workout recap and race day

Workout Recap May 19-25  
Monday: off  
Tuesday: kickboxing
Wednesday: barre class; 3.97@ 10:23/ mi  
Thursday: off
Friday: off/ walk 4+ leisurely miles for work  
Saturday: off  
Sunday: 9.98 miles @ 9:45/ mi (9:47>10:01>9:49>9:37>9:36>9:26>9:43>9:49>9:52>9:26)

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2014 Mississippi 10 Miler Recap

Last year I wrote up quite a lengthy play by play of the Missisippi 10 Miler- what can I say, it was my first race, I was excited. I'm certainly glad I did it however, since now I can look back, compare the two races, and see where I have grown or improved as a runner (or not). And since there's a fairly good chance I will continue to do this race in the future-it's cheap, local, and the perfect distance- I think I'll write up a slightly shorter review for my future self's sake, and yours of course.

First things first, official time: 1:37:07. The race was not chipped and since I started in the very back of the pack, in reality my actual time was probably a few seconds shorter. This time put me 47/82 female finishers. If you recall last year, I ran in 1:40:38 and was 71/105 women.

So 3 minutes and 31 seconds faster! And it was about 10 degrees warmer this year (although still relatively cool), and sunny, not overcast. Apparently all that cross-training paid off!

I am really quite happy with how I ran. I think having the Garmin to moniter my pace was really motivating. I went into the race thinking I would do about 10 minute miles, the same as last year, but even concerned about that time since some of my "training runs" had been even slower than that. But after I looked down and saw I ran the first mile in 9:47 (and usually my first 1-2 miles are pretty brutal since I don't feel warmed up), I made the conscious decision to try and maintain that pace throughout the race. And then of course I could look down at my wrist whenever I wanted to keep myself on track.

The course itself was different than last year. It was an up and back route, with more of it up along a road (in the sun) than winding by the river than last year. I DID NOT like this year's course. Whoever decided that there should be a water station IN the narrow turn around point should be fired from course planning. Some of us carry our water and didn't want to stop and walk in the turn around behind those who grabbed a cup from the volunteers. It was seriously not appreciated and notably threw that mile off. 

The up and back route did have one major plus though: it was motivating on the way to the turn around watching the race leaders already turned around running back towards me (and being able to run by David and give him a quick high five). However, once I reached the turn around, and was running back, by myself, in the sun I lost a little steam. Those miles heading back on Shepherd Road before heading down to the river- miles 6 and 7- were the most physically and mentally challenging. At that point I questioned whether or not I would be able to hover around my 9:45/ mi pace goal. Soon enough, however, they were over and I was down in the shade once again.

If you look up at the splits you can see that I stayed relatively consistent- the splits show where there was a hill or two or where the sun was worse. But overall I had a negative split from the first half (48:50) to the second half (48:16) so I clearly was doing something right maintaining a slightly faster race pace and still having a little kick at the end.