Thursday, December 22, 2011

Run Run Reindeer new 10k pr.

Just like Tebow who all he does is win
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXkYTQxS38s all I do is pr wheeeeeeee

The short of it, holy crap it was cold I mean like dear lord cold, hard course and finish time of 51:11 (first in my AG although there was only 4 people on my AG).

The long of it, I had been a little worried about this race because I started to ramp my base for 2012 this week and did two days of hill repeats with the increased mileage as well. I took it easy on my Thursday run though lowering my pace to closer to 10mm versus the 9mm I had been running lately as my easy pace and nixed the hill repeats and then took Friday off. Even with the easy day on Thursday and the day off on Friday my calves were sore Friday and a little this morning too.

It was a race day packet pickup with the race scheduled at 9:15am. So sadly it meant I had to get up at 7am ~internal groan~ as I was still tired from last weeks Black Friday craziness and a long work week and increased miles. I crashed hard Thursday night and was sound asleep before 10pm which meant I wasn't as tired Friday meaning I didn't fall alseep tell midnight. A couple snoozes later and I was up and ready to go. I got out of the house at 8pm and got a mile from my house before realizing I forgot my toy. It was a toys for tots race and along with your race fee you were supposed to bring a toy. So I swung back and picked up my toy to donate.

Got there around 8:25 and picked up my bib and it was freezing arse cold. I mean it was probably on 28-30 degrees but there was this bitter bitter cold wind blowing that just chilled you to the bone and froze you to death. I have found since I lost all the weight that I freeze somedays and just can't get warm (only time i ever miss my fat). So I decided to go pin my bib in the car as I am too cold to want to stay outside for 45 minutes. Funny thing is they only gave me 3 safety pins and one broke but being a runner I have extra pins in my car which made me laugh. I also got bib 55 which made me smile as I was like ok gotta run faster than my bib number.

I pin the bib to my shirt under my hoodie planning to do my normal ditch the hoodie in the car prerace. But when I get out of the car at 8:45 and I am just shivering I change my mind and decide to pin my bib to my hoodie and wear the hoodie for the race. I have never ever run with my hoodie normally I warm up on my runs and I sweat a lot so I never worry about such things. I usually just run with gloves and a beanie and ditch the beanie a couple miles in when I warm up. Just before the start of the race I start thinking maybe I should pin the bib to my shorts instead in case I want to take my hoodie off but by that time its too late to make another change.

It's one of those moments when you start running you are so glad to be running. You are so cold it feels so good to finally start moving. My shoelace came untied like a quarter mile in and I had another one of those runner moments as I had double tied them having learned my lesson in my first 5k to always double time them so you don't waste time retying them. So I ran with the shoelace loose the entire race. Which is funny as this older gentleman who ran with me almost the entire race commented that my shoelace was untied like 2 miles in. I did kick it the last mile and beat him by like 30 seconds though.

I again had that your foot feels asleep for the first mile moment again i was so cold. It almost feels like running on extra cushion or a foot that is all puffed up. I admit I went out way too fast the first mile as it felt so good to be finally running and the first and last miles were the only downhills in the course the rest was bloody and relentlessly uphill. I hit mile 1 with a 7:13 time and I was SOB where was that mile time for the first mile 2 weeks ago when I ran my 5k. I am always a little of slow starter and really kick it into gear like miles 3 and 4 normally on my runs. It actually wasn't hard to ease back after this because after the first mile the next 4 were relentlessly uphill


It was at about mile 2 I got really hot and so wanted to take off my hoodie but because of my bib I could not. So I ditched my beanie instead and that helped a little but I was sweltering the rest of the race.

The course was kind of boring it was what I would call a typical incity suburb run. It was all pretty much done in neighborhoods and since there was only like 40 10kers for the race it was me and the older gentleman and lady I got chicked by as she really flew from miles 4 on. Mile 2 was my mirage moment I thought I saw the water station ahead of me and it kept getting further and further away then I realized it was runners ahead of me I was seeing. Also I saw a guy that made me think of these forums at mile 4 too. I hadn't seen him all race and he comes up on me at mile 4 and passes me and then proceeded to beat me by 2 full minutes. He had one heck of a negative split for the race easily running the second 5k way faster than the first 5k.

Mile 4 was the toughest for me as it had the steepest climbs and at this point I am like dear lord do these hills ever end. I had looked at the elevation chart and knew we had a little of dropoff at the end and I kept looking for that dropoff like darn hills please end.

Once I did hit that downhill stretch I took off and this is where I lost the older gentleman (who had a pretty good time for a 54 year old I think like 52:xx so he beat his age in the 10k). Passed a single 5ker on my way to the finish as they were mostly done.

Got my pr by over 8 minutes and was a little disappointed I didn't get the sub 50 I wanted but the course just beat me up. I had a chance around mile 4 or so when I hit mile 4 at like 34 minutes and knew if I cranked out sub 8 minute miles (gotta make up for the .2 at the end) I could get it but I just didn't have that kick at mile 4 and that is where the worst hills were.

Happy with my 51:11 though, loaded up on donuts and ice cream haha I also won a $25 gift certificate to the local sports store and as I was leaving the guy asked me if I had won anything and I told him the gift certificate. He said well here you go you won these too because the person didn't pick them up so I also got a pair of reindeer sports socks (who knew they made reindeer sports socks).

Ok I may do the hostess half marathon in 2 weeks for pure fun (you have to eat a hostess product at every aid station to earn a medal) and if I do that may end my pr streak as I would do it more for fun but I am now 16 for 16 on prs in races. I like the 10 distance this is only my 2nd one and the first was when i was struggling with ITBS my next one will be in March.

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