Anderson Creek Club 10K, Spring Lake, NC February 6, 2010

First race of the year!  Not only is this the first race of the year, this actually is the anniversary of the first race ever.  I had run a 5K in late 2008, that motivated me to find out if I could run a 10K at all and this race in 2009 was the one I’d selected.  It’s really early in the race season, even for NC.  That means there’s a chance for foul weather or at least cold weather.  But, there don’t seem to be any races in January longer than 5K and while I have come to the conclusion I might have to run more of those, right now I’m still in avoidance mode.  And, since I ran this race as my first ever 10K, it will likely always hold a special place for me and I’ll run it as long as they hold it.  This was their third year to hold the race and my second time to run it.  Of course, I wasn’t a runner when they had the inaugural event.

This was the first time I went to a road race without Colleen.  So far, she’d gone to every race and if there was a 5K at the same time (or was the only race) then she’d run that half.  This year, she didn’t feel ready for this race, having just gotten over a sinus infection.  So, I got up at 5:30 to walk the dogs, got a quick breakfast (I’m still sort of struggling with what constitutes a good pre-race breakfast but I haven’t barfed yet), changed into my running stuff and hit the road.  It was cold!  The sun had not yet risen and the temperature was still right around 35 degrees.  I run in shorts, but I do have good long sleeves and ear covering so hopefully it will be enough.  The drive down was fortunately uneventful.  We’d had torrential rain the night before and I wasn’t sure what to expect.  Driving an hour from home for a race on back roads that could be flooded was unnerving but it was all for nothing.

I got to the high school.  Since I wasn’t actually going to have Colleen and Haylie, I was going to play by the rules and use the shuttle service.  It turned out I didn’t necessarily have to, but I was trying to be nice to those that might actually need to use the on site parking for strollers.  This left me sitting in the parking lot in my car refusing to get out into the elements, but that was a coward’s move.  I finally decided I’d make use of the High School restrooms and stand in the cold to get a sense of how bad it might be.  I also decided I’d do some stretching.  I wasn’t sure why, but during this time I also start tweeting.  Yes, I’m on Facebook, MySpace, I blog and I have a Twitter account.  I don’t really use MySpace and you’ve seen how often I blog.  I use Twitter mostly to update what’s going on with the races and for my strength training.  I find it to be a very self serving medium used that way, but I don’t really care either. :-)  So, I did a couple of tweets and even a picture post just to keep my mind distracted from the nervousness of the race.

A school bus acted as our shuttle to the race site.  It’s a gated community and they want to keep traffic to a minimum during the race.  The ride is short, a little over a mile, but I sort of wished that I had been a butt and just gone over myself.  Still, I had my pack of dry warm clothes and all my stuff so I wasn’t too worried.

There was far too much idle time before the race.  There always is in my mind.  I paced, tinkered with my headphones, and tried to get some stretching done.  Still, I just wish that there’d been way to just show up, line up, and get the race started.

This is a small race.  There were less than 100 runners at the starting line.  I typically try to get a couple rows from the front and then still have to deal with people that want to push their way up front.  I don’t know the etiquette, but I can almost be sure most of the people in front of me I will now have to pass.  SIGH

Starting time!  Finally.  This is of course where my inexperience in running really shows.  I  jump out and get into my pace, but I have this sinking suspicion I’m starting out too quickly.  Still, I get into a rhythm and I can’t stop myself.  That’s likely a function of treadmill training, but so be it.

I really settled in.  The people behind me were not going to catch up and I wasn’t going to catch those in front of me.  I’ve got to work harder on my kick, or more accurately, when to actually kick.  I have done some work with the last 400M (or quarter mile give or take) but I don’t know if that’s too late or not.  I do know that I fail to run negative splits.  I only just recently learned what that term even meant.  Basically, it means that I should run each progressive mile faster than the first.  YEAH RIGHT!  I know that my first 5K split and my second 5K split were such that the first was the faster.  Just more to learn for what is effectively a second year runner.

This race ends with a hill climb and then descent for the last .2 miles.  I hate it!  It is hard! And, my legs felt like goo as I made the climb.  Still, I passed one runner that went to a walk (though I hadn’t seen them before so likely a 5K runner) and made it down the hill finishing strong.  It was a good race.  Overall 10/55; M 10/24; 40-44M 1st. 45:47 gun time for 7:22 pace.

I don’t really know how to react though.  Last year, the time on this race was 45:48, so I only managed one second faster.  It’s faster, so I can’t be upset, but I had sort of hoped it would be faster than this.  Of course, I had also managed to slow down throughout 2009, so starting 2010 at least knowing I could get back to the pace I had last year was a good sign.

Bolstered by the results, I dove in and signed up for my next three races at 10K.  That means I’ll now have run 5 races by the end of May, which puts me on track for my goal of 12 this year.  WELL DONE!

Cheers!