A NEW PR!!!!

This mornings 10k turned out to be a wet and sloppy affair, but it also turned into what might possibly be my best race to date.

I woke up to pouring rain outside my window and cold temperatures, it was a struggle just to figure out how to dress. Initially I thought that it would be a shorts and long sleeve Under Armour type shirt under my tri singlet, but then I thought I might get hot, so I went with a short sleeve UA shirt and my tri singlet and shorts. After arriving at the race site it became apparent that it wasn't going to warm up or stop raining before or during the race so I switched to my 2XU Compression Tights and kept the short sleeve shirt, tri singlet and added mittens that I had in my bag from the Red Top Rumble. This turned out to be a PERFECT combination, at no point did I feel too cold or too hot. The compression tights also helped to keep my legs fresh on the second loop of the course.

After a brief warm up jog with my buddy Natalie (whose entertaining blog you can read here) it was time to line up for the race. My legs were still feeling a bit heavy from my brick workout on Thursday so I wasn't really sure what was about to happen. The ususal "world beaters" took off at a dead sprint so I made a conscious effort to hold back and run easier than I thought I should. After passing a group of HS kids at the half mile mark (see World Beaters) I settled into a comfortable pace and hit Mile 1 @ 6:15, the next mile has a turn and then a little down hill before another turn and a bit of an uphill, Mile 2 @6:28. Mile 3 was a small hill and then a long downhill to end the first lap Mile 3 @ 6:24. At the 5k turn off I was at 19:24 which is a new 5k PR but I am not going to claim it since it was a split and not a hard time. The two guys in front of me peeled off and went to the finish so for a minute I thought I was in 1st Overall. I asked one of the policemen at the next intersection if there was anyone ahead of me and he said two guys were way ahead. They ended up running 34:xx so I literally didn't see them at all. I knew I had 3rd Overall so I pushed to keep that and to try to go under 40 minutes. Mile 4 @ 6:35 . Miles 5 and 6 saw me running into the 5k walkers but to their credit they got out of my way. Mile 5 @ 6:23 and Mile 6 @ 6:37 . When I rounded the curve to the finish I could see the clock and it was still about 30 seconds under 40 minutes so I kicked hard for the finish and made it in 39:49.

Overall I couldn't be more pleased with this race, it seemed out of body at certain times when I was mentally fatiguing but my legs just kept turning over at a good clip. I hope that this is a harbinger of good things to come for the 2009 season.

Thanks for reading and Happy Training.