SafeRun 10K Raleigh, NC March 6, 2010

SAFE is Sexual Assault Free Environment.  This is the second year for this race and I wanted to add a quick 10K check after my business trips and right before the half marathon in race terms.  It also supported the premise that I wanted to hit 12 races this year and since I had not run one in January, adding a second to March meant I’d be “on track” with three races in the first three months of this year.

The race started cold.  It was probably 38 degrees as I walked around.  I’d taken the time this time to purchase some runner’s tights and a pair of running gloves.  The Anderson Creek Club race just told me I needed to do a better job managing my cold weather running.  So, I dropped a few bucks on some gear and here was my chance to try it out.

I came to the race alone.  The second one like this and I understood.  It was early, cold, and getting Colleen and Haylie up to stand in the cold to watch me run past them seems a really onerous task.  Also, this was a pretty small race.  There were only 22 registered runners in the 10K so unless I fell over dead I knew I’d finish fairly well.  Besides, a 10K should always be less than 50 minutes for me and it just seems a lot of effort to get Haylie up, fed and bundled up to get her out there to be a handful to manage over that short a time period.  Still, the loneliness (HAHA just like my blog name) sucks a bit.  I’d like to feel like I had someone there to if nothing else talk me down as right up to the race I tend to be very nervous and when I’m alone I just pace.  So, that’s what I did.  I put on my headphones and paced around, stretching and doing what I could to warm up the muscles.

I hadn’t run much these past two weeks and I was even more nervous.  I had no idea what this race would bring.  So, when the gun fired, I started out at what I considered a fairly slow pace.  Still, at the first mile marker, my time was just over 7:30 so I wasn’t running too slowly in terms of where I wanted to be.

The course was much more hilly than I had expected.  They weren’t severe climbs, but they were long slow climbs.  My legs started to ache and I could tell it was a direct function of not spending enough time running to hit the road for a tempo run.  Still, I pushed on.  At one point, I’d counted 7 people ahead of me and considered finishing 8th as a reasonable place for where I was physically.  Of course, I did not realize until we completed the first lap (the 10K was a two lap where the 5K ended) that there were three people ahead of me running the 5K.  That explained their pace looking so blistering.

A little after mile 4, I got passed.  Sigh.  I hate when people pass me, because it indicates I’m still struggling with the notion of the kick in my run.  A second person passed me on the last hill, when my legs were burning so hard I thought I might actually consider walking.  I just let him go as I was focused on not stopping.  So, I had considered that I would now finish 10th which in a race this size was disappointing to me personally.  Of course, that’s when I discovered the nature of my miscalculation.  With the three people in front of me that ran the 5K, I actually finished in 6th place!

Final stats:  6th overall 47:52 total time. 7:43 mile average.  I was 6th fastest male overall and the only runner in my age group.  Because this is such a small race, they only gave awards to the top two finishers and the man that won finished in more than 7 minutes faster than I had.  Effectively, his pace was such that he finished a mile and some change ahead of me.  Maybe as much as 1.5 miles.  I was mildly disappointed.  Not in the race, nor in my performance, but in the cavalier way I’d approached it.  I slacked off during the two weeks prior to the race and it showed.  It made the race effectively a waste of a check point as I have no idea how I’ll handle the half marathon.  I do know for sure that I’ll likely not be getting closer to the goal for a marathon, which was below 95 minutes for a half marathon.  That also frustrates me more than a little.

Cheers!