Signed up for a 10 mile race

[Mobile PC]

Me and the members of my different softball teams have joined the local YMCA over the winter to play racquetball. We play from November to April 15 ish. We play what is called cut throat. 3 guys on the court. We play 3 days a week, at least two hours per. I've lost almost 20 pounds since we started playing.

And yes, age and experience, mostly beats youthfulness and un-ending endurance......But holy hell, it hurts to lose weight.......

And I could not run to catch a bus, if it gave me a head start.....

[Webhead]

Damn,... 20 pounds? That's a lot! Congratz on that! I like hearing success stories like this. It's inspiring.

[riot]

Ran 10.67 miles Sunday morning in 1:52:20. I started off slow/steady and about midways through picked up the pace a bit. I know I probably shouldn't have pushed as hard as I did today. I'm really hoping I do as well/better in 2 weeks. Here are my splits:

Mile 01 00:11:17
Mile 02 00:11:10
Mile 03 00:11:45
Mile 04 00:12:14
Mile 05 00:11:19
Mile 06 00:10:23
Mile 07 00:09:29
Mile 08 00:09:29
Mile 09 00:09:28
Mile 10 00:09:25

Around Mile 5 where I got faster, I began experiencing the long forgotten joys of a runner's high. Just past Mile 8, I was on the verge of hitting a wall, but got a boost from hearing an audio cue update. Then got another boost when a little beagle chased me a bit. I finished Mile 10 around 1:45:00.

I'm thinking the rest of my running until the race will be something like this:

Rest a couple days
4-7 4 miles
4-9 4 miles
4-10/11 6-8 miles
4-13 4 miles
4-15 3 miles

Someone on BGG asked about race goals, and this was my response.

I was wanting a 10:00 mile pace so that would be 1:40:00, but I'll be happy with anything under 2 hours. The KY side has more hills while the IN side is mostly flat. Today's run was pretty much how I was thinking I'd run the actual race. Hold back until I'm past the hilly parts and begin picking it up. Mile 5 on the course is halfway across the bridge which works out pretty well since after that it's downhill off the bridge, flat, small incline for the on-ramp, and flat again.

I just went through the course using streetview and the KY side isn't as bad as I was thinking. First mile has most of the hills. Then the overall elevation goes down until the bridge.

[Webhead]

Right on. Nice job! I've been super slacking the last couple months. Classes have taken priority. Hoping to start up again in a few weeks when these classes are over.

[74AD]

nice work riot. I saw your run pop up on my phone when you finished it.
I'm a proponent of negative splits so your plan to hold back a little and then turn it on at the end gets my approval.

I've been really up and down when it comes to running. Some days I feel great and I feel like I'm starting to make the long awaited come back to when I was at my best (8:30-8:40 ish race pace and 10:00/mile was just going out for a stroll) and other days (like saturday) I find everything to be a struggle. I can't really figure it out. Saturday I struggled through a 5K and the struggle was almost immediate. I think I limped back home after walking up a couple of inclines when the wind was really gusting and I just stopped out of frustration at something like 11 min / mile. (also a stomach semi full of five guys didn't help)

and then yesterday even with the dog (who slows me down by stopping to pee on EVERYTHING) I did the same run at 9:20/mile....

so I really don't know what's up with me.

Go kick some ass in that race.

[riot]

So... um... yeah...

Remember that talk about me starting off slowly and speeding up after a few miles? Apparently putting people in front of me is the key to totally messing with my plans. Went out way faster than I planned. I was shooting for a 10:30 to 11:00 per mile pace. My first mile split as best I can figure it was 9:20. Yeah... Here are the rest:

mile 2 8:30
mile 3 9:01
mile 4 9:01
mile 5 9:35
mile 6 9:00
mile 7 9:23
mile 8 9:02
mile 9 9:12
mile 10 9:33

Resulting in an official chip time of 1:31:16 at an average pace of 9:08 per mile. When I checked earlier today I was 472nd out of 1301. Checking just now, I'm 505th out of 1483? Not sure how/why I was moved down. Of the males running I was 328th of 614. Of the males in my age group (30-34), I was 47th of 81.

The above splits are all approximations. I had runkeeper giving me updates every 2 miles during the race. These are the average paces I remember and thoughts I had:

mile 2 9:45 Wow, that's a lot faster than I planned to start out.
mile 4 9:21 Ok, that's really quicker than I planned.
mile 6 9:21 ...
mile 8 9:20 So what happens when you're plan for negative splits seems to get get tossed out at the beginning by going out harder than planned? You freakin' do negative splits anyway!

I turned off my headphones during the last quarter mile so I don't know what runkeeper said my average was for mile 10, but I'm sure it was slower than 9:20. Seeing my splits now I realize I wasn't actually hitting negatives, but during the race, it felt like it when my average pace kept going down.

The race itself was really nice. Weather was great. Sunny with a slight breeze and upper 40s at the start of the race. It was organized really well, and there didn't seem to be any issues before/during/after the race. My only complaints would be the walkers that started way up in the starting chute that seemed to congest the road during the first mile, and the water station at mile 8.5. They had water stations at miles 3, 6, 7, and 8.5. I didn't realize the last one was at 8.5 until I passed the mile 9 marker and it hit me that I was just now starting my final mile. I had started going harder when I passed the 8.5 mile water station thinking I was only a mile away. Seeing that mile 9 marker was a bit of a downer as odd as that sounds.

Overall, I'm really happy with my time and look forward to the race next year. The race organizers are flipping the course next year so it will be starting in Evansville, IN and finishing in Henderson, KY. It should be interesting because except for the bridge, the only hills on the course were right at the start today which means they'll be the last thing to conquer next year before finishing.

[Semper Fi]

Killer job!

[74AD]

great work Riot!

[Gazzak]

Great post Riot, well done.

[riot]

Thanks. Holy crap are my thighs sore now though. Yesterday when they were hurting I was worried that I had re-tore some of my quad muscles, but I'm able to move my legs around fine. When I tore them before I couldn't lift my knee up which isn't happening now thankfully.

Saturday turned out to be a pretty great day. Blake (older son) had a ball game that afternoon. His team was the home team, and they were down 8 to 0 when they got up to bat in the 2nd inning. By the end of the 5th inning, they had battled back and taken the lead 13 to 10. In the 6th (final) inning, the first 2 batters struck out. The 3rd batter hit a fly ball to left field... where Blake was playing. It was falling short, but he ran it down to make the game winning catch. Steph was so excited she got out her phone to call her parents and called me by mistake.