10K Race 11-11-07

Wow...I've been really bad about posting. Of course, I've been pretty bad about sticking to a training schedule, too.

I drove to Columbus in 40-degree rainy weather, which turned to sleet at a couple points during the drive. I have to say one of the reasons I decided to still go do the race was just because I'd already paid the $25 entry fee.

I got to the race, waited around chatting with some other people - 3 guys and a girl. Why do people lie to perfect strangers about their projected pace?? Do I look like someone they need to fake out?? This girl was saying she was worried because she runs about a 13-minute mile...I was thinking "I run faster than a 13-minute mile...she's got to be kidding." Then at the start, she lined up with the 3 guys, who had all been talking about 8-9 minute miles. I wondered how soon it would be till I saw her drop back, or if she would try to stay with them. I wondered if she would run with me if she dropped back.

I never saw her. To the point that she had already left the race location by the time I finished. Some 13-minute mile.

Anyway, I lined up in the back of the 10K runners but in front of the 3K runners, where I belong. A few of the 3K runners were saying they were going to run the 10K but now had changed their minds due to the weather. I figured 3K was not worth $25, and if I was going to get cold and wet running I might as well set a new PR for distance. So I stuck with the 10K.

My goal time going in was 1 hour 15 minutes. I knew I could run faster than that, but I'd never run the distance before, so I figured that time would allow for if I ran out of gas and had to walk at the end. I hit the first mile marker at about 11:30, faster than I had expected, but I decided to just see how long I could maintain a faster pace...as I said to one of the Dublin police officers keeping traffic off the course, "It's too cold to run slow!"

The course would have been really pretty if the weather wasn't so bad. We ran through downtown Dublin with all the shops and past some of the big estate homes, and through the Midwestern Auto Group luxury car dealerships. However, the race promoters lie - they said this was a fast course, which I took to mean "flat". That course was NOT flat. I am so glad for all my hill training...I needed all of it.

However, it still was a pretty fast course...I came in 113 of 116, but that still means my 3-race streak of not coming in last continues...

New PR for 10K: 1:08:03!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I did the math and I think I actually broke the 11-minute barrier by a millisecond or two!

Results are posted at www.columbusrunning.com/t3results07.htm. There are pictures there too, but there are none of me - the photographers had left the finish line by the time I got there. Too bad...I would have liked a picture of me running, because I wore a T-shirt from Steve & Barry's that has a penguin in a straitjacket and the caption "cute but psycho".

John Bingham would be proud. =)