So it’s been about 2 months back running & what better way to celebrate than running a 10K, amiright?
It’s hard for me to not get the warm fuzzies from this race. It’s always right around my birthday, and I love running on Capitol Hill (because deep down inside, as a former poll sci major, I am a big NERD). I ALWAYS forget though that Capitol Hill gets its name because it is situated on a hill. Weird right? If hill running and I were in a relationship we would have repeatedly broken up and gotten back together – I’m still waiting for the hills to buy me dinner and apologize with flowers.
Anyway – I woke up feeling fab & grabbed a Picky Bar on my way out the door. J and I had plans to get to the race EARLY because my coach had me running a 1 mile warm up before the race.
I started the race fast, but I felt comfortable. In fact, I was technically on par to PR through the first half – but the first half is mostly downhill. There’s a part of this race where you run around the RFK parking lot, and it just kind of always depresses me. I don’t know why, but it’s like I see this long chain of people in front of me, and I can see that it’s a ways to run around this uber depressing parking lot and I get all funked inside. Anyway, this is where this race started to head off the rails for me.
Coming out of the parking lot I had to run up what I would call a minor hill, plus a gradual run up Capitol Hill back towards the Capitol building. This was my slowest mile – it was basically a full minute slower than my other miles. Whoops. Looks like I need to work on hill running.
At this point (between miles 4-5) I knew I had blown my chances of PRing, and I saw J. I think I breathlessly said something like “I’m struggling,” or perhaps “I’m REALLY struggling.” I tried my best to hold it together, but I kind of started cursing the race and wishing that this was an 8K instead. At this point my tummy was also actin’ a fool and rioting against the Picky Bar I ate. So that was fun.
I finished in 53:40, which is an average of 8:39 per mile. That’s actually slower than I ran my 10 miler a few weeks ago.
It’s also almost 2:00 slower than my official 10K race PR from 2013. I say official 10K race PR, because it probably isn’t even a PR, because I’ve run a half marathon faster than that 10K. Soooo yeah. Still chasing that 10K PR.
BUT here are the great things (since I’m trying to focus on the positive):
-running is coming back to me more and more every day I get out there
-I’ve been so much better about what I’m eating generally (though I still treat myself to my daily chocolate and occasional meal out)
-I’ve only been running for 2 months after taking 5 months off from running COMPLETELY. This is pretty great progress I think.
-I don’t feel like I will be sore tomorrow, which I hope means that leg strength is there, I just need to boost my endurance.
-I can run my pace runs during training faster than I think I can. I had kind of a devastating moment earlier this week when I was trying to run 4 miles at Half Marathon Goal pace, and just couldn’t do it mentally. Ha. I showed my Tuesday self what’s up.
-I know what I need to work on: hill running and endurance.
-I am building a good base for marathon training.
The Chicago Marathon is going to be my BIG race this year. It happens in early October, and here is the GREAT news: it is pancake flat.
My next race is Wednesday (aka MY BIRTHDAY) – I’ll be running a 3 mile race with folks from work. It’s the Capital Challenge, and I’m hoping to PR there. My PR from 2 years ago (geez 2013, what is it with that year) was 24:24 – 8:08 per mile. Considering I ran a 5K faster than that a few weekends ago, I think I’ve got this.
Fit For The Finish Line 