:17
6:38 (there's no way...)
8:13 (someone jacked up the markers)
7:16
7:20 (rt hip feels tight here)
7:32 (legs starting to get heavy)
7:30
7:10 (beat the lady in the flag shorts!)
I wish the race was longer....
It was cold, rainy, and extremely crowded (20,000+ people). I like doing large races every now and then, because of the tremendous energy and excitement. However, you have to fight your way for a good spot on the starting line at Army, even with color coded bibs. In doing so, I didn't really warm up and jumpstarted my legs/cardio too fast in the early miles. As you can see, I didn't stick to my negative split strategy and got slower in the latter miles. I have a hard time pacing on shorter races and sometimes let myself get sucked into the crowd at large races.
I suppose I could focus on the lack of consistency of my splits or the fact that my time was slower than RRCA Columbia Ten Mile Challenge in February. But instead, I want to think about today's race in positive terms. Not only did I beat my goal, but this is the start of a new "season" (marathon training, that is) for me, so things can only get better from here, right? I'm so excited to be able to train for a marathon again - it's my favorite distance.
Oh yes, one last positive. In my last two races and marathon, as Becky has witnessed, I've finished doubling over in my attempt to sprint for the glorious finish. Today, even though there was a little dry heaving action going on, I did not puke!! Yeay! :-)
Posted by Leilani at October 24, 2004 12:51 PM
Comments
Great job today, especially with the strong finishing mile! Having the mile markers off can be very un-nerving when you're trying to watch your pace (we tend to overcompensate and mess ourselves up even more!). Even better, not being hunched over sprinting to the finish line (I tend to suffer from stomach induced problems as well). Look at the bright side, you have a starting point for your marathon. Which one are you doing?
Blondie
Posted by: Blondie at October 24, 2004 01:25 PM
whoo hoo!!! of course you don't puke when i'm not there to witness it...
Posted by: becky at October 24, 2004 04:01 PM
Congrats on accomplishing your goals (2 out of 3 sounds really good to me!) and running a strong race!
Posted by: Beth at October 24, 2004 04:49 PM
I was thinking about you guys this morning while I was running my 10-miler!
Strong work! I'm with you on just seeing this as a starting point. Chances are it'll only get better!
Posted by: jenandmats at October 24, 2004 05:43 PM
good race today. you are on your way.... the conditions sounded tough.
Posted by: liz at October 24, 2004 08:57 PM
Blondie, I seriously thinking about Freescale Austin on Feb 13. I hear it's a relatively flat and scenic course. Anybody have any first hand experience?
Posted by: Leilani at October 24, 2004 09:48 PM
are you talking about the Austin Motorola marathon/half marathon in february? i ran the half last year. the half is almost all is downhilll!!! i like it a whole lot. i can provide more details if we are actually talking about the same race :) in short, i totally recommend it. nice weather, fun people, cool city. apparently its a really fast course and a lot of people use it for a Boston qualifier.
-audrey-
Posted by: audrey at October 26, 2004 04:45 PM
Hi Audrey - yah, it's the same race, except that Freescale is sponsoring it this year. I heard it's a great course. I just found out that two fellow bloggers are going to do it as well. Are you going to do it again this year?
Posted by: Leilani at October 27, 2004 08:52 PM
hey! nope, as of right now i am not doing the race this year. but i am finally running again-a knee thing-and i will probably stick to shorter races (assuming recovery is uneventful) in the spring. i kind of want to check out the boston scene since i haven't run here at all. but it sounds like quite a few people are running in it. the marathon for you, right? good luck with your training!!!!!! ps. they had cool t-shirts last year too. mine is bright yellow. :) but that could change with the sponsor i guess...
Posted by: Audrey at October 28, 2004 11:27 AM
Thanks Audrey! Boston has an great running scene, so I'm sure you're eager to get running again. Good luck on the come back and stay healthy! :)
Posted by: Leilani at October 29, 2004 07:07 PM