It was the First Annual race that took place in Tempe, Arizona on a course that I have run on but never in a race. (Anytime I see something that says "FIRST ANNUAL" I wonder what happens if they don't do it again next year.) At registration I asked how many people were registered and there were only 80 people registered for the 5K and 10K run. With a small field I would do well placing in my age group or even better.
It is an out and back course for both the 5K and 10K. The race started and my first mile was 7:32. I was hoping for 7:40's for the entire race so I was a little fast (like that's a surprise). At the halfway for the 5K the majority of the runners in front of me turned back. There was one guy in front of me...I was in second and first female. At the turnaround point I was able to see who was behind me and very close was another female. She overtook me at 3.5 and actually went on to win the race. At mile 5 I was passed by a guy putting me in 4th with a time of 47:54, a 7:42 pace.
I haven't been training for a 10K with tempo runs and much speed work and the weather is warming up so I didn't know what to expect and being ultra critical of myself, I was a tad disappointed. I have a number of things that I learned from this race
- Change the Garmin setting to not auto-pause. The course took us under a road through a tunnel turning the Garmin off. This caused my overall time and pace to be wrong. I thought I did better than I really did and that the official time was wrong by 16 seconds. I was the one that was wrong.
- I drank at each water stop giving me a HORRIBLE side stitch from mile 4 through the end. I've never had a side stitch that bad. It's been a while since I've raced and I guess I was still using the marathon race mentality of drinking at every stop. Plus it was warm and I didn't want to get dehydrated. Looking back I feel like I made a rookie mistake and can't believe I drank a little at the 4 stops.
- Dress and plan appropriately. I wore a sleeved shirt and realized it would be too warm. Luckily I have extra running clothes in my car, which happened to be a sleeveless shirt. Wearing sleeveless shirts requires me to use Glide or I chafe. Since I didn't have any with me, I used lip balm, which worked well in a pinch.
Overall it was a respectable race, I learned some things and had a great workout.
Happy Running!
13 comments:
That's a great time and 4th...! Well done! Amazing how we can learn something from every run.
Congrats on an awesome 10k race! Hopefully some day I will be able to bust out a super speedy time like you!! Nice work Christina:)
Wow! That's pretty impressive, lady. And, good idea on the lip balm. So resourceful!
That's a butt kickin' 10K! You toally rock!
Glad to hear that you had a great race :) And it goes for a good cause!!
Great job!
You did amazing...what a great time!! Be happy with what you learned, but be proud of yourself!!
I love that you decided you wanted to run a race and found one to suit what you wanted! Congrats on an awesome (and speedy) 10K!
Hey Christina! great going! No need to be so critical. Especially with little speed work. I think you did fabulous!
You are to critical of yourself. It sounds like you had a great race!! See you soon!!
You did a fantastic job! :o)
Congratulations on the race! That is a fantastic time for not training for it.
I've turned the auto pause feature off permanently on my Garmin. I find that feature to be a pain.
As for the hydration, I guess the more speedwork/tempo runs that you do and the longer you can hold it without drinking during training runs helps out a lot during the race. I just ran a half marathon last weekend and didn't take in any water the entire time. I head out twice a week for 10-12 miles during the week and never take water. This is totally different from what I was doing last Fall, I always had water with me. Now, my body has become accustomed to not needing the water as much so I never needed during the HM. THe same argument could be made for a 10k, especially since that is such a shorter race.
That said, you DO live in Arizona and I am in Pennsylvania so the environments completely dictate how we hydrate. Actually, I think that hydration should be the same in both places, but in AZ you don't notice the signs of dehydration as quickly as you do here in PA making it harder to remember to drink water. Live and learn. That sounds like a great cause (for the 10k race). Do you have any other races coming up soon?
The lip balm tip is a good one. Congrats on the great finish time even with a stitch!
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