take 2.
I participated in this event last year. In 2013, it was a cold, rainy, miserable day. Of the 300+ registered, only 128 showed up. The small field led to a 1st place AG finish for me, even with a fairly slow time.
Fast forward a year.
My 10k times have been much better in 2014, with a PR of 56:04 mid-year, and average times between 56:20 - and 57:30.
I have not felt great this week. I have some foot and calf soreness from last weekend's 13.1, my sleep has been inconsistent, and my training continues to be shit.
However, I was up and at em this morning. As I was pulling into the race site, I realized that today's race would be much better attended than a year ago.
As we lined up, even though they were instructed otherwise, we had lots of kids towards the front. frustrating. I knew that the 1st mile or so would be tough, as I would be dodging kids and working through traffic. I was right. Until we got onto the trail (about a mile), the roads were narrow, kids were everywhere, etc. If there was anything good about the congestion, it kept me from getting out at too fast of a pace.
I finally settled into a 9 minute / mile pace and was comfortable. As I watched my Garmin, I thought about the potential of a PR, but, knew I would need to quicken my pace after the turn.
I kept a fairly steady pace, and realized that my lack of training would keep me from speeding up much. As I turned the corner towards the finish line, I sped up a bit, and ended with a 57:23. A fairly standard time these days. I was a bit disappointed, as this is a flat course, and I had higher expectations. But, I was a full 6 minutes faster than a year ago. That's significant.
Fortunately, I had no issues with my foot or calf, so should be good to go for the Dallas Jingle Bell 5k tomorrow night.
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